Official Review: Barbelo by Riaan Booysen

[Cee-Jay Aurinko]

Great review! The Bible isn't that hard to tackle, considering that we read about scientific facts that clearly goes against everything we've learned in the Bible. I'm hardly a big Christian, but a book like this won't make me turn a blind eye to the Big Man no matter what it says and proves. Scientific facts (billions of years ago) aren't exactly concrete either.

[dina s]

great review Thanks. I will add to my TBR pile and will give it a try .

[signed]

Thanks for the review

[khudecek]

Great review.

I have one thing to say when it comes to religion and books like this. They're always contentious. Not all people see the world the same way and the subject has always been debated and always will be.

I downloaded the book and thank the author for making it free for today. I'm going to read it with an open mind. I'm not a Christian and I'm not looking for a book to discredit Christ. I just want to know what other people think on this subject.

"If you want to keep your friends, there are three things you never discuss with them: Religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin." (Linus of the Peanuts comic strip).

[greenstripedgiraffe]

I am a christian, and downloaded this book out of curiosity - I find it intriguing to see how others think. However, I quickly came to the conclusion, that the author is somewhat deluded in his new(ish) belief system. He claims that Christianity/Bible, etc., is all of faith, we can't prove it, or whatever. Granted, I would fully endorse that, although there are scientific/historic "proofs" etc., it really is all of faith. I give him that freely. However, he fails to acknowledge that his interpretations are really just interpretations, opinion, etc - he is accepting these claims based on opinion (or faith, if you will...) rather than validly proving his claims beyond a shadow of a doubt.

[Chatfemme]

I have always been interested in learning others views on Jesus, Christianity and religion in general. This sounds like a book that I want to investigate. Your review was good because it gave an overview of what the book was about without adding your own opinion as to the correctness of the author's viewpoint. Because you did not tell us about most of the theories espoused in the book, I have to go and read the book myself to find out what the author suggests as the truth (or truthes). Then I can develop my own opinions about the theories in the book by looking further into the ideas set forth in the book.

Another intriguing aspect is that the book is a novel with a bibliography. I have read other historical novels where I could find bibliographies and suggested reading on the author's website or through a companion book, but I don't remember reading a novel with a bibliography as a part of the book. Very interesting!

[Ethan Lindeque]

This is a well written review, but I do not think this book is for me. I find it strange that the author implements such views against Christianity, though.