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Sci-Fi Books Media Book Reviews Science

Decipher 259

Posted by timothy from the here-be-spoilers dept.
More Sci-Fi reading for your summer weekend: Javed Ikbal writes "Decipher by Stel Pavlou is a mind-blowing work of science fiction. If you thought Stephenson's Snowcrash did a great job of bringing myth and science together, bite into this. I am still shaking my head over the amount of research that must have gone into this book." Read on for Javed's review. Warning -- spoilers within.
Decipher
author Stel Pavlou
pages 422
publisher St. Martin's Press
rating 10
reviewer Javed Ikbal
ISBN 0312280750
summary Ties together all the myths you can think of (Atlantis/Pyramids/Maya/Inca/Noah/Flood) and does it very well.

What it's about:

Tag line: Mankind had 12,000 years to decipher the message. We have one week left ...

Let me make something clear. Although this is my first Slashdot review, I do not give this book a 10 lightly.

March 2012. The whole world is experiencing unusual weather. A commercial research ship is drilling in Antarctica when the drill breaks against something hard. The pressure sends up chunks of C-60 (Fullerene) with glyphs on them. Cameras show a wall miles under Antarctica: Atlantis has been found.

A linguist, a geologist, a physicist and an engineer convene at CERN, invited by the U.S. military to analyze the C-60 and the writing on it. They discover that the mysterious molecules can create standing waves to temporarily solidify liquids. The government wants them to go on an expedition to the site, assisted by some U.S. marines.

In the meantime, the earth is being hit by gravity waves emanating from the sun, and astronomers predict massive solar flare activity that will practically destroy earth.

And home by dinner time ...

Natural disasters are occurring everywhere because of the solar activity, and a plasma cloud is being sucked into a hole in Antarctica. Atlantis is sucking in all that energy without any trouble. Everyone is hoping that the answer to the coming cataclysm lies in Atlantis. Just to round things up, the Vatican wants Atlantis blown up with an atomic bomb, and the U.S. president agrees. The marines will be carrying a warhead; if Atlantis does not yield its secret, it will be blown away.

The linguist and the physicist figure out that every 12,000 years the sun goes through a massive coronal mass ejection (it's a pulsar, but with a 12,000 year period) and last time this happened Atlantis was destroyed. They were building equipment to prevent the destruction, but could not do it on time. However, the Atlanteans left automated nanobots to complete the task for the next time it happened. The time is now.

The expedition reaches the core of Atlantis, but the nanobots, as a result of over 12,000 years of artificial intelligence evolution, do not want to help humanity. They know that if humanity dies, they will take over; but if humanity survives they will have to go. Last-minute tension, the hero gives his life for humanity, the earth is turned solid for a second by standing waves generated from structures all over the earth, the gravity wave passes safely and then earth and all its creatures are returned to normal form. All is well.

I strongly recommend this book, but note that this is not a quick read: you have to assimilate this book to appreciate the wide scope. Good reading!

You can purchase Decipher from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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  • Please explain to me, (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:02PM (#6533260)
    How they can put spoilers in a "review".

  • Interesting. (Score:5, Funny)

    by xanadu-xtroot.com ( 450073 ) <xanadu.inorbit@com> on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:04PM (#6533276) Homepage Journal
    A linguist, a geologist, a physicist and an engineer

    go into a bar and the bartender says...

  • zerg (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lord Omlette ( 124579 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:04PM (#6533279) Homepage
    It's perfectly possible to review a book w/out giving away the ending. Way to ensure that I won't be grabbing the book anytime soon.

    Thanks.
  • you gave away the ending!
  • I happen to be a character in this book - Dr. John Hackett - so I am a bit biased in liking Stel's first effort a whole lot.

    I can't wait until he second novel.

