Dante's Equation
Jane Jensen
Del Rey, 484 pages
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What do a weaselish tabloid journalist, an upright Torah scholar, a
driven scientist, and a ruthless operative for the US government have in
common? Not a lot, initially. Denton Wyle is investigating unexplained vanishings
for his paper, Mysterious World.
Aharon Handelman, rabbi and family man, works passionately at deciphering
Torah code, mysterious messages hidden in the Hebrew text of the Torah. Jill
Talcott, associate professor of physics at a large state university, is perfecting
a wave mechanics equation that she believes will prove her energy pool theory:
that all matter exists as energy waves in a higher dimension. Calder Ferris,
agent for the Defense Sciences Office of the Department of Defense, is monitoring
the scientific research community for new theories that possibly can be turned
into weapons technology. Different people, different pursuits...yet in a
short period of time, all find themselves on paths that point to a single
individual: Yosef Kobinski, brilliant physicist and Kabbalah scholar, who,
according to eyewitness reports, vanished fifty years earlier in a blaze
of fire from the death camp at Auschwitz.
Kobinski left behind a manuscript, The Book of Torment. In it,
mixing hard science with mysticism, he claimed to have discovered an actual
physical law of good and evil--a theory of space-time symbolically represented
by the Kabbalah Tree of Life, which expresses the process through which God,
the unknowable, descends to the material world via his ten emanations, or
Sefirot. After World War II, Kobinski’s manuscript was lost. But now it’s
starting to turn up, in bits and pieces. If the whole thing can be reconstructed,
Kobinski’s theories may lead to astonishing new technologies--or catastrophically
dangerous ones.
Jill Talcott does prove her equation, with the help of her research assistant,
Nate; but the tests she conducts result in a deadly explosion, and she realizes
that her breakthrough is far more hazardous than she suspected. The explosion
draws the attention of Calder Ferris--and also alerts Aharon Handelman, whose
Torah code arrays have inexplicably begun to turn up not just Kobinski’s
name, but Jill’s. Astonished to realize how uncannily their research prefigures
Kobinski’s, Jill and Nate head with Aharon for Poland, on the trail of The Book of Torment,
which they hope will tell them more; they’re also desperate to lose the intelligence
agents who are now on their trail. But Calder Ferris isn’t so easy to shake.
Meanwhile Denton Wyle, doggedly researching Kobinski’s vanishing, is also
hunting for The Book of Torment. Precipitous events draw all of them
to the clearing outside of Auschwitz where Kobinski disappeared--where, as
they find out, the force that took him is still waiting.
Dante’s Equation (Dante is never mentioned in the book, but
the context makes the reference obvious) has more the feel of a thriller
than science fiction, complicated scientific theories and the characters’
journeys to alien worlds notwithstanding. All the thriller ingredients are
there: the scientist with the dangerous discovery, the scary government operative,
the greedy powers that be, the desperate race to find/steal/contain the threat.
But not many thrillers feature pompous Jewish rabbis as viewpoint characters,
or so inventively mix science with mysticism. I’m not knowledgeable enough
to judge the plausibility of Jill’s energy pool theory or her one-minus-one
universal wave; but the integration of Kabbalistic lore with these ideas
is entirely convincing, producing a vision of a multiverse where the notion
of good and evil isn’t merely a philosophical or spiritual concept, but a
reflection of the actual physical nature of existence. Jensen is careful
to make clear that “good” and “evil”, with all their moral baggage, are subjective
concepts, while the universal forces these ideas reflect are simply physical
laws, devoid of moral weight. Also, for all the lavish employment of religious
imagery, she is wise enough to leave relative the question of God. While
Aharon finds in his experience a new and restored faith, to Jill it’s all
about science.
Not so many thrillers, either, are as character-driven as this one.
Several of the viewpoint characters less than fully likeable, but all are
vivid individuals, whose deftly-drawn failings and strengths believably drive
their choices and shape the novel’s action. The skillfulness of these characterizations
becomes especially apparent in the second part of the book, when Aharon,
Denton, Calder, and Jill with Nate in tow are whisked off to worlds that
reflect their deepest natures in ways that only slowly become fully clear.
This is very cleverly done--a science fictional version of the sort of allegorical
tale in which people get their just deserts. Again, though, everything’s
relative, for the worlds on the “good” or light side of the multiverse are
just as negative in their way as the ones on the “bad” or dark side. And
while the nature of the worlds and the societies that develop on them are
inalterably dictated by their location in the multiverse, individuals aren’t
quite so constrained. In the face of physical laws and spiritual determinism,
personal choice can make all the difference.
A few of the plot turns seem a little forced--Aharon’s realization that
Jill is the TLCTT he has seen in his Torah code arrays, for instance--and
there’s some handwaving in the final section about exactly how Jill et al.
return to Earth. But these are minor quibbles. Fast-paced, suspenseful, and
intellectually engaging, Dante’s Equation is thoroughly enjoyable reading. Anyone who was tempted to hurl Dan Brown’s wooden and overhyped The Da Vinci Code
across the room might want to give this book a try; if you’re looking for
a well-written thriller full of religious symbology and exciting action,
this is the real thing.
Copyright © 2003 Victoria Strauss
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