Book Review: The Illuminatus! Trilogy 

Book Review: The Illuminatus! Trilogy

I really like this novel, especially because the sole reason I first considered buying it was its use of and exclamation point in the title. The basic premises of the books are these: 1) Every conspiracy theory is true. 2) They all are run by a secret society called the Illumanati. This is a humorous book, it is sometimes satirical, sometimes just silly, and sometimes nearly incomprehensible. Part of the fun is trying to figure out what is being said. It reads in a style imitative of Joyce's stream of consciousness. In fact I'm going to quote the review of The Illuminatus! Trilogy written by Wildeblood, a character in the novel who reviews books for a magazine: "I really tear those two smart-asses apart...Listen to this: 'a pair of nursery Nietzsches dreaming of a psychedelic Superman' And this: 'a plot that is only a put-on, characters who are cardboard, and a pretense of scholarship that amounts to sheer bluff.' But this is the crusher; listen: 'a constant use of obscene language for shock effect until the reader begins to feel as depressed as an unwilling spectator at a quarrel between a fishwife and a lobster-pot pirate.' I told you yesterday, it's absurdly long. Three volumes, in fact. Boring as hell. I only had time to skim it. But listen to this, dear boy: 'If The Lord of the Rings is a fairy tale for adults, sophisticated readers will quickly recognize this monumental miscarriage as a fairy tale for paranoids.'" Needless to say, the book deserves more credet than Wildeblood gives. Definitely read this if you have any interest in conspiracy theories, complicated plots, or just want a mega-big book to read. I'll rank it 8 Atlantises out of 10. Fnord!