    Eric Aitala

  • woah (Score:3, Interesting)

    by meshko ( 413657 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:06PM (#6533297) Homepage
    I'm sorry, but this sounds really, really, really bad.
    Vatican vs Atlantis would have been a better name, probably. And with a story line like that (and with the new name) it should have been a computer game, not a book. Don't you hate the entertainment industry? They can fuck up even the best ideas!

  • Thanks (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Astin ( 177479 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:06PM (#6533299)
    Ok, so I realize it carried a spoiler warning. And I realize that it would be a rare occurence indeed for mankind to be wiped out at the end of a book, but was it necessary to sum up the ending entirely? Maybe a "of course it all works out in the end." would have worked. Not that I'll ever get around to reading the book anyway.

    • More like the frickin' cliff notes.

      At any rate, it sounds like utter crap to me. If the Atlantans had this solution all working, why didn't they use it. And why would they Atlantis be under Antartica? I guess if I cared to answer these questions I'd reat the book. Which I don't. So I won't read it.


      • >and then earth and all its creatures are returned to normal form.

        Why/how did the change to non-normal form?

        I was reading the review and was thinking "cool book must be well thought out" then its just degenerates into a "this happens and then this happens and then this happens" style that makes you wish you had a "un-read" function.

        This "review" is so horribly composed its actually funny.

  • That was no ordinary spoiler (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Linux_ho ( 205887 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:07PM (#6533310) Homepage
    It was THE biggest, baddest spoiler possible. You have done the author a disservice; no point in reading the book now.

    • Obviously... (Score:3, Informative)

      by twoslice ( 457793 )
      You did not read the article closely.

      Warning -- spoilers within.

      What the big print giveth - the fine print taketh away...

      ---

      • Re:Obviously... (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Yeah, but normally when people say that, they're talking about minor stuff, not giving away the entire ending. And without any real purpose, either, the review would have been just as good without the big spoiler

  • Very bad reviewer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jhdsl ( 74051 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:07PM (#6533313)
    This is probably the worst review I ever read. Just retelling the story and then basically say "I liked this book". Not a word about what was good, bad or why this book is better than others.

    Please, try to REVIEW instead of give a synopsis of the story.

  • BOOOO!!!! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Xentax ( 201517 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:08PM (#6533323)
    He spoils the whole freaking story! Edit or remove this "review", please!

    Xentax

  • Review? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Wrexen ( 151642 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:09PM (#6533335) Homepage
    Hint: Reviews aren't supposed to have spoilers - a review is primarily to tell you whether or not you'd be interested in reading the book.

  • This isn't a review; it's a summary. (Score:5, Informative)

    by yndrd ( 529288 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:09PM (#6533336) Homepage
    A review of Moby Dick is not, "A guy goes hunting after a whale."

    Where is all of that mythic influence you briefly mention? What do the characters bring to the story? What does any of it mean to you? What is this story's context within the rest of the world?

    I can read the back of the book for a non-spoiler summary. Add something of your unique perspective if you're doing a review.

  • Is this a fourth grade book report? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:10PM (#6533346) Homepage

    This reads like Bart Simpson cribbing Treasure Island from the cover. You spoilered the conclusion (in a plot based book!), you didn't talk about characterisation, style, pacing, about comparable novels, you just blabbed out the plot. Were you making sound effects with your mouth while you wrote this?

    I give this review a 1, and - SPOILER ALERT!- it sucks major ass. The only way this could be worse if if (when?) Taco dupes it.

    • Re:Is this a fourth grade book report? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Otter ( 3800 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:24PM (#6533467) Journal
      The vibe I got from this review was -- the guy read the book, went nuts over it, thought, "THIS IS FANTASTIC! I MUST SUBMIT A SLASHDOT REVIEW IMMEDIATELY!" and set out to write the first book review of his life.

      At least Timothy warned about the spoiler twice, so I clicked the link and applied my goatse.cx-honed ability to squint, read cautiously and avert trauma.

      Anyway, it worked. I'll take a look at the book; that's the same "YOU GOTTA READ THIS!" rant my friends heard from me after I read Snow Crash.

