Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!
Review: Just finished this, and boy was it worth it! Great writing AND a good plot. I didn't mind the Princeton parts, and I really liked the deciphering parts! Like others have said, its different than Davinci, but still a great read. The ending was also fantastic! Two thumbs up!!!
Rating:
Summary: It's a REAL book
Review: I just assumed (a word I rarely use) that the book that's talked about in THE RULE OF FOUR--"Hypnorotomachia" was made up, the way Dan Brown had made up some of his "facts" in DA VINCI CODE. Not so. HYPNOROTOMACHIA is a REAL book! I couldn't believe it! You can actually buy it and try figuring out what the four Princeton of the Apocolypse were attempting to get at. What a hoot! Aside from that, this book--THE RULE OF FOUR--is an excellent read (needless to say) and the authors have really done their homework when it comes to piecing together a page turner that's well researched but not stodgy. Kudos, guys. A great achievement. Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD.
Rating:
Summary: Intricately woven mystery
Review: Although it's popular to compare this novel to DaVinci Code, that's a cheesy flave-of-the-month cop-out, since the books are so vastly different in scope, plot, characterization, and most of all, mystery. A more apt comparison may be The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte, upon which the film The Ninth Gate was based. Here we have a love of the source material - ancient manuscripts - a bibliophile's dream combined in the fascinatingly wrought plot. It's an exciting read, filled with surprises, and when the final page is turned, ultimately far more satisfying than any pop-culture trash.
Rating: 
Summary: BOR-ing
Review: What a snore. This book was such a bore that I gave up after 90 pages. There are too many other more interesting, better written books out there to read than this. Obviously, the publisher hit on the "brilliant" idea of selling this as the next Davinci Code. Might as well try that tactic because there's nothing else to recommend this--unless you're an insomniac looking for a sure-fire cure.
Rating: 
Summary: Not an adventure novel.
Review: Caldwell and Thomason are very talented writers; their descriptions (of perhaps a few too many things) are very well-done, and you can visualize this group of college guys. I admit that I might have gone into this book with the wrong things in mind; I had read the Da Vinci Code (though it's his first book about Robert Langdon that I really liked) and then I read a review in a magazine saying this book was even better. You simply can't compare the two. To me, they fall into completely separate genres. The Rule of Four is very historical and research-oriented, with all the detail of a thesis, but it is NOT a thriller. I found myself occasionally bored by all of the descriptions, and particularly the paragraphs about the goings-on at Princeton. All the bits about things at Princeton might be interesting to someone who attended the school, but seems a little too much to me. The other part that bothered me was, well, I didn't particularly like the narrator, Tom Sullivan - his decisions, his actions, even some of his thoughts. I asked some people about this, and one of my friends suggested you weren't supposed to like him, but if I don't like the character, I don't usually want to read his story. Anyway, as I said, they're good writers, but don't go into this expecting a fast-paced, adventure novel. It puts out some interesting ideas about the Hypnerotomachia, but you pretty much just research it along with them.
Rating:
Summary: Hypnerotomachia not Da Vinci, cha cha cha
Review: You CAN pronounce it--just give it a try. Hypnerotomachia is the ancient book that has a group of Princeton students intrigued, and for good reason. And while these brainy blokes are not as fleshed out as I would like, they move the story along nevertheless. What's remarkable to me is that some people prefer Da Vinci to this book. Fagettaboudit. The Rule of Four is MILES ahead of Code and better written. And this work really reminded me more of Raiders of the Lost Ark than Code--not in a car-chase sort of way, but in the "Oh, Look, I'm a student in school looking for adventure" kinda way. Caldwell and Thomason must have done something right with this book, because it kept me hooked for hours and not too many others do that. The pacing is first rate--both these guys reallly know how to tell a story and keep it moving. Another great book I've come across in the last month was The Bark of the Dogwood. It too has some anagrams and puzzles, but you'd never know it on the surface as the author doesn't make it as obvious as "Four" or "Code." Still, it's a good read. But before you do anything I suggest you delve into this current craze by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. This book is just really good fun. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: The Rule of Four
Review: An ivy league murder, a mysterious coded manuscript, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide memorably in THE RULE OF FOUR -- a brilliant work of fiction that weaves together suspense and scholarship, high art and unimaginable treachery. It's Easter at Princeton. Seniors are scrambling to finish their theses. And two students, Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris, are a hair's breadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili--a renowned text attributed to an Italian nobleman, a work that has baffled scholars since its publication in 1499. For Tom, their research has been a link to his family's past -- and an obstacle to the woman he loves. For Paul, it has become an obsession, the very reason for living. But as their deadline looms, research has stalled -- until a long-lost diary surfaces with a vital clue. And when a fellow researcher is murdered just hours later, Tom and Paul realize that they are not the first to glimpse the Hypnerotomachia 's secrets. Suddenly the stakes are raised, and as the two friends sift through the codes and riddles at the heart of the text, they are beginnning to see the manuscript in a new light--not simply as a story of faith, eroticism and pedantry, but as a bizarre, coded mathematical maze. And as they come closer and closer to deciphering the final puzzle of a book that has shattered careers, friendships and families, they know that their own lives are in mortal danger. Because at least one person has been killed for knowing too much. And they know even more. From the streets of fifteenth-century Rome to the rarified realm of the Ivy League, from a shocking 500 year-old murder scene to the drama of a young man's coming of age, THE RULE OF FOUR takes us on an entertaining, illuminating tour of history--as it builds to a pinnacle of nearly unbearable suspense.
Rating: 
Summary: Brainy Bildungsroman
Review: Good but rather uneven read. The first chapter, setting up the origin of the HYPNEROTOMACHIA hooked me, but then I found myself floundering, not caring much about our four seniors until the fanatic professors and Nerdy Bill complicate the story. The boys weren't shallow, exactly, but rather un-care-about-able, really. Then the unraveling of HYPNEROTOMACHIA's mysteries caught me up and I read the last 1/3 of the novel in one afternoon. It's lovely to delve into what has been a Renaissance conundrum, solve it, and have our young men evolve as they should. Here's hoping that Caldwell and Thomason give us more.
Rating:
Summary: Good God, It's Dull!
Review: Ugh, good God, this book is dull. My only thought while reading this book was, "Get to your point already!" The characters are cliches, shells of college stereotypes, and it takes much too long to get to the advertised storyline. I really do feel that this is a rip-off of Dan Brown's work, that the publisher is hoping readers will buy anything Renaissance, anything thriller, and anything with encrypted clues. This book, however, is just everything dull.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good a read as Davinci Code
Review: Interesting concept but the story telling aspect is not as mature as Davinci. Developing characters and explaining things by jumping back and forth in time just slows the book down. Also, there just isn't the punch to the story like DaVinci. It never really grabs you. Maybe because we have no idea of why the book they are researching has any significance.At least in DaVinci you start with a spectacular murder and the action starts immediately. By the time you get to the payoff in this book you've spent more time on character development and friendships than in wondering why I should care if they figure the book out. A good first effort but not a great read.
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