Babel Effect [Mass Market Paperback]

Daniel Hecht (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2002

A stunning post-millennial thriller from the author of PUPPETS. Genius husband-and-wife team Ryan and Jessamine McCloud are founders of Genesis, an unorthodox problem-solving think tank. Commissioned by a billionaire corporate chief to study the causes of the rising tide of global violence and social unrest, they begin to fear that a kind of disease is behind it all. They christen this the Babel Effect. Could there be a biomedical explanation for a kind of global insanity? Or is something else at the root of the problem? The investigation is brutally interrupted when Jessamine is kidnapped, and in the face of opposition from sinister and powerful organisations, Ryan McCloud grows increasingly desperate to find a way of halting the contagion of the Babel Effect, before it's too late for his family - before it's too late for mankind.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Genesis Project, headed by Ryan and Jess McCloud, is researching a fascinating thesis: that violence is a virus, that evil is genetically based, and that neurology can prove what psychology only suggests. A billionaire who heads the world's largest media and technology empire believes the McClouds are onto something with enormous potential value and agrees to underwrite their project, which starts with brain scans of death row inmates and progresses to war zones and killing fields all over the world.

When pregnant Jess is kidnapped by a religious leader, who fears that science will destroy his faith-based empire, the action ratchets up several levels, skipping over some of the hard science that keeps this would-be thriller mired in detail much of the time. Author Daniel Hecht posits as good a raison d'être for the root causes of violence as any other suspense novelist; it's an intriguing idea, well-worked out in the plot. And Jess McCloud, vainly trying to reconcile her decidedly unscientific faith with scientific empiricism, is an interestingly complex character. Unfortunately, she's missing for much of the novel, and her husband, whose efforts to retrace her research in order to find her, is a much less fascinating hero. But that won't stop fans of Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, et al. for sticking with Hecht to the last page. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Is the propensity to violence a kind of virus? That's the intriguing question addressed by this engrossing thriller, in which a research team's investigation of man's inhumanity to man leads to a modern-day Heart of Darkness climax. The Joseph Conrad echo is deliberateDcrucial scenes in the novel take place in the CongoDbut the science is pure 21st century. Ryan McCloud and his African-American wife, Jessamine, are participants in a think tank near Boston when they accept funding from a company called Ridder Global to search out the causes of modern evil. Some members of their team focus on genetics, others on high-tech contamination, but Jess is fascinated with the viral angle, christening it the Babel Effect, after a term used by a televangelist she finds curiously compelling. Ryan, meanwhile, worries that a personal agenda is clouding Jess's judgmentDher sister Allison was killed by terrorists at GhizaDbut he has to believe that Jess is on the right track when he returns from a harrowing trip to the Congo to discover that she's been kidnapped. Hecht (Skull Session) keeps the science subordinate to the characters and the suspense, which is no mean feat considering that most of the novel's midsection has Ryan retracing Jess's research steps in order to find out what she was working on. The writing is clear and concise, and while there will be the usual Crichton comparisons, they rebound to Hecht's credit, for Hecht has his own voice and agenda. The moving climax proves that Hecht is a writer with both skill and soul. This suspenser is for readers who demand texture, intriguing information and a provocative thesis along with their thrills. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (October 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743449541
• ISBN-13: 978-0743449540
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,305,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three books in one, January 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Babel Effect (Hardcover)

I will admit a connection to the book; I did some of the scientific research that backs it up, and I know Daniel Hecