Gadfly's Muse

The Jihad Germ: No Tom Clancy But A Good Read

The Jihad Germ: T. N. Rivers, Pirate Island Press, $12.95 on Amazon.com

See all my reviews on Amazon.com

FOUR STARS (of a possible five)

Rivers' book is a page turner. The fast paced action keeps the story moving but is also that which makes it the least realistic. The reader is very aware that what he is reading bears as much resemblance to how a full scale bio-terrorism attack would be handled as an Indiana Jones movie bears to actual archeology. Which is not to say that Rivers' primary thesis and the events/responses which are depicted are out of the question. They are not. It is just that the attack, if it was actually mounted, would have been far more devastating because the government response could never rise to the efficiency River's recounts.

The best aspect of the book is the detailed account of how the attack was formulated and executed. The degree of detail given was indeed scary and, since I am not qualified to speak to the technical details of the biological/genetic possibilities, I assume it is feasible. Rivers' descriptions and identification of the various organizations which would be involved in combating such an attempt were also helpful

Where Rivers' needs to grow as an author is in making his characters less stiff and robotic. When Dr. Ron Raines loses his live in girl friend, for whom he presumably had great affection, he accepts it with what seems to be no more than a passing thought - "I should have been with her when she died." That's about it. All of the other characters are sketched at about the same level. All it takes for the bad guy terrorist scientist to suddenly change his mind about the Great Satan Americans is for Dr. Raines to show him a little love. That's a bit of a stretch.

So... five stars for technical background and plot outline, three stars for character development averages out to four.

Good summer beach read. It'll take you 3-4 hours straight through.

Turning Points: Decisive Moments In The History of Christianity

By Mark A. Noll

Noll's book is well worth the cost and the time to read. It is a fine resource for teaching in the local church or for individual study. Written in plain prose with adequate explanation of the technical theological terms that must be considered, it is easily accessible by the average reader today. If for nothing else, this book will acquaint or re-acquaint us with the importance of doctrines, Evangelical piety no matter in what tradition it is found, and how the world can be changed. It is implicitly, a call to return to our roots.

Noll's major contribution in this work however, may very well be how he demonstrates to us that crucial turning points in the progress of history are often the consequence of intense, penetrating debate concerning rather precise and difficult concepts. These debates may be acrimonius and there may be many dark episodes that accompany them, but Noll's synopsis makes us realize just how vital those debates are, even when so accompanied. We often consider the ancient thinkers as being somewhat primitive because their technology was not as advanced as ours. A survey of history such as this will quickly disabuse us of this notion and cause us to reflect upon the paucity of such thinking around us now as was evidenced in these debates.

I highly recommend reading the book. It would be good to pay attention to the names and dates but the real teaching, for me, is that we moderns need to get back to thinking deep thoughts about our time and place as these men and women did in theirs.

A Study In Leadership

                                                                            Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor
                                                                                                        Biography by Anthony Everitt
                                                                                                                2006, Random House

This is a well written, anecdotal history of a complex and pivotal life, a study in how a single man can be the focus of world changing significance.  Anthony Everitt’s disciplined recounting of the events and manner of Gaius Octavius Caesar (Augustus) allows for more than a pleasant re-acquaintance with important historical facts.  Fundamental to the author’s approach is the manner in which he allows us to see parallels to our own time and culture in the issues confronted by nation whose very success surpassed its political structures’ capacity to resolve.  Furthermore, at a bit further distance, this book supplies a study of the nature, perils, rewards and costs of unwavering ambition when it controls a capable, energetic and charismatic leader.  When read with an eye toward this aspect, it is a sobering reminder that a person must count the cost of significance.  If any aspire to greatness, the pathway they must walk, the cost they must bear and the steel resolve they must demonstrate, cannot be far removed from that we see in Augustus.  The book is an excellent critique of ambition even as it clearly demonstrates that which can be attained through it.