Scrawny man waif-fu. [The Tree of Knowledge by Daniel G. Miller]

It is said that the greatest chess grandmasters envision a match’s outcome ten moves before it occurs. Imagine a person who could visualize ten steps ahead not only in the game of chess but in every human interaction.

Imagine a person who could see a punch before it was thrown, who could anticipate what you say before you said it. Imagine a person who could see the chess game of politics, economics, and power itself unfold long before it happens.

Imagine a secret that could make all of this possible.

Mathematics professor Albert Puddles is such a person, and as he is thrust into a murder and burglary investigation on the Princeton campus he finds that there is such a secret. The discovery leads Albert to team up with an aging mentor, a curious graduate assistant, and an unusual “book club” on a frantic chase across the country to recover the book’s secret and clear his name.

Through this adventure, Albert rediscovers a woman from his past and is forced to confront his own understanding of love, rationality, power, and the limits of the human mind.

There's absolutely no mistaking that this book was written by a man. The overly simplistic explanations of math theorems and cryptology that were ploddingly presented; the pedophilic undertones, whether in Turner's awe of his love interest's balance of childlike appeal and womanly sexiness, or in Albert's reminiscence of his 20 year old self's "complicated" feelings for a 14 year old girl; - it was all a bit much of the man-writing. Character names were uninspired. Belial? Christina Culebra? Oh, the snake (woman) leading her daughter, Eva (Eve-a), down a bad path. Wow, such symbolism.

Besides the general infantilization and oversimplification of female characters, more insidious was the infantilization of the most prominent Asian character and Asian female, Ying. Albert, in his 30s, recognized when he was 20 that his relationship with his 14 year old classmate was tending towards inappropriate. Years late, though they are both adults, in a really random moment and narratively unnecessary, Albert makes out with Ying, with whom he has an even wider age gap. Adults, yes. Contextually, weird. In fact, there's a lot to take offense to with Albert. Doctor Albert Puddles, our male lead, is a white male in his 30s who has had his life had most advantages in his life and is struggling now because he’s being challenged in a tangible, physical way? It’s giving mediocre White man at best.

There’s a lot of convenient turns in the story. Years of experience and training and financing are over come by two weeks of training and super advanced high tech glasses? Also, what 28 year old highfalutin, elite of the elite woman is wearing a fedora? A trademark fedora at that. The whole I'm gonna be cold and calculating, taking any action necessary except when it comes to people I have a lose romantic tie to shtick was tiring. In other words, every other thing Albert and Eva did. All of their dialogues, internal and external, were tiring and eye roll worthy.

As a villain, Christina Culebra was comically laughable. "Absolute Power" as a goal? Really? The secessionist plot that was somehow so deeply embedded over at most 30 years? The idea that Thee United States would do nothing? The political layer of the plot was so ridiculously unbelievable. And that's a large issue I had with the book, save for the glut of mathematical logic explanations, the plot points were very superficial. It was a big book of high-level mansplaining. And still, for all of my bellyaching, this book was not egregious or offensive enough to put it at the bottom of the barrel. It's close, but not quite there. So 2 stars from me for Daniel Miller's The Tree of Knowledge.

The Tree of Knowledge (ISBN: 9780578753201) was published March 2021.