The Geographer's Library - The remaining part of the Review!

Last week, i wrote an interim review of this book. That's here
Now that i've finished reading the book, i can finish writing the review too!
Firstly, the book did not really live up to the hype. That's the only real bad part of the book
However, there are a good many goods too. The twists get bigger and wilder! The intricacies become complicated and more complicated!
Still, the book is a thrilling read. Especially that it's a first time author, you can't help but appreciate him more.


The beauty of this book is that it's part-truth and part-fiction. The parts of truth can be easily researched using Wikipedia. The Geographer in question is Al-Idrisi. Try looking him up on Wikipedia. Other than being a Geographer, he was also an Alchemist of repute.
It is this Alchemy that this book focuses on. As i said in the earlier review, the book alternates between present and past. In the past, it talks about the gathering of various relics - all of which are also documented in real life!
Now, this can be considered Fasman's greatest achievement. Merging fact with fiction seamlessly!
You never know when you're in the realm of fantasy and when you slip into history!
I'm trying my best not to give out details of the story and the plot, but i can't help but tell you that Puhapaev was probably much older than he seemed in the story! To find out more, you must read the book!!
If you liked 'The Da Vinci Code' and other books in the genre of history/suspense, you'll like this one too.
One word of caution - If you plan to skim thru the book, you might miss a few important pointers! This one is a hard read!! So, put some time out for this one and enjoy it.
Cheers Jon.