I have read three other books by Eco and enjoyed them all. This one left me flat. I got halfway through and had to give up out of boredom. It is a narrative that seeks to personify the way people in the 1500s thought. That's all well and good if you are a historian of science, but if you are looking for a novel, this is a bad one. It's more like a ridiculously long essay. Again, I'm sure the science is fascinating, but this is not a novel.