Review by Lizzieitalia -- The Newton Code by Liam Fialkov

[Lizzieitalia]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Newton Code" by Liam Fialkov.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Newton Code: A Mystery Thriller by Liam Fialkov is a thriller that layers elements of the distant past with scientific theories of Sir Isaac Newton mixed into a modern-day action story. Michael is a professor of investigative journalism. He is recruited by veteran journalist Stewart McPherson to go undercover and help reveal the dangerous plan of a group of religious fanatics who wish to reconstruct a sacred Jewish temple in Jerusalem and will go to any lengths to do so, even if it means starting another world war.

The opening of this book is strong and grabs the reader right away. There was enough action to keep the reader engaged, but the ending turned out to be a bit anticlimactic, especially the last chapter. Although Michael is introduced as loving his wife and daughter, he is very quick to abandon them for several months in order to undertake this mission. There are a lot of other unbelievable aspects throughout the book, aside from how easily Michael seems to adapt to his new surroundings and enjoy being around a number of dangerous religious fanatics. It is also unrealistic that his new job within the cult is to act as a spokesman with the task of bringing peace to the Middle East, which has not occurred for centuries. Moreover, the timeframe that is given for erecting the new temple is impossible. I’m also not sure why investigative journalists are leading the charge here and not involving some level of law enforcement.

The author has clearly done a lot of research to write this book and I enjoyed the historical fiction aspect of the story. At the same time, the flashbacks in history were not really connected and it was hard to see the purpose of including them, except to show the religious turmoil of the area through the centuries. There is a helpful footnote at the start of chapter three that explains how some characters were introduced in previous books of the series but that this book can still be read as a standalone novel.

The plot had a lot of potential and the writing style was simple and easy enough to follow but ultimately the story lacked character development and even the smallest amount of believability. The combination of science and religion was interesting and I would have liked to know more about Sir Isaac Newton’s interest in the bible and how it inspired the members of the cult.

There were a lot of editing errors, mostly in the form of missing or overused quotation marks. It became distracting to try and figure out who was talking or who had actually stopped talking. There is no strong profanity but the subject matter does discuss explosions and warfare, mostly around religious reasons, so I would not recommend this book to a younger audience or anyone that might be sensitive to those causes. Fans of history might find this book interesting. For these reasons, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.

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The Newton Code
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[Jasy95]

Thanks for the great review! This sounds like a really promising premise, so it's a shame that there were so many issues with grammatical errors and unbelievable plot points.

[Bigwig1973]

I've actually heard someone talking about how it is important for the Jewish people to remake this temple. Although, the individual who told me about it didn't imply that they might be violent about it! Let's hope not! I was expecting this book to have a bit more to do with Newton. I'm curious how his theories work into the whole thing. Even though it seems to not have as much to do with Newton as I would like, I would probably still give this book a try! Nice review!

[Astral Magi]

I look forward to finding out whether the temple gets built. Michael and Stewart's adventures have captivated my attention. Thank you for an excellent review.