About this title: Three book editors, jaded by reading far too many crackpot manuscripts on the mystic and the occult, are inspired by an extraordinary conspiracy story told to them by a strange colonel to have some fun. They start feeding random bits of information into a powerful computer capable of inventing connections between the entries, thinking they are creating nothing more than an amusing game, but then their game starts to take over, the deaths start mounting, and they are forced into a frantic search for the truth.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780345368751ISBN:0345368754
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 560 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. Reading copy only. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN-13:9780345368751ISBN:0345368754
Description: Good. Spine is smooth. Covers show some wear at the edges and corners. Good reading copy. Binding is Mass Market Paperback. Pages tanning. Used books may have price stickers. Most orders ship on the next business day. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 560 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780345368751ISBN:0345368754
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 560 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780345368751ISBN:0345368754
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 560 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: MASS MARKET PAPERBACK
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN-13:9780345368751ISBN:0345368754
Description: Very Good. 0345368754 Great condition paperback book, clean pages, mild crease to spine or cover, some edge rubs, a great book! Shop & Save With US. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780345368751ISBN:0345368754
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Unmarked pages. Light cover wear. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 560 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780345368751ISBN:0345368754
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. 533 lightly tanned pgs in gd reading condition; cover and edges have some wear. An incredible journey of thought and history, memory and fantasy, a tour de force. read more
"Brilliantly conceived. Meticulously plotted. Beautifully written. Superb characterization. Stunning complexity and depth of scholarship showcased throughout. With this book, Umberto Eco has given us one for the ages.
At graduate school, an attractive female student handed me a paperback copy of 'Foucault's Pendulum' and said: "I've read this book twice and I can't understand it. Will you read it and then tell me what it means?" As I got to know her better I learned that she considered herself a white witch, and that one of her witchy friends had told her there were secrets in this book that she (as a professional witch, that is) needed to know.
Another woman I know (a daycare operator and Sunday-school teacher) thinks she's a Christian. She wouldn't read this book. She said she'd 'spurned it' because it has an occult symbol printed at the head of each chapter. She thinks Satan will get her immortal soul if she reads 'Foucault's Pendulum'.
So once again it turns out that people in real life are crazier than the villains in the book -- and in 'Foucault's Pendulum,' the villains are pretty crazy. Scary crazy.
I say, "Read 'Foucault's Pendulum'. If you're not stupid, you'll probably have a real good time with it. I mean, the witches convinced me: even crazy people like 'Foucault's Pendulum'.""
"Basically, this struck me as a rather poor imitation of Gabriel García Márquez.
The characters have no depth whatsoever. The plot is endless, pointless running around. I suppose the point could be that we are all meaningless characters leading empty, pointless lives, and that there is no truth other than the truth we create for ourselves, that we create reality through the associations our minds make; but those are not such deep observations that it takes 641 pages to illustrate them.
Near the beginning of the book are several pages of drivel typed by a character experimenting with writing on a computer for the first time. I couldn't tell if Umberto Eco is so in love with himself that he thinks any drivel he writes is brilliant or if he was thumbing his nose at us, saying, "These fools will think any drivel I write is brilliant." Unfortunately, drivel is drivel - and this book is full of it."
"Was reminded of this book after watching the episode of LOST called "316" which featured a Foucault's Pendulum. Funny how the memory is triggered.
I really liked this book. Not quite enough to give it five stars. If I could, I'd give it 4 and a half.
If you have a copy of Dan Brown's awful, over rated Da Vinci Code, give it to the Library or a friend you don't much like and read this instead. It covers the same basic ground but with out drinking the conspiracy cool-aid like Brown seemingly did and with more wit and intelligence than in a stack of Brown's books."
"This book consists of predominantly two things: (1) Endless dialogue by mentally unbalanced paranoid conspiracy theorists; (2) Endless dialogue by scholars who study mentally unbalanced paranoid conspiracy theorists. This is not a bad book, but its not an easy read, and not really a particularly enjoyable one. My enjoyment, or lack thereof, was tempered by the fact that I was apparently trying to read one story, but the author was trying to tell a different one. Put another way, I was trying to read about plot, but the author was trying to write about person. Conceptually, this book is fascinating, but the execution was wanting; again, this may be because Eco was trying to tell a different story than I wanted to read.
Many others describe this book as "thrilling" or a "roller coaster ride" but it's not. It's supposed to be, I think, but the tension is lost in the morass of dialogue and background. In the end, rather than being a book about conspiracy theorists (which is what 90% of the text is about), it's almost more a book about self-image. It does show how conspiracy theorists can make any idea self-prophecisizing (sp?), but it could have been done in a much cleaner, approachable fashion."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
