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De godsformule by José Rodrigues dos…
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3781867,009 (3.66)6
"Based on the most advanced findings in physics, cosmology and mathematics, this latest novel from José Rodrigues dos Santos, author of CODEX 632 ("a fresh-thinking historical thriller" -- KIRKUS REVIEWS), brings together cryptology, international espionage, and a secret formula created by the most famous scientist of all time -- Albert Einstein"--… (more)
Member:averho
Title:De godsformule
Authors:José Rodrigues dos Santos
Other authors:Kitty Pouwels
Info:Amsterdam [etc.] : Q; 552 p, 22 cm; http://opc4.kb.nl/DB=1/PPN?PPN=321491505
Collections:Your library
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The Einstein Enigma by José Rodrigues dos Santos

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» See also 6 mentions

English (7)  German (2)  French (2)  Dutch (2)  Portuguese (2)  Spanish (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Italian (1)  All languages (18)
Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
Este foi o primeiro livro do José Rodrigues dos Santos que consegui ler do princípio ao fim. Depois de ter tentado ler outros romances, tive de desistir, porque não conseguia familiarizar-me com a escrita do escritor. Ainda assim, nesta obra, quase foi uma tortura ter de a ler.
A única coisa que me fez persistir na leitura foi o tema. Permitiu-me fazer um exercício de abrir ainda mais o meu pensamento, considerar outras perspectivas, mesmo fazendo um esforço quanto à leitura do livro. Gostei bastante, exceptuando o romance entre protagonistas, a repetição de informação, e encontrei metáforas a mais e pouco originais para o meu gosto. São muitas páginas, passo a expressão, a "encher chouriços". O que influenciou com que não me surpreendesse muito com o final.

Conclui também, que o personagem Tomás Noronha, é provavelmente o alter ego do José Rodrigues dos Santos. É uma personagem, a meu ver, um bocado cliché, o que faz com o livro o seja igualmente.

Em resumo e mais outra dura crítica, adoraria que esta obra tivesse sido escrita por um escritor mais adequado, sem dar um ar ilusório e arrogante, se é assim que posso dizer. Mas está feito e o passado não se altera. ( )
  masomaro | Jun 24, 2021 |
Second read:
This is still a very nice book.
Not really exciting, but very interesting. I do not know whether I have understood everything after rereading, but I understood more than the first time.
Whether I could explain what the (scientific part) of the book is about? I don't think so, to do that I would have to be less of a language person and have better & more knowledge of the exact subjects than the rudimentary it is in now :-)

Recommended for the reader who likes a book to think about, to chew on as it were.

First read:
I liked the book a lot. It is a crime story with depth, so to say.
For me though, that also was the weakness of the book. I am not to familiar with math and physics, so the theories that form the basis of the book took quite a while to sink in.
I will have to read it again, and maybe even a third time, to understand it fully. ( )
  BoekenTrol71 | Jan 2, 2019 |
Take Asimov's "The Last Question", add problematic popularizations of science, scanvenger hunt, international espionage and terrorism, a gratuitous sex scene, a whole lot of "But professor, tell me" and the result is better than any Dan Brown I have read.
  ari.joki | Dec 3, 2017 |
As a one-stop shop for all kinds of interesting concepts that have intrigued me for decades, this book is a home run to the upper deck. As a fictional thriller, it's a weak groundout to a charging shortstop. Conceptually, it takes on everything scientific from the eponymous Einstein to Aspect, and from chaos theory to the EPR paradox and string theory, and that's just for starters. In terms of religion and philosophy, it tackles Taoism, Kabbalah, Genesis and the 90th Psalm and much more. As such, all of these components would combine to make a great reference text for the Theory of Everything. But things really suffers on the fictional side of the equation. The protagonist, a Portuguese historian and cryptographer, is likable enough, but he serves as little more than one half of a series of exercises in the Socratic method, with various characters playing the role of Socrates while our hero plays the role of the student. The fictional aspect of the book probably fills no more than 100 pages of the 480 page narrative, with the dialectic component filling the remainder. The interpersonal (as opposed to Socratic) dialogue throughout is iffy, although this could be a function of either (a) the different way that people interact in Portugal versus what I'm used to as an American or (b) translation issues. But either way, it often comes across as banal, which is especially odd given the impressive content that surrounds it. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the one brief sex scene that was included, and that almost had me laughing out loud at the text. Again, whether this was due to the translation or due to the author's inability to write anything remotely steamy is a determination that I can't make, but that page or two of the book could easily be a candidate for one of those Bad Sex in Literature competitions. In short, if you approach this book as an impressive collection and distillation of any number of cool religious and philosophical and scientific concepts, you will enjoy it thoroughly. But if you expect an edge-of-your-seat thriller, you will likely be disappointed and thoroughly bored. ( )
  jimgysin | Jun 19, 2017 |
Odd. Manages to avoid most of the category errors that it seems to be heading straight towards, but only just. It still does hit a few common fallacies, but they don't seem too critical to the central point - if there were such a thing. It's nominally a novel, but more like a series of contrived character interactions that allow the author to expound upon a few concepts in basic physics and a lot of the more common arguments found online in religious disputes. Apparently this is actually part of a series, but I don't think that would help explain such plot as there is in any manner.

Our hero a historian in a Portuguese university is one Thomas Noronha, and his main grief in life seems to be that of USians mispronouncing his name. However he rather unbelievably ends up caught in a whirlwind of action as the CIA and Uranian special forces require his abilities as a translator. It seems that Albert Einstein was working on a special document, believed to be a 'better' nuclear weapon and both sides would like to get hold of it. However Einstein hid the document and when it finally came to light it proved to contain an enigmatic ciphered key, that only Thomas could solve (really this is totally pushing the belivability issues by now). However this forumula seems to involve physics naturally, which Thomas does't know. So various chance meetings random characters, the gratuitous woman who seems only there for him to fall in love with and have explicit sex with, all get to explain some of the more unusual details of modern physics to him and the reader - all of which is the background for the author's novel, but un-satisfying answer to the anthropogenic 'problem' of why there is life in the universe and hence why it should believe in god. No religious person will be happy with the proposed answer, but equally neither is any scientist as it makes some bold but un-testable claims and doesn't help.

The biggest error is that no challenge is made to the blind watchmaker fallacy - eg it's never mentioned how badly designed life is - but other than that from my relatively basic knowledge of physics and quantum mechanics (and on-line religious debates), the author's note that all of the science has been checked, seems about right.

Enjoyable and a bit unusual. ( )
  reading_fox | Nov 27, 2015 |
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"Based on the most advanced findings in physics, cosmology and mathematics, this latest novel from José Rodrigues dos Santos, author of CODEX 632 ("a fresh-thinking historical thriller" -- KIRKUS REVIEWS), brings together cryptology, international espionage, and a secret formula created by the most famous scientist of all time -- Albert Einstein"--

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