Sunday, September 26, 2010

Book Review; The Hypnotist

Title The Hypnotist (The Reincarnationist, Book 3)
Author M. J. Rose
Rating ****
Tags mystery, series, reincarnation, art 


I've read all three in this series so far now, and find them quite uneven as to quality. The first, The Reincarnationist, was the weakest of the three by far. The pacing and plot were unimpressive, and it felt too much like a tract written to persuade the reader of the truth of reincarnation. Polemical books of any stripe just aren't as interesting to read, whether one agrees with the viewpoint they are espousing or not. In my case, I was wonderfully excited about reincarnation at age twelve when I discovered it. It seemed so much more sensible than heaven and hell decided by one short life. Now, at age 52, some days I believe it, some days not, but on all days the argument is not that attractive - feels too much like "been there, done that."

The first book was about the theft of some gemstones from a burial vault dating to the late Roman Empire. The stones are reputed to allow people to remember their past lives. The next two books expand on the idea of these memory tools. In the 2nd book, The Memorist, the tool is a bone flute which Beethoven had for a while and hid. It is found and used to devastating effect, and then broken. In the third book, The Hypnotist, the tool is something hidden in an ancient statue of the Greek God Hypnos. The statue was found in Persia in the 19th century and lost in the bowels of a museum until the present. In each of the three books, there are bad guys desperate for the tools, who don't hesitate to kill for them. In the third book we find there is a list of the ancient memory tools, though it is not complete, but that there are 12 of them.

The plots in the 2nd and 3rd books are much better, much more tightly written than in the first book. Although the three books are called a series, they are more related books than a series, as they focus on different characters with some carryover.

Worth reading all three, although the read the first mostly for background. It is an interesting series and I'm looking forward to the next books in the series.

Publication Mira (2010), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 416 pages
Publication date 2010
ISBN 0778326756 / 9780778326755

 

 

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