3 out of 4 stars
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Goliath Trembled: Confronting the Cabal by Christopher Murphy is an intriguing fictional novel that features the Bilderberg Group, a real organisation, as the antagonist. The group was formed in the 1950s by elite European and American figures that hoped to prevent a next world war. Ironically, since most of the group’s proceedings are shrouded in mystery, there are some conspiracy theorists that claim the Bilderberg Group is responsible for many acts of terrorism in an attempt to control the population via fear. The author drives home the message by utilizing the following quote by David Rockefeller, at the June, 1991 Bilderberg meeting in Baden, Germany.
It seems as if the group hopes to enforce one world order by brutal means. The elites’ power is so immense that they are comparable to Goliath, a giant that defied the nation of Israel. However, everyone who has read the classical bible story knows what happens to Goliath. The book title itself is a spoiler – Goliath Trembled! Biggall informs Nic, a fiction book writer, about the Bilderberg’s plans and how he has devised to foil their villainous ploy. Who is Biggall? According to this book, the CIA and the Bilderberg Club are desperate to find and eradicate him. Although the author tries to hide his identity until the very end of the book, I believe that most readers will be able to easily recognize him.“It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.’’
Fortunately, this story has a number of sub-plots involving romantic relationships and thought-provoking philosophical discussions that would keep readers entertained. I also enjoyed the quotes that were found at the start of every chapter. The quote above is one of such citations. Also, this novel helped me build my vocabulary. One of the new words I learned was cabal (a small group of people who work together secretly).The most enjoyable thing about the book was that it was nicely paced.
Unlike Murphy’s Law, everything that could go wrong did not go wrong. However, Murphy’s work did have some flaws. The first few chapters had many sentences with missing words. It was understandable that some Russian characters would not speak grammatically correct. However, American characters also seemed to have poor control of the language. Also, there were two or three scenes that were written in present tense while the rest of the book was in past tense. This was a little perturbing. Moreover, there was a Henry and a Henri in the story. However, it seemed as if sometimes Henri was addressed as Henry. This was very perturbing.
However, the greatest downfall of Goliath Trembled was that the characters did not have enough depth for me to become emotionally invested in the book. There were scenes that I knew were supposed to inspire an emotional response from me but they did not stir me at all (and I am a person that sheds both tears of joy and sadness for fictional characters).
In conclusion, I rate Goliath Trembled 3 out of 4 stars. I would highly recommend this novel to people who are interested in conspiracy theories and to those who are interested in philosophy.
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Goliath Trembled
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