Illuminatus! Part I cover art

Illuminatus! Part I

The Eye in the Pyramid

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Illuminatus! Part I

By: Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Narrated by: Ken Campbell, Chris Fairbank
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About this listen

 "It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton".

So begins this original trilogy of conspiracies, Illuminatus!. For the first time in audiobook form, the unabridged epic is presented in all its grandeur, spookiness, hilarity, and brilliance.

The Illuminati, an inside joke? The lunatic fringe? Or a vast conspiracy hidden for centuries, unleashing it's power on a naive, defenseless world? It was the lousy luck of Saul Goodman, a tough, streetwise New York detective, to smell the trail in a bombed-out office - the heavy case he'd always dreaded. In a breakneck race against an awesome deadline, Goodman plunges down the trail of the ultimate conspiracy as the days fall away toward Apocalypse.

Filled with sex, violence, and rock-and-roll, in and out of time and space, Illuminatus! is only partly a work of the imagination. The trilogy tackles all the cover-ups of our time, from who really shot the Kennedys to why there's a pyramid on the one-dollar bill, and suggests a mind-blowing truth.

Part I: The Eye in the Pyramid is performed by the incomparable Ken Campbell and Chris Fairbank. In 1976, Ken Campbell adapted Illuminatus! for the stage, creating a 10-hour epic that went on to open the Royal National Theatre in London under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth II.

©1975 Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson (P)2006 Deepleaf Productions Inc. Science Fiction

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Critic reviews

"If baseball can have a designated hitter, why can't science fiction have a designated underground classic? Well, apparently it can, and Illuminatus! is its name." (Booklist)
"The ultimate conspiracy book...the biggest sci-cult novel to come along since Dune." ( Village Voice) "If you want to read a riddle wrapped in an enigma within a conundrum that turns out to be the best secret in the world, get the Illuminatus! trilogy." ( New Age Journal)
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The classic uber-conspiracy. If all the conspiracies you had ever heard of were true, then this is what you would have.



Dan Brown this isn't. This is not a conventional novel. This is discordian.



All Hail Eris!

All Hail Eris!

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Good entertaining story with a lot of factual information entwined. Give it a listen, the narrator is excellent.

Documentary disguised as fiction.

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obviously a classic of twentieth century lit. ideas, tropes, the number23, that are part of the culture now. but the reason to actually buy this audiobook is the late genius Ken Campbell, whose Science Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool brought the whole corpus to a legendary three day performance experience. some reviewers clearly weren't even born. they know nothing.

Best possible reader

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I read with amusement other reviews that were horrified at Ken Campbell's narration, since this was the reason I decided to give this a go. An entirely appropriate narrator, and Campbell's dulcet tones are a perfect counterpoint to the filthiest sections. All utterly bonkers, but I now have better understanding of some of key subcultures & how they link up.

Bonkers

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Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Sadly, the narrator sounded both so surprised and overly melodramatic that the book lost all semblance of the original I read in my twenties. I switched off after 10 minutes.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Illuminatus! Part I?

The novel (and its follow-on parts) are excellent, trippy, Discordian novels and I'd recommend them if you like that sort of thing. But read the books unless they are re-recorded.

How could the performance have been better?

Please have somebody else record this book!

Better the book

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complex, hilarious and down right ridiculous. I will have to go and read the book properly now. average performances made it hard to follow at points, so a thorough read is required.

brain melting fun

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I love it, if you want to read it you are probably ready to get into the journey.

love

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Great first experience with this book, already on the second part as I digested this one in only two days it was so engrossing. A freaky amount of synchronicity with experiences in my life made it even more engaging.

The performances were good only critique being that the mixing and mastering was poor, often breathing was very noticeable and even sirens heard at one point. Even with those little annoyances I will be listening again to this in the near future and have ordered off eBay some copies of original 70s paperbacks.

An amazing trip

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Illuminatus! book 1 is a brilliant mixture of all the conspiracy theories sent to the authors whilst they were editors at Playboy. Since they were editors at Playboy, there are also some sudden sex scenes that pop up at unexpected times. What you end up with is brilliant nonesense and, for me, the perfect antidote to taking conspiracy theories or myself too seriously.

Some people have stated their dislike of the narrator, but I think that he is an inspired choice for this book. In a book that is meant to be a postmodern satire of conspiracy theories, fuelled by porn and acid, this is perfect. It makes me feel like going through my other Audible reviews and taking a star off performance for them.

The narrator describes things in a detached, slightly bemused sense of someone who is not quite sure that they are talking about. This results in the closest thing to an oral acid trip you can get and it makes the sex scenes hilarious. Try to listen to the description of the sex scenes in the way the narrator gives them and not laugh. You will find it impossible.

In a world filled with online hate fuelled by extreme groups, social media messing with democracy and rumours that Covid was made in a lab, it is a refreshing change to hear so many conspiracy theories put into a blender and turned into the wonderful nonesense of this book, leading to its own form of enlightenment. I enjoyed it most when just focusing on the book and nothing else. Never whistle while you're pissing.

Brilliant nonesense, excellently narrated

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it started off as a quite humorous and clever story, lots of interesting historical facts but halfway through starts to take itself far too seriously and when that happens it becomes too preachy and looses its charm, by the end I just wanted it over, can't see me listening to any of the others, I actually really enjoyed ken campbell's narration again some people have a problem with it not me very fond of the stuff he's done, Erasmus Microman was kinda a fave of mine when I was a kid so being British of a certain age probably helps as he's more well known here but he's the best thing about this book, and to think people actually take this as true is beyond belief, its over long confused but some people will love it I'm not one of them

wanted to like this nonsense

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