An interesting one for you today, I'm going to review a book with many authors (a
different concept I know but try to stick with me here), that's apparently the best
selling book of all time. Well, being the best selling book of all time it'd be a
crime as a book reviewer not to review it, wouldn't it?
I'll be reviewing "The Bible", this review contains spoilers so if you want to read
the book this probably isn't for you.
![[Image: biblealone.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.ancient-future.net%2Fbiblealone.jpg)
A rather unassuming front cover, nothing really eye catching here, but as the old
saying goes, "don't judge a book by its cover". So, despite my initial lack of
interest I opened the book to see what everyone's raving about. It's set in the
Ancient world so has a few similarities, but the differences between our recorded
history and this book make it clear that it's not the world as we knew it.
The first few chapters are pretty much an introduction to the rest of the book,
nothing really interesting here. The main character is introduced and a few little
plots open up and then close again, which I found rather annoying. It's worth noting
here that the writing style is quite outdated and redundant, but it being an old
(translated) book I can't really judge, as most of the original meaning in the text
is most likely to be lost anyway.
The book then detatches from the plot completely, and goes off on a tangent. It's
more ranting than an actual story. I have no idea what was meant to be happening at
this point, it just seemed like a deranged view of the world written hundreds of
years ago which contradicted itself at every turn. Not to be picky, but unless I'm
missing the point, this author (or authors - for arguments sake, we'll call him Mad
Jim) shouldn't have had his work included in this book. A real lowpoint so far I
must admit. Shame on you, Mad Jim.
After I got past the initial set-up, things improved. The storyline is more meaty
now, we pick up following a group of enslaved jews (with the main character
following them around intervening in various ways) in Egypt trying to escape
captivity. Their journey is an interesting one I suppose, lots of
blood/gore/killing, but it left me confused about the motives of the main character.
At this point, I couldn't figure out whether the reader was meant to have a positive
opinion of him or a negative one. Anyway, this carries on for a while until their
ultimate escape. The actual escape left a lot to be desired however, it's almost as
if the writers got bored at this point and just ended it. The whole thing just
seemed unbelievable to me, and not in the good way. I lost my connection with the
characters and I again realised I was reading a book.
The book then shifts forward a few hundred years to the age of kings and queens in
the same area. The story really loses its focus here, and we're more looking at a
collection of fantastic and fanciful events that happen to people rather than an
actual story. Mad Jim makes another appearance and messes up the whole storyline
with his rantings and really ruins this part of the book for me. Even though these
parts have their merits, I'm going to skip right over to the next notable part of
the book.
So now the main character has a child, but we're lead to believe that this child is
actually the main character himself (and someone else too, but I wont get into
that). This whole concept made no sense to me, as the book seems to argue with
itself about the thing throughout the next few chapters. Rather annoying. Anyway,
the son goes around performing miracles and telling people how to live. Quite
inexplicably, the people start following him around and worshipping him. Long story
short, the child is killed but (in another stroke of sheer laziness on the authors
part) he comes back to life to continue the story and leaves again.
After this the book pretty much retells the story but with discrepancies. There's no
real "ending", there are only predictions of the future and we're left guessing
whether they happened or not. The Bible isn't the traditional happy ending, in fact
there isn't much "happy" about it. The book is very gory all the way through, and
Mad Jims tells the readers that if they don't like the main character they're going
to die and be tortured for eternity. Hardly a major selling point for the book,
especially considering that the main character doesn't come across as likeable.
The good
- Lots of variety.
- Sheer quantity of writing.
- Make up your own story! You can read particular sections and read any meaning you want into the story.
The bad
- Unbelievable characters.
- Dated writing style.
- Confusing story.
- Backwards/forwards plot style.
- Contradicting storyline.
- Redundant characters.
- Not child friendly at all, a very adult oriented book. Only for the strong of stomach.
- Mad Jim.
Overall
An interesting, although at times confusing, read. Only worth a look if you have nothing else to do for the rest of your life.