    • In the case of this review, I think the reviewer actually paid timothy. Not that that hasn't happened before...
    • This reads like Bart Simpson cribbing Treasure Island from the cover.

      Although at least Bart had the good sense not to spoil it by telling us the name of the pirate in the book. ;)

  • blown up the planet from the Satellite of Love and then they and Mike and the bots (and Pearl and Bobo and Brain Guy) would have gone someplace/time else, where there would be other worlds and peoples to eventually blow up.

    The way it was meant to be.

    This post is spoiler free!

  • terrible review, but the book is well worth readin (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kubla Khan ( 36312 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:13PM (#6533371)
    I picked up a copy a few weeks back. The story is good, and the background is interesting, although i do think the author has spent far more time than is healthy pouring over 'chariot of the gods'. In short if you like this kind of book its entertaining , if you dont, this book wont change your mind, its no great work of literature , but itsnt badly written.

    I found it passed the time on the bus to work quite nicely.

  • didn't research biology or geology (Score:4, Insightful)

    by homer_ca ( 144738 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:14PM (#6533385)
    Sure, it's just a plot device, but it's silly for the reviewer to portray this as hard, well-researched sci-fi. A mass extinction every 12,000 would be pretty obvious in the fossil record.

  • Another review: Planet of the Apes (Score:5, Funny)

    by CoasterFamily ( 678592 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:15PM (#6533388)
    Nice review. I'd like to submit my review the book (and eventual movie) "Planet of the Apes". Here goes... A spaceship crash lands on a planet after a big space-storm thing. Something has gone horribly wrong. The astronauts escape (and some of them die) and see other people running. They follow them and find out that this planet is ruled by apes. There is some harrowing stuff and lots of adventure. In the end though, the remaining astronaut discovers that he is on earth! The apes of the planet have taken over. I recommend this as the best book I've ever read. Granted, it's the only book I've ever read. Plus, you'll never believe the shocking ending.

  • Slightly far-fetched, perhaps? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sssmashy ( 612587 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:17PM (#6533409)

    The expedition reaches the core of Atlantis, but the nanobots, as a result of over 12,000 years of artificial intelligence evolution, do not want to help humanity.

    Sure, this sounds really plausible... an Antartic based human society 12,000 years ago (wasn't this during the last ice age? When the south polar region would have been even more inhospitable then it is now?). And they developed such incredibly advanced technology as to construct AI nanobots, yet somehow never bothered to spread to other, warmer continents or leave any archeological trace of their existence behind?

    Even with out that sun/gravity pulse stuff the review makes this book sound completely ridiculous to me. Sorry, I prefer my SF with at least a small dose of reality or plausibility.

    • Actually there are traces and a reason why their technology didn't save them in the book. And being on warmer continents would not have saved anyone....

      Some of Stel's science is a bit out there and some of it is not quite right, but he manages to pull a lot of threads together to keep you involved in the book..

      Eric

    • needed to be down there. With their advanced computer systems, they needed the Antartic weather to keep their server rooms cool.

      And where else are you going to get fresh penguin-sicles?

    • Sure, this sounds really plausible... an Antartic based human society 12,000 years ago (wasn't this during the last ice age? When the south polar region would have been even more inhospitable then it is now?).

      You really need to read the book -- the author provides pretty plausible explanations for this.

      Caution: Spoilers Ahead

      The Atlanteans were all penguin fetishists.

      ..and..

      When not developing advanced nanotechnology, they liked to spend most of their time ice fishing. In this regard, ancient Atlanti

    • Well, without even reading the book but reading the summary (not the whole writeup), it says it ties in Noah and the Flood.

      With this, it could be said that the earth was warm before the flood (think Bible times instead of great ice age). Upon the flood it would then have frozen the nanobots in. It would also mean that any other evidence of some other civilization would be removed due to a massive flood (water is very damaging).

