Decipher

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.

Comments

Please explain to me,

[Anonymous Coward]

How they can put spoilers in a "review".

zerg

[Lord Omlette]

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.

Very bad reviewer

[jhdsl]

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.

Is this a fourth grade book report?

[Rogerborg]

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.

terrible review, but the book is well worth readin

[Kubla Khan]

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.

Another review: Planet of the Apes

[CoasterFamily]

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.

Useless

[omega9]

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.