3.5/10
different concept I know but try to stick with me here), that's apparently the best
selling book of all time. Well, being the best selling book of all time it'd be a
crime as a book reviewer not to review it, wouldn't it?
I'll be reviewing "The Bible", this review contains spoilers so if you want to read
the book this probably isn't for you.
A rather unassuming front cover, nothing really eye catching here, but as the old
saying goes, "don't judge a book by its cover". So, despite my initial lack of
interest I opened the book to see what everyone's raving about. It's set in the
Ancient world so has a few similarities, but the differences between our recorded
history and this book make it clear that it's not the world as we knew it.
The first few chapters are pretty much an introduction to the rest of the book,
nothing really interesting here. The main character is introduced and a few little
plots open up and then close again, which I found rather annoying. It's worth noting
here that the writing style is quite outdated and redundant, but it being an old
(translated) book I can't really judge, as most of the original meaning in the text
is most likely to be lost anyway.
The book then detatches from the plot completely, and goes off on a tangent. It's
more ranting than an actual story. I have no idea what was meant to be happening at
this point, it just seemed like a deranged view of the world written hundreds of
years ago which contradicted itself at every turn. Not to be picky, but unless I'm
missing the point, this author (or authors - for arguments sake, we'll call him Mad
Jim) shouldn't have had his work included in this book. A real lowpoint so far I
must admit. Shame on you, Mad Jim.
After I got past the initial set-up, things improved. The storyline is more meaty
now, we pick up following a group of enslaved jews (with the main character
following them around intervening in various ways) in Egypt trying to escape
captivity. Their journey is an interesting one I suppose, lots of
blood/gore/killing, but it left me confused about the motives of the main character.
At this point, I couldn't figure out whether the reader was meant to have a positive
opinion of him or a negative one. Anyway, this carries on for a while until their
ultimate escape. The actual escape left a lot to be desired however, it's almost as
if the writers got bored at this point and just ended it. The whole thing just
seemed unbelievable to me, and not in the good way. I lost my connection with the
characters and I again realised I was reading a book.
The book then shifts forward a few hundred years to the age of kings and queens in
the same area. The story really loses its focus here, and we're more looking at a
collection of fantastic and fanciful events that happen to people rather than an
actual story. Mad Jim makes another appearance and messes up the whole storyline
with his rantings and really ruins this part of the book for me. Even though these
parts have their merits, I'm going to skip right over to the next notable part of
the book.
So now the main character has a child, but we're lead to believe that this child is
actually the main character himself (and someone else too, but I wont get into
that). This whole concept made no sense to me, as the book seems to argue with
itself about the thing throughout the next few chapters. Rather annoying. Anyway,
the son goes around performing miracles and telling people how to live. Quite
inexplicably, the people start following him around and worshipping him. Long story
short, the child is killed but (in another stroke of sheer laziness on the authors
part) he comes back to life to continue the story and leaves again.
After this the book pretty much retells the story but with discrepancies. There's no
real "ending", there are only predictions of the future and we're left guessing
whether they happened or not. The Bible isn't the traditional happy ending, in fact
there isn't much "happy" about it. The book is very gory all the way through, and
Mad Jims tells the readers that if they don't like the main character they're going
to die and be tortured for eternity. Hardly a major selling point for the book,
especially considering that the main character doesn't come across as likeable.
The good
- Lots of variety.
- Sheer quantity of writing.
- Make up your own story! You can read particular sections and read any meaning you want into the story.
The bad
- Unbelievable characters.
- Dated writing style.
- Confusing story.
- Backwards/forwards plot style.
- Contradicting storyline.
- Redundant characters.
- Not child friendly at all, a very adult oriented book. Only for the strong of stomach.
- Mad Jim.
Overall
An interesting, although at times confusing, read. Only worth a look if you have nothing else to do for the rest of your life.
3.5/10
![[Image: cinjin_banner_border.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=oggtheclever.com%2Fcinjin_banner_border.jpg)
awesome.
