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The Babylon Contingency: Archaeology at its most dangerous
Investigating a burglary at an English country house, DI Robbie Peele comes face to face with some of the most mysterious objects in world archaeology, disks similar to the Phaestos Disk - and with a Middle Eastern terrorist cell determined to steal them. Why - and why are Mossad involved?. The vital clue is a long abandoned Muslim village in Crete, where terrible things happened more than a century ago, witnessed by a Victorian gentleman explorer who recorded what he saw in coded diaries. Seeking the truth about the strange disks, Peele and his assistant, Sarah Shipton, head to Crete. But Crete poses as many puzzles as it solves. In the end Peele has to ask far harder questions than simply who did the original burglary - the answer to which infuriates him. What do the disks really say, in what language, and who made them? And why is the answer so dangerous to peace in the Middle East?
357 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 17, 2014
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April 11, 2015
In Clifford Longley’s The Babylon Contingency, DCI Robert Peele investigates a robbery and finds one of the greatest archeological discoveries in recent history: an artifact that may validate the authenticity of the Old Testament documents. But with terrorists on his tail, will Peele live long enough to prove his theory? And will his discovery change the way biblical history is viewed?
I love British books and British movies. I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie and Downton Abbey, so I picked up The Babylon Contingency with much anticipation, looking forward to a dose of the Queen’s English and a clean, suspenseful thriller. Unfortunately, my hopes were soon dashed.
The settings of the novel would be intriguing except the author fails to describe them. The characters fly from Great Britain to the Middle East, but little detail is given about the surroundings in which the plot takes place. Locations are simply stated as facts and this reader is left disoriented and unable to grasp whether the author knows his setting or subject matter. There is no vivid imagery which would allow readers to immerse themselves in the adventure.
The Babylon Contingency is not well written, and the style is unclear. The scenes are put in consecutive order, but there isn’t a cohesive flow, leaving the story convoluted and hard to follow. The manuscript errors make the book more difficult to read as well. There are very few pictures painted that would excite the imagination. In addition, the author relies on dialogue to tell the story, making it difficult to keep from skimming through pages. Furthermore, the conversation is used as a vehicle on countless occasions to inform the reader of facts, rather than revealing the characters’ actions, attitudes, and motivations integral to the plot. The exchanges between characters are forced to make a point, rather than allowing action carry the story.
The novel is told in first-person by DCI Robert Peele with a unique, masculine, and authentic British voice, which is one of the few highlights of the novel. However, since all the characters lack depth, it is difficult to identify and sympathize with them. They seem like caricatures rather than sympathetic people.
The Babylon Contingency starts with promise, beginning with a suspenseful scene, and there are glimmers of hope two-thirds into to the novel, but they quickly fade into detailed minutiae which make the storyline slow to a crawl. Furthermore, with no character development, the plot is soon bogged down with too much dialogue about historical information without moving the story forward.
There is great potential for conflict and romantic tension in The Babylon Contingency. The premise, the setting, and plot should make the novel ripe for a suspenseful thrill ride. However, there are so many structural problems in the story that this reader felt disconnected and ultimately disinterested in the characters or in the story’s ending.
The novel’s spiritual message is nebulous at best. It is unclear what the author’s point is regarding the authentication of the Old Testament documents, which is the premise of the book. There also seems to be a message of equivocation between the Christian and Muslim faiths. The fact that the lead character is a self-admitted agnostic who has little character growth by the end of the novel only adds to the book’s convoluted message.
The Babylon Contingency has mild language, sexual innuendo, and graphic violence that don’t seem consistent with a Christian novel or the audience to which it is supposed to appeal. I am not sure that it would gain the interest in a secular audience either as it is so poorly written.
Overall, the authentic British voice is not enough to overcome the major flaws of The Babylon Contingency, and I do not recommend it.
I love British books and British movies. I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie and Downton Abbey, so I picked up The Babylon Contingency with much anticipation, looking forward to a dose of the Queen’s English and a clean, suspenseful thriller. Unfortunately, my hopes were soon dashed.
The settings of the novel would be intriguing except the author fails to describe them. The characters fly from Great Britain to the Middle East, but little detail is given about the surroundings in which the plot takes place. Locations are simply stated as facts and this reader is left disoriented and unable to grasp whether the author knows his setting or subject matter. There is no vivid imagery which would allow readers to immerse themselves in the adventure.
The Babylon Contingency is not well written, and the style is unclear. The scenes are put in consecutive order, but there isn’t a cohesive flow, leaving the story convoluted and hard to follow. The manuscript errors make the book more difficult to read as well. There are very few pictures painted that would excite the imagination. In addition, the author relies on dialogue to tell the story, making it difficult to keep from skimming through pages. Furthermore, the conversation is used as a vehicle on countless occasions to inform the reader of facts, rather than revealing the characters’ actions, attitudes, and motivations integral to the plot. The exchanges between characters are forced to make a point, rather than allowing action carry the story.
The novel is told in first-person by DCI Robert Peele with a unique, masculine, and authentic British voice, which is one of the few highlights of the novel. However, since all the characters lack depth, it is difficult to identify and sympathize with them. They seem like caricatures rather than sympathetic people.
The Babylon Contingency starts with promise, beginning with a suspenseful scene, and there are glimmers of hope two-thirds into to the novel, but they quickly fade into detailed minutiae which make the storyline slow to a crawl. Furthermore, with no character development, the plot is soon bogged down with too much dialogue about historical information without moving the story forward.
There is great potential for conflict and romantic tension in The Babylon Contingency. The premise, the setting, and plot should make the novel ripe for a suspenseful thrill ride. However, there are so many structural problems in the story that this reader felt disconnected and ultimately disinterested in the characters or in the story’s ending.
The novel’s spiritual message is nebulous at best. It is unclear what the author’s point is regarding the authentication of the Old Testament documents, which is the premise of the book. There also seems to be a message of equivocation between the Christian and Muslim faiths. The fact that the lead character is a self-admitted agnostic who has little character growth by the end of the novel only adds to the book’s convoluted message.
The Babylon Contingency has mild language, sexual innuendo, and graphic violence that don’t seem consistent with a Christian novel or the audience to which it is supposed to appeal. I am not sure that it would gain the interest in a secular audience either as it is so poorly written.
Overall, the authentic British voice is not enough to overcome the major flaws of The Babylon Contingency, and I do not recommend it.
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