Carrying on with (what is rapidly turning into) Cipher Mysteries BookFest ’10, I’ve had Bill Napier’s (2003) “Shattered Icon” on my list of Voynich-related novels for simply ages, so a review is somewhat overdue. Napier, a “Scottish astronomer who lives in Ireland and has a professorship in Wales“, was so engaged by rumours of a 16th century calendrical plot that he felt compelled to write a book about it. However, if you’re already expecting a stereotypically clunky “Domain Expert” novel, you’ll be pleasantly surprised – he writes pretty well, and has constructed a nice “parallel periods” opus out of his historical obsession.
Even though (as it turns out) this isn’t actually a Voynich novel nor even really a cipher mystery (the secrets are hidden by allusion rather than by cryptography), there’s still plenty of interest for Cipher Mysteries readers, such as a little bit about Bright’s Characterie (arguably the first modern shorthand). Perhaps more intriguingly, the calendar stuff that fascinated Napier so much is all to do with John Dee and his cunning 33-year leap day cycle (an elegant blend of maths, numerology and religion, because that was Jesus’ age when he was crucified, Dan Brown fans).
Having lived in the Caribbean myself for a while (though many years ago), I also rather liked the smattering of patois Napier slips in when the characters are hacking around Jamaica; and (in the parallel timeline) there’s a little bit of Elizabethan apothecary-based fun too. So there’s plenty of good stuff for a typical Cipher Mysteries reader to enjoy, and pretty much all of it dovetails properly into the overall story without too much frenetic plotting overkill.
OK, I’d be the first to admit that it’s far from perfect: most notably, I didn’t really buy into any of the main characters, nor even the modern conspiracy driving the plotline. Still, it’s a given that every book has faults: the issue is more whether the story manages to transcend those faults… and I think in this case, it really does. Though Max McCoy’s Indiana Jones and the Philosopher’s Stone, Matt Rubinstein’s Vellum, and Lev Grossman’s Codex are all arguably better books, “Shattered Icon” is a good read, one I recommend to you all. Even though it’s not strictly a cipher mystery! 🙂
Not too bad, eh? Your “Atlantis” review reminded me of Lincoln Child’s “Deep Storm,” which started off with an “Oh, brother, an Atlantis story!” moment, but developed into a pretty good tale!
I didn’t know you’d lived on the Caribbean! You’ll have to tell me about it sometime, maybe on Facebook. I’ve never been there, though I had a college lab partner who was from Jamaica.