      It actually sounds like an interesting book. Even with the knowledge of the end

  • Katz (Score:5, Insightful)

    by agentZ ( 210674 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:17PM (#6533410)
    I never thought I'd say it, but BRING BACK KATZ!
  • Is from startrek isnt it?

    That thing has always freaked me out. Make it go away, please. *sad*

    Mod -1: offtopic.
  • Well, at least we have a reason to say that something has been "Lone Gunmened" again.

  • RTFFAQ! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by necrognome ( 236545 ) * on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:21PM (#6533440) Homepage
    Obviously Javed has not read the slashdot book review guidelines [slashdot.org]:
    In a fiction book, here are questions which may help you formulate a review:
    • ...
    • Do any major plot holes tarnish the ending? Do any twists particularly inspire? Do major information gaps hinder your understanding of the plot or storyline? (Don't give away too much, of course.)

    Since you've spoiled the ending and all the plot twists, there's no reason for me to read the book. This makes your review a waste of everyone's time. Please don't make this mistake again.
  • ...but your review doesn't deserve to be called one and, I'm really sorry about that, is * so * crappy it sounds like this book is something like a Clive Cussler rippoff for morons.
    This is your first review, ok, but check and see...
    1.) ...if reviews actually are your trade
    2.) ...that if they are, you substancially improve your skills on them before attempting your second one.
    Your stuff usually is good, timothy, but this review is extraordinaryly shoddy.
    Sorry to have to say that.
    • Take a deep breath and listen to me. Timothy didn't write the review, Javed Ikbal did. Timothy is the /. editor who posted it. While you might like to see the editors here actually read something before they post it, you'll be much happier if you just realize, like most of us did long ago, that it's just not going to happen.

  • Other reviews by Timothy (Score:5, Funny)

    by lobsterGun ( 415085 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @01:25PM (#6533482)
    The Crying Game: It's not a woman!!!

    Matrix: Neo's world is a computer simulation!!!

    The Usual Suspects: Kevin Spacey is Kaiser Soze!!!

    The Sixth Sence: Bruce Willis is already Dead!!!

    Presumed Innocent: The Wife did it!!!

    Sightings: Water kills the aliens!!!

    Soylent Green: Soylent Green is People!!!

    The Wizard of Oz: It was all a Dream!!!

  • I hope the reviewer above is 14, for that would explain not only his terrible review, but also the fact that he praises what is, in my humble opinion, a crappy book.

    Were I an English teacher, the above review wouldn't have been an acceptable homework from a kid!

    (My booklog [dkennedy.org], my SF reviews [dkennedy.org])

  • wow (Score:2, Funny)

    by batkins ( 602341 )
    Wow, this sounds like the worst book ever. I'm kind of glad you gave the ending away so that no one will be tempted to read it.
  • My humble contribution :)
  • I got the message that the review had a spoiler but I hoped that there wouldn't be whining bitches to spoil it in their reply posts without a warning.
    And everyone who modded a spoiler up falls in the same category as the whining bitch who posted the spoiler.
  • Everyone else has explained why...
  • beyond the crappy review

    beyond the complete implossibility (astronomical research, fossil records, geohistorical, etc...)

    why the hell would the vatican want to blow up atlantis? pat robertson maybee...

    I dunno who's the bigger troll...the reviewer or the author
    • The Vatican wants to blow up Atlantis to keep the secrets of the Illuminati from the Knights Templar/Free Masons so that the Trilateral Commission can ...Oh wait. The CIA is beaming a message into my brain telling me to stop typing.
  • I just want to say thanks for the great review. I normally don't read /. book reviews, but I've laughed so hard reading the other comments that I'm going to make it a habit.

  • Well now I don't have to read it having been given the ending.

    You should submit your summary to "Book A Minute" at http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/sff.shtml [rinkworks.com].

