Writer : Bernard Werber
Publishing year : 2000
Language : French
Type : Recommended / Novel / Best-Seller
How come ? : A friend of mine (Ahmed), gave it to two friends of mine (Inas and Soukaina) in a time when I was deciding to start reading books. That instantly created in me a will to read this book especially after the two girls insisted about how AWESOME this book was and how I, heck, how everyone should read it because it's that good. After two months or so later the early friend offered me the prequel to read (Les Thanatonautes) and short after he offered me the sequel, this book. I can't miss the chance of reading a book with real pages, especially if it is that good of a book.
Estimated time : About 14 hours. I'm pretty slow in french (Pathetically 2mins/page, that's SLOW)
Main themes : Life beyond Death, Superstitions, Reincarnation, Existentialism, Existence, Alchemy, Freewill
Recommended for : People with liberal tendencies people who love to ask the questions they can't answer, people who enjoy references, people who like multibranched stories, people who crave philosophical and existential debates because they're sick of banal conversations, and people who like original stories.
The book in a few words : You want a story to tell you the answers to ALL the questions you asked ?
The synopsis : Micheal Pinson is a curious guy. Probably not the bravest nor the boldest, but he's easily intrigued by the thrill of discovering the unknown. Along with his friend who's much more adventurous and openly defiant than him, he'll live a one-of-a-kind adventure.
An adventure that will start the moment he'll die.
An adventure that will start the moment he'll die.
The Rating : Excellent 9/10
The Review :
In one word : Triumph.
I had a rough idea what the novel was about upon overhearing the two previously mentioned girls talking about it on more than one occasion : It's supposed to deal with the theory of reincarnation, some angels that do or do not believe in God, and something about freewill. So I had already had high expectations about this novel because of the constant praise it received and because the late theme (freewill) being one of my favorites. It's one of those rare instances when you have high expectation on something and it doesn't let you down, better yet, exceeds those expectations somehow.
Although the book is unfortunately not Perfect (for reasons stated below), I don't think I have ever read/will ever read something like it. It had scored many victories on many levels that it's hard to label it anything but ingenious and brilliant.
First of all, the language is a perfectly silent tool in the hands of mister Werber, and nothing more than a tool. That's one the points that won me over : A sober language without any devotion to the style itself (although you can easily notice the present intention by the writer to make the style easy and low-lying). The focus was however on terminology : as the novel switch from one field of the human experience to another, the vocabulary required for it rises to surface at almost a fluent motion, you can notice the transition but it feels almost spontaneous and natural. Those transitions and travels for one domain to another in one of the better elements of the book, as for a book to mix too many semantic fields and keeps its consistency and binding is a feat by itself, but far from its best. Next to this idea itself comes the things I appreciated most : The use of References. References galore all over the place. What's more clever is the two-folded use of this device through the novel : First in the insertion of fictive writing within the realm of the story (Edmond's Encyclopedia, the interviews with anonymous passengers at the beginning), it's just so amazing and so amusing to use quotes that had never been said, which is a clever way for the writer to introduce ideas while distance himself from them, by creating the ephemeral illusion that's it's actually someone else's idea ! Edmond's encyclopedia was by far my favorite part of the book as it kicked off. This "reference" of absolute and relative knowledges was not only one of the guiding lines of the whole plot, but also an insight to the writer's mind as of writing the previous/next passage. The encyclopedia is the reference for the writer (when he quotes experiments and/or scientific facts), written by the writer. It just can't get any more better.
Second, there were many references to the real world. Actually as I read through, I noticed that most of the base content of the novel is "borrowed" from as many Cultures and Lores as you can imagine. Almost every principle, every idea is a reference to a certain ideology. Heavily based on Buddhist and Kabbalic ideas of reincarnation, the writer offers an "alternative" to the dichotomy of Heaven/Hell in the alleged afterlife. It's not an original idea, as it is the case for many other ideas scattered around being inspired by established beliefs (especially "Nature-friendly" ones, like Buddhism and Hinduism), the book ultimately delivers an amalgam of folklores and mythologies. Admittedly, the base of the intellectual content of the story is the human historical culture and a layered interpretation of alchemy, but Werber does a fantastic job sewing the pieces he liked most together. Actually, that's the ingeniousness of his story-craft. He deserves all the credit for creating such vibrating, courageously different characters with actual flaws and a real rate of change over time. The characters grow as they live on, and at some point they become believable.
