Book Review: Dante's Equation

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Dante's Equation     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Jane Jensen
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction
Del Rey, Aug 2003, $15.95, 496 pp.

Physicist and Kabbalah Rabbi Yosef Kobinski suddenly disappears from Auschwitz in a flash of light. No on knows what happened to the Jewish mystic. He left behind his work, The Book of Torment, in which he claims that he uncovered the physical law of good and evil. His mathematical mystical masterpiece of metaphysics is buried.

Five decades later at the University of Washington, Dr. Jill Talcott and her lab assistant Nate Andros are on the brink of a similar breakthrough with their research into energy waves. At the same time Rabbi Handalman and investigative reporter Denton Wyle separately seek Kobinski’s The Book of the Torment. Soon these four individuals will find their paths converge at the site where Kobinski allegedly vanished with the Feds on their trail as only the government fully understands the strength of the force that Kobinski and now Talcott have discovered.

This extremely exciting thriller is at its strongest during the horrifying Holocaust descriptions, describing the mysticism of the Kabbalah, and explaining energy wave physics all inside a solid science fiction tale. When the story line turns otherworldly it loses much of its strength and ends up leaving the audience a bit disappointed. Jane Jensen provides a deep exciting and complex novel that will please speculative fiction fans especially those who enjoy a taut (for the most part) cutting edge thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner