The archetypal "Page-Turner" in my opinion. Truly endearing.

Will elaborate further at a later time. ( )

I only read this book because it was required reading in my doctorate philosophy course. It was enjoyable; but not one I recommend for anyone to read unless they are interested in philosophy.

مجموعة من الأسئلة ظلت تدور في بالي طول فترة قراءة هذه التحفة ..
كيف خطرت هذه الفكرة العبقرية في رأس جوستين غاردير ؟
كيف استطاع ان يكتب رواية علمية تاريخية فلسفية بهذا الأسلوب المشوق ؟
كيف استطاع أن يقنعني بأن صوفي والبرتو يعيشان معنا وليسا مجرد شخصيتين في رواية ؟
والسؤال الأهم: هل هناك أب يفكر في هكذا هدية لابنته في عيد ميلادها الأكثر حساسية في عمرها ؟

رواية غنية بمعنى الكلمة ..
حوارات شيقة .. أفكار فلسفية .. معلومات علمية .. شخصيات تاريخية .. عوالم متعددة .. حوادث غريبة.
كلها تجمعت لتشكل عالم صوفي أو عالم هيلد مولر كناغ .. أو ربما عالمنا.


( )

Interesting premise. Good review of various philosophers throughout history. ( )

A bit preposterous – wrapping a history of philosophy in a somewhat cheesy but innocently fun YA novel. Somehow it works, though. And the sum is greater – you know. The history’s a mixed bag, e.g. weak on Plato and Aristotle, but overall surprisingly good. And how would you do those guys justice in this format anyway? The overview of Pre-Socratics is pretty decent, as is the synopsis of Hellenistic thought, and the author does surprisingly well with Hegel in the space he has (not too bad with Kant either, but thin).

He also does a very nice job of outlining commonalities among Indo-European cultures, contrasting them with ancient Israelite culture and sketching the strange brew that formed the West – an odd marriage of Jewish and Greek thought (though he goofs here and there, e.g. repeatedly using “Semitic” where he probably means “classical Israelite” or similar). But it’s a YA novel, right? It gets a bit silly in that department, but that’s okay – it keeps your attention, and it probably tricked a lot of people into reading a history of philosophy who otherwise never would have. ( )