  • (it's a pulsar, but with a 12,000 year period)

    Pulsars don't have 12,000 year periods... if this is in the book, it's crap (the assertion, not the whole book!) and the reviewer didn't notice. Pulsars are pulsars because they happen to sweep their highly-outflowing magnetic axis directly in our line of sight... we see this as the object pulsing... thousands of times per second... not once every 12,000 years... this is just not reconcilable.

    • I mean the word "pulse" is in it!

      Seriously though, I think Star Trek also made a similar mistake. It is sad the science in this book is on the same level. (On one episode I remember they had a "pulsar" that was a star that would go from dim to bright and back about once per second.)

    • Perhaps what was meant was a Cepheid variable star with a 12,000 yr period? In any case, I wont be reading it.

  • Useless (Score:5, Insightful)

    by omega9 ( 138280 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @02:10PM (#6533926)
    Fucking useless. The /. editors must be happy with their positions as they are, because they're certainly not going to have any brighter of a future with submissions like this.

    How on earth can you actually let a book review through that gives away the entire ending? And you want people to subscribe to this sort of thing? What worse is their consistant lack of reaction or apology.
  • ...go check out The Forge of God by Greg Bear. One of the best books I have ever read, hands down.

    The back of the book:

    June 26, 1996:
    One of Jupiter's moons disappears.

    September 28, 1996:
    A geologist near Death Valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in a very well-mapped area.

    October 1, 1996:
    The government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn't there six months ago....

    Oh, it was written back in '89 so 1996 was the near future back then.
  • If like me, you are now a big fan of Javed's write-ups, don't miss his other famous review [216.239.37.104], where he covers the "UNIX System Administration Handbook", a great book on how to protect yourself from Dilbert's boss (sic)!
  • please remove this review. It does absolutely no credit to the author. It does not persuade anyone to read the book. "F*(% You" written on the bathroom wall conveys more literary skill than this oral diarrhea. This person should be banned from slashdot, and may God have mercy on his cold, black soul.
  • This isn't a review. It's a book report that gives away the ending.

    I guess I should be glad that I didn't have to spend money to find out that the plot of this book is apparently a cliched piece of shit.
  • it would have been nice to rot13 the next to last paragraph after the word but...

  • Two thumbs down: a review of the "review" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheMonkeyDepartment ( 413269 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @03:13PM (#6534460)
    That was hardly a review, just a few sentences of praise followed by a lengthy plot summary.

    Sure, the plot sounds interesting, but how does the guy write? WHAT did you find so deep about it? Did you like the author's writing style? How did he convey emotion, depict setting, build tension, describe the characters? Is it dense prose? Technical? Abstract? For a lot of people, these elements are as important as a complex plot.

    All you did was give away the ending for most people without really explaining what was great about the book. The level of detail in your summary was totally unnecessary; you've actually done a tremendous disservice to anyone who might want to read this book. And since your intended audience is people who HAVEN'T read the book yet, a "Warning -- spoilers within" label doesn't automatically give you carte blanche to sloppily regurgitate the entire plot.

    This would have been a great submission -- if we were talking about a high school newspaper.

    Jesus, Slashdot editors, raise your standards a little. And take some remedial English / Journalism courses.

  • Here's the real review (Score:3, Informative)

    by cyclist1200 ( 513080 ) on Friday July 25, 2003 @03:15PM (#6534472) Homepage
    Snipped from BN.com, excerpts from an actual review of this "book":

    In British screenwriter Pavlou's adolescent first novel, it's March 2012 and huge storms are raging around the globe, sparked by giant sunspots.

    An unconvincing gaggle of scientists discovers they have only one unholy Holy Week to ship a nuclear device to Antarctica and bomb the underwater threat to smithereens.

    The often ludicrous dialogue and the ham-fisted handling of human relations and motivations, however, make for an unfocused novel, one patched together like Frankenstein, with every stitching line, every unnatural feature, unblushingly exposed to the most casual glance.

    I think I'll pass.

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