As said above, the variety in the themes of interest of the abounding number of half-leading half-supporting characters makes it hard for any reader not to relate to at least one of them. Riddled by love, haunted by loneliness, passionate about computers, puzzled by existence or taken by a burning curiosity to discover the unknown, you have a fair chance to find a character who's like you, and this character will bring passages and lines that you'll definitely enjoy. Werber is an everyone pleaser, and the creativity needed to create such pleasantly diversified characters and their stories should be highly raved as they were the transmitters of the whole momentum of the story. Good job, Werber.
(And let me just don't forget the fact that HE MENTIONED MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIMES IN HIS BOOK .. instantaneous virtual high five for inserting Flowers for Algernoon !).
The last triumphant element I want to point is the foreshadowing : I smiled many times as I reread the name of an old character mentioned briefly beforehand or noticed the return of an object/theme from the early pages, which provokes such nice reaction. The loops in the plot lines are a variation of this technique, as if stories tend to repeat themselves, unbeknownst to you. The many hints sprinkled all the long lead definitely to the ending (that was kind of expected, but perfectly done), but it doesn't spoil any of the joys of pushing the limits of the Terra Incognita with the passively curious Micheal, the unconditionally bold Raoul, and a plethora of their friends and foes, the rest of the cast, for a unique adventure through time and space and dimensions ..
Spoiler alert : The ending was awesome.
It would have been ideal if that was it, but as much as I yearned for it, the book wasn't perfect, not for me anyways. But to give it justice, it's hard to write a perfect story that tries to give "answers to everything you ever asked" without being inconsistent. I don't think there will ever be a universally perfect book so that's not what I based by rating on for sure, my standards are pretty humble and I'm easy to amaze as long as you hit all the right strings and you avoid touching the wrong ones. Sadly, I couldn't enjoy the symphony of the brilliant book without stumbling upon some off-tune chords. The book claims to endorse scientific rigor and approach, but at some times it just becomes absurd and inconsistent (Observing the photons -infinitely small- by the naked eyes by Angels who don't have any enhanced visual capacities, feeling speed and acceleration although not having any sense of time ..). This kind of little inconsistencies with the referential set by the author himself (the "rigorously scientific" approach) kind of disappointed me, especially that they can be easily avoided. Then there is some perspective issues that kind of bothered me too. Although the universe of the novel evolves and expands, the frame of reference of the protagonist doesn't heel accordingly. For many times, I felt like the author forgot that many of the auxiliary characters DO have their freewill (and their guarding angels as well), and when he doesn't notice that, it all seems awkward (Many auxiliary characters were used just to advance the story of the "clients" of Micheal, which is not only inconsistent, but uncool as well). In the same line of thoughts, I didn't get how many people did believe in guardian angels and prayed for them, while none of them practically prayed God ! Which is way more than acceptable in the geo-politico-tempo-social context of the novel. That's not how we keep our novel agnostic, bald Bernard.
There is also the fact that there are many rules that the angels have to follow, but there is practically NO consequence whatsoever to disobey them (both rules of "Heaven" were constantly broken by Micheal and Raoul : "granting all wishes" and "not descending to earth"), but nobody seems to be bothered at all, which made me wonder why he did introduce them at all. Another remark is that although there were too many ideas in the head of our amazing author (not being ironic here), he didn't have to push the ones that didn't fit in the encyclopedia into characters that appeared and vanished without leaving any mark on the story line, which is kind of a waste (and I always hate waste when it comes to tightly written stories like this one, you know better Werber). More isn't always better.
Finally which is why I settled on 9 and not 9.5, is the ridiculous fight scene. Oh my God. I frankly understand that the author wanted its masterpiece to be perfect (and therefore exhaustive) and that why it included elements from all Genres ranging from eroticism to esoterism and from psychological to romantic, but I didn't appreciate at all the combat/action element. I literally tried to forget the scene after I read it. It didn't make any sense in the context of the seriousness and the grandness of the story, and what's worse, left too many loose ends (The fighter Marilyn Monroe with a sword of Love and a shield of Humor -You can't be more ridiculous, honestly- against an army lost souls injected with an unjustifiable need to attack -revenge, okay. But why in the outer space a billion kilometer away from Earth ? Why Werber, why ..- roaming angels to make them I-don't-know-why-and-how fallen angels .. no thank you).
All in all, the combat scene was just a huge turn-off, just like in -spoiler alert- the prequel. Thank goodness this part was short, or else the review would have been more severe.
So to sum up, although many of the concepts on the story lack originality (everything from the Reincarnation cycle to the ascendance in the levels of existence to the meaning of numbers), the way it was presented along with the few original concepts made this novel a real intellectual treat. The diversity of the characters and their choices in life is just another proof of mastery and artfulness of this bald man. Many of the passages were so intelligently written I wanted to rip them off the book and inject them in my mind so I can generate their likes. I wrote that long ranting paragraph not because I didn't enjoy this piece of awesomeness, but because I did. It's just so wise and knowledge-imbued that it creates in you a want to read and read about all cultures and all wisdoms and all ideas of the philosophers and the preachers and the scientists and the historians. To be able to put this much intellectual seeds into mere 440 pages is wondrous..
Unearthly wondrous.
What if Bernard Werber is actually a medium and this book is a clever way to hide the secrets and the many truths from the Heavens, dictated by a real angel ?
Ok, just kidding.
And definitely worth re-reading. Maybe a re-review will be written someday, too.
Favorite character :
Edmond Wells. Because he's writing THE Encyclopedia, simply put.
He's not directly implied in the events.and when he does appear, he's always poised and know-what-to-do kind of guy, which creates a very good balance for the other characters who are all too-something.
And I believe he's the writer's projection in the story, after all, he's the one who guides, he's the one who knows, and he's the one who's preferred making the world(s) better rather than just know more for himself.
Favorite passages :
"Un jour, on meurt."
Source : individu interrogé dans la rue au hasard d'un micro-trottoir
"A 22 heures 59, pour la première fois de ma vie, je pense que "C'est peut être quand même bien ma planète". "
"Je ne savais pas qu'au Paradis aussi on pouvait se passionner pour l'infomatique."
"Encyclopédie :
Réalité : " "La réalité: c'est ce qui continue d'exister lorsqu'on cesse d'y croire" énoncait l'écrivain Philip K. Dick. Il doit donc exister quelque part une réalité objective qui échappe aux savoirs et aux croyances des hommes. C'est cette réalité-là que je veux comprendre et approcher."
Edmond Wells, Encyclopédie du Savoir Relatif et Absolu, tome IV
I had a rough idea what the novel was about upon overhearing the two previously mentioned girls talking about it on more than one occasion : It's supposed to deal with the theory of reincarnation, some angels that do or do not believe in God, and something about freewill. So I had already had high expectations about this novel because of the constant praise it received and because the late theme (freewill) being one of my favorites. It's one of those rare instances when you have high expectation on something and it doesn't let you down, better yet, exceeds those expectations somehow.
Although the book is unfortunately not Perfect (for reasons stated below), I don't think I have ever read/will ever read something like it. It had scored many victories on many levels that it's hard to label it anything but ingenious and brilliant.
First of all, the language is a perfectly silent tool in the hands of mister Werber, and nothing more than a tool. That's one the points that won me over : A sober language without any devotion to the style itself (although you can easily notice the present intention by the writer to make the style easy and low-lying). The focus was however on terminology : as the novel switch from one field of the human experience to another, the vocabulary required for it rises to surface at almost a fluent motion, you can notice the transition but it feels almost spontaneous and natural. Those transitions and travels for one domain to another in one of the better elements of the book, as for a book to mix too many semantic fields and keeps its consistency and binding is a feat by itself, but far from its best. Next to this idea itself comes the things I appreciated most : The use of References. References galore all over the place. What's more clever is the two-folded use of this device through the novel : First in the insertion of fictive writing within the realm of the story (Edmond's Encyclopedia, the interviews with anonymous passengers at the beginning), it's just so amazing and so amusing to use quotes that had never been said, which is a clever way for the writer to introduce ideas while distance himself from them, by creating the ephemeral illusion that's it's actually someone else's idea ! Edmond's encyclopedia was by far my favorite part of the book as it kicked off. This "reference" of absolute and relative knowledges was not only one of the guiding lines of the whole plot, but also an insight to the writer's mind as of writing the previous/next passage. The encyclopedia is the reference for the writer (when he quotes experiments and/or scientific facts), written by the writer. It just can't get any more better.
