Interesting book by Joven
Published on Jul 5, 2009 at 10:29 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under books, science fiction.
A week or so ago, Byrd was at the library with her niece and brought home a book that was on the new rack. It was called The Book of God and Physics, by Enrique Joven. At first, I thought that it might be a book about reconciling science and religion. Instead, though, it is a novel. It is really a mystery, but since it is a fictional work that makes references to science, I’ll claim it for science fiction. 
The book was originally published in Spanish as El castillo de las estrellas and was translated into Englishby Dolores Koch. The science in the book is mostly astronomy, particulary the history of astronomy, and it is quite good. That is not surprising, the author, Enrique Joven is an astrophysicist at the Instituto do Astrofisicia de Canarias.
The story is told in first person form from the view of a Jesuit priest who teaches at a school in Spain. On the side, he is doing research into the Voynich manuscript, a mysterious book that passed through the hands of Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Emperor who employed Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. The Voynich manuscript is written in an unknown lanquage, illustrated with odd plants, stars, people, and buildings. It has never been translated. The Wikipedia page for the manuscript shows a lot more activity over the last year, likely coinciding with the publication of this book. I will admit that I had never heard of the work until I read this book, but Joven writes about the lead character looking up information about the manuscript on the internet, so Iwondered just what I might find if I did just that. It looks like the thing actually exits.
The lead character in the book continues his research into the manuscript along with two colleagues that he has met online. The novel turns into a fascinating historical mystery as the investigators try to find out who actually wrote the work, and how it passed from hand to hand to get to the present. Clues keep pointing back to Johannes Kepler as perhaps having devised a code to translate the work, or part of it. In the novel, the book passes from Kepler to the hands of the Jesuits, who split the bulk of the text from the cipher key. I guess that is how the “God” part of the title got there. The key gets lost in history, and the investigators try to find it. But, there are others interested in finding the missing key who have their own motives, and they are willing to do almost anything to get it.
Once I got into the book, it was very interesting and was hard to put down. It was a very good read. However, it is a work of fiction. There are quite a few historical facts in the book, and many of the historical figures mentioned are real. But, I am sure that there are also a number of so-called facts put into the book as historical speculations in order to make the story flow. So, the book is a fun read, but don’t take it as a history text! Just enjoy it and take it for what it is: a very well written novel. I really liked it. So, if you get a chance, you might want to check it out.
-Astroprof
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