VMs: "The Rule of Four"...

[Nick Pelling <nickpelling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

Even though "The Rule of Four" has already been (briefly) mentioned 
on-list, I'd like to recommend it as a good VMs-related read (even though 
it is actually about the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili). I read it over Easter 
Weekend - quite fittingly, as that's when its main action takes place.

Its plot revolves around ciphers protected by riddles protected by ciphers 
to hide a Quattrocento secret (oddly familiar!) Though you might quibble 
with the cryptography, and find the love interest almost homeopathic, the 
novel is more a love-affair with academic research (in much the same way 
that the HP is a love-affair with architecture). Perhaps the authors 
deliberately intended this particular mirroring: thankfully they decided 
not to emulate the original's arcane language. :-)

FWIW, I think that there is indeed likely to be more enciphered text hidden 
within the HP (I'd guess in the epitaph), though probably not even 1% of 
what The Rule Of Four proposes. But all the same, the two authors do put it 
all together well (much more so than the Da Vinci Code). :-)

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....


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