Second, there were many references to the real world. Actually as I read through, I noticed that most of the base content of the novel is "borrowed" from as many Cultures and Lores as you can imagine. Almost every principle, every idea is a reference to a certain ideology. Heavily based on Buddhist and Kabbalic ideas of reincarnation, the writer offers an "alternative" to the dichotomy of Heaven/Hell in the alleged afterlife. It's not an original idea, as it is the case for many other ideas scattered around being inspired by established beliefs (especially "Nature-friendly" ones, like Buddhism and Hinduism), the book ultimately delivers an amalgam of folklores and mythologies. Admittedly, the base of the intellectual content of the story is the human historical culture and a layered interpretation of alchemy, but Werber does a fantastic job sewing the pieces he liked most together. Actually, that's the ingeniousness of his story-craft. He deserves all the credit for creating such vibrating, courageously different characters with actual flaws and a real rate of change over time. The characters grow as they live on, and at some point they become believable.
As said above, the variety in the themes of interest of the abounding number of half-leading half-supporting characters makes it hard for any reader not to relate to at least one of them. Riddled by love, haunted by loneliness, passionate about computers, puzzled by existence or taken by a burning curiosity to discover the unknown, you have a fair chance to find a character who's like you, and this character will bring passages and lines that you'll definitely enjoy. Werber is an everyone pleaser, and the creativity needed to create such pleasantly diversified characters and their stories should be highly raved as they were the transmitters of the whole momentum of the story. Good job, Werber.
(And let me just don't forget the fact that HE MENTIONED MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIMES IN HIS BOOK .. instantaneous virtual high five for inserting Flowers for Algernoon !).
The last triumphant element I want to point is the foreshadowing : I smiled many times as I reread the name of an old character mentioned briefly beforehand or noticed the return of an object/theme from the early pages, which provokes such nice reaction. The loops in the plot lines are a variation of this technique, as if stories tend to repeat themselves, unbeknownst to you. The many hints sprinkled all the long lead definitely to the ending (that was kind of expected, but perfectly done), but it doesn't spoil any of the joys of pushing the limits of the Terra Incognita with the passively curious Micheal, the unconditionally bold Raoul, and a plethora of their friends and foes, the rest of the cast, for a unique adventure through time and space and dimensions ..
Spoiler alert : The ending was awesome.
It would have been ideal if that was it, but as much as I yearned for it, the book wasn't perfect, not for me anyways. But to give it justice, it's hard to write a perfect story that tries to give "answers to everything you ever asked" without being inconsistent. I don't think there will ever be a universally perfect book so that's not what I based by rating on for sure, my standards are pretty humble and I'm easy to amaze as long as you hit all the right strings and you avoid touching the wrong ones. Sadly, I couldn't enjoy the symphony of the brilliant book without stumbling upon some off-tune chords. The book claims to endorse scientific rigor and approach, but at some times it just becomes absurd and inconsistent (Observing the photons -infinitely small- by the naked eyes by Angels who don't have any enhanced visual capacities, feeling speed and acceleration although not having any sense of time ..). This kind of little inconsistencies with the referential set by the author himself (the "rigorously scientific" approach) kind of disappointed me, especially that they can be easily avoided. Then there is some perspective issues that kind of bothered me too. Although the universe of the novel evolves and expands, the frame of reference of the protagonist doesn't heel accordingly. For many times, I felt like the author forgot that many of the auxiliary characters DO have their freewill (and their guarding angels as well), and when he doesn't notice that, it all seems awkward (Many auxiliary characters were used just to advance the story of the "clients" of Micheal, which is not only inconsistent, but uncool as well). In the same line of thoughts, I didn't get how many people did believe in guardian angels and prayed for them, while none of them practically prayed God ! Which is way more than acceptable in the geo-politico-tempo-social context of the novel. That's not how we keep our novel agnostic, bald Bernard.
There is also the fact that there are many rules that the angels have to follow, but there is practically NO consequence whatsoever to disobey them (both rules of "Heaven" were constantly broken by Micheal and Raoul : "granting all wishes" and "not descending to earth"), but nobody seems to be bothered at all, which made me wonder why he did introduce them at all. Another remark is that although there were too many ideas in the head of our amazing author (not being ironic here), he didn't have to push the ones that didn't fit in the encyclopedia into characters that appeared and vanished without leaving any mark on the story line, which is kind of a waste (and I always hate waste when it comes to tightly written stories like this one, you know better Werber). More isn't always better.
Finally which is why I settled on 9 and not 9.5, is the ridiculous fight scene. Oh my God. I frankly understand that the author wanted its masterpiece to be perfect (and therefore exhaustive) and that why it included elements from all Genres ranging from eroticism to esoterism and from psychological to romantic, but I didn't appreciate at all the combat/action element. I literally tried to forget the scene after I read it. It didn't make any sense in the context of the seriousness and the grandness of the story, and what's worse, left too many loose ends (The fighter Marilyn Monroe with a sword of Love and a shield of Humor -You can't be more ridiculous, honestly- against an army lost souls injected with an unjustifiable need to attack -revenge, okay. But why in the outer space a billion kilometer away from Earth ? Why Werber, why ..- roaming angels to make them I-don't-know-why-and-how fallen angels .. no thank you).
All in all, the combat scene was just a huge turn-off, just like in -spoiler alert- the prequel. Thank goodness this part was short, or else the review would have been more severe.
So to sum up, although many of the concepts on the story lack originality (everything from the Reincarnation cycle to the ascendance in the levels of existence to the meaning of numbers), the way it was presented along with the few original concepts made this novel a real intellectual treat. The diversity of the characters and their choices in life is just another proof of mastery and artfulness of this bald man. Many of the passages were so intelligently written I wanted to rip them off the book and inject them in my mind so I can generate their likes. I wrote that long ranting paragraph not because I didn't enjoy this piece of awesomeness, but because I did. It's just so wise and knowledge-imbued that it creates in you a want to read and read about all cultures and all wisdoms and all ideas of the philosophers and the preachers and the scientists and the historians. To be able to put this much intellectual seeds into mere 440 pages is wondrous..
Unearthly wondrous.
What if Bernard Werber is actually a medium and this book is a clever way to hide the secrets and the many truths from the Heavens, dictated by a real angel ?
Ok, just kidding.
And definitely worth re-reading. Maybe a re-review will be written someday, too.
Favorite character :
Edmond Wells. Because he's writing THE Encyclopedia, simply put.
He's not directly implied in the events.and when he does appear, he's always poised and know-what-to-do kind of guy, which creates a very good balance for the other characters who are all too-something.
And I believe he's the writer's projection in the story, after all, he's the one who guides, he's the one who knows, and he's the one who's preferred making the world(s) better rather than just know more for himself.
Favorite passages :
"Un jour, on meurt."
Source : individu interrogé dans la rue au hasard d'un micro-trottoir
"A 22 heures 59, pour la première fois de ma vie, je pense que "C'est peut être quand même bien ma planète". "
"Je ne savais pas qu'au Paradis aussi on pouvait se passionner pour l'infomatique."
"Encyclopédie :
Réalité : " "La réalité: c'est ce qui continue d'exister lorsqu'on cesse d'y croire" énoncait l'écrivain Philip K. Dick. Il doit donc exister quelque part une réalité objective qui échappe aux savoirs et aux croyances des hommes. C'est cette réalité-là que je veux comprendre et approcher."
Edmond Wells, Encyclopédie du Savoir Relatif et Absolu, tome IV
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