The Earth Will Shake

The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles Vol. I

By: Robert Anton Wilson

Narrated by: Scot Crisp

Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

They have been with us throughout the ages: the "Invisible College" of wisdom and their adversaries, the destroyers. The history of the world is their story - a conspiracy as vast as time itself.

Naples, Italy, circa 1764: A young aristocrat is about to stumble onto one piece of the great pattern. As witness to a vicious assassination and victim of his passion for the beautiful daughter of his enemy, young Sigismundo Celine is forced to begin a mystical odyssey amidst an ageless clash of Freemasons, Mafia, and the Illuminati.

Sigismundo begins his journey of discovery accompanied by the boy Mozart, the immortal Dr. Frankenstein, and the infamous Casanova as the forces of light and darkness seek to claim him for their own. For all are certain that he is the long-awaited one whose powers - can he but master them - will remold the destiny of the entire world.

Before Dan Brown, Umberto Eco, and The X-Files, there was Robert Anton Wilson and The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles. Beginning in 1982 with The Earth Will Shake, Wilson set out to trace the conspiratorial and philosophical underpinnings of Western history. By the third and final novel, the Chronicles expose the historical cross-currents of Freemasonry, the American Revolution, Rosicrucians, the Marquis de Sade, and the Illuminati, revealing a saga as elaborate and startling as history ought to be!

©1982 Robert Anton Wilson (P)2006 Deepleaf Productions Inc.

Critic reviews

"A delicious treat....Wilson is a vivid portraitist with a perfervid imagination, and he regales his readers with occasional infusions of wit. Buy and enjoy." ( Analog)
"More important than Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake" (Timothy Leary)

Wonderful

This book is a slow starter but it will teach and entertain you to the very end. I cannot wait for the next part!

Crisp Delivers Wilson Beautiful!y

This historical contrivance is Robert Anton Wilson at his finest. It's full of wit, wisdom, and philosophical paradox, all encased In a narrative structure that serves the author well. The narration by Scott Crisp is excellent. I just wish that there were more Audible recordings in this often-overlooked series by the late iconoc!ast!

Rich and deep story

A wonderfully deep and complex story. I would love to see the next 2 books in audio as well.

Not for the Devout Believer

This work is not for Evangelicals or other devout Christian adherents as the topics covered are not within the limits of such propriety. Language used is especially out of bounds as this work reflects situations involving questionable morals.

Very disapointed

What would have made The Earth Will Shake better?

I read a number of very positive reviews, and that was the only reason I saw this one through to the end. The story was tedious and uninteresting. Aside from mentioning that the characters had ties to masons and illuminati, there was really no insight into either. The narration is what ultimately did me in; at no point did the narrator attempt to to give voice to any of the characters. I've heard more enthusiasm in a Librivox recording, and that is saying a lot. It ended abruptly in a very aggravating way, and there was nothing about this book that made me interested in moving on to book two.

What could Robert Anton Wilson have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

More depth to the secret organizations was needed, not just depth in characters.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Scot Crisp?

Paul Michael may have assisted in making the story more audibly appealing. He has a great voice and I believe could accomplish the period speak much more successfully, and he definitely would have given the characters their own personalities, which this book needed.

Tedious and downright boring...

This adolescent journal of a young man's rather hallucinational state of mind is not at all what I expected from the description of this novel. I suppose there's some insight into the secret society of freemasonry and its influence, but the author has chosen to follow the main character's emotional state rather than developing a strong story line. The story is, in fact, virtually non-existant and you reach the end wondering what message the author wished to convey. The narrator speaks so dully that he sounds bored, too.

yawn...

I am not expecting great literature from a book about the Illuminati... but I did expect something a *little* more interesting. Perhaps I just didn't get that far, but the earth never even trembled a little for me. I am willing to put up with adolescent self-absorption, and the author's occasional preciousness, and even when my attention wandered, I could pick the story back up again when something happened. It was the second interminable day of unrelieved sermonizing by a sanctimonious Dominican priest that did me in. My iPod battery ran down at that point, and I was not in the least bit tempted to continue listening. Yes, I understand that the priest's point of view represents the church, and its expression is necessary to delineate the moral choices faced by the protagonist -- but do we have to be clubbed into unconsciousness with it?

Unless you're looking for something to put you to sleep, pass on this one...

Dumb

What would have made The Earth Will Shake better?

Not buying it, and being able to return it without having to jump through hoops

aarrgg

the narrator made this audiobook totally unbearable.. I would loved to have finished it. but I could not stand the guy monotone reading of the story. So I have no idea if the book is any good guess I'll buy the book and just read it myself.