Recent Reads: The Alchemist, The Final Theory, and The Big God Network

I had a few things I wanted to say about three interesting books I read recently. I can give tentative recommendations to all three, although all have at least some cons to go with their strengths.

The Alchemist

Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho‘s The Alchemist is an international best seller so famous that it has it’s own wiki page. I’ve had several people recommend it to me in the last six months so I picked it up and read it. I liked it, very much, although I have some issues with the book and why I think it’s so popular. It’s a fantasy story, with prophetic dreams, magic, and more. But it’s also a fable and a bit heavy handed, hitting people over the head with a message to follow their dreams. It’s this last point I have issues with. In the story, the dream is literal, and points to treasure, but the line is made fuzzy, blurring the distinction between a magic dream and the dream of following one’s own desire. And the magic seems to be based in, at least in part, traditional religion. I praise the message of the book, and think people should in fact continuously strive to become what they truly want to become. When you write a fable, however, and get to use not only magic but authorial power to make your case, the seductive power can be overwhelming and dishonest.

Maybe I should leave well enough alone and not concern myself if people are being inspired to live better, more deliberate lives. It made me think too much of The Secret and other irrational BS that people swallow too readily in our society, however, so I wanted to say something about this. I enjoyed the read and certainly do recommend it and it’s message, with the caveat about not taking mystical powers too seriously.

Final Theory

Mark Alpert’s Final Theory: A Novel is a page turner and kept me up reading later into the night than I intended, two nights running, to finish it. It’s a physics-based version of The Da Vinci Code, in which an expert on Einstein is turned into an accidental fugitive and sleuth trying to track down the hidden Unified Field Theory before the government or a terrorist organization can find it and put it to bad use. Mark Alpert, with his background in science and journalism both, is an ideal author to produce a book like this. It’s a fast-moving story with good history and science (keeping fictionalized issues in mind) and I bet it sells very well.

The Big God Network

I was sent The Big God Network by J.C. McGowan by a publicist and I said I’d write about it if I liked it. It isn’t the most strongly crafted novel I’ve read, but I did like it and found some ideas very interesting and entertaining. It’s a cyberpunk story taking place a few decades into the future after a split of the United States into several nations along the blue/red states. Given the so-called “culture wars” that have been going on, I was intrigued by McGowan’s take. Throw in a science-minded cult actively involving SETI in their search for a connected universe, some well-informed international culture, and insightful political commentary, and I kept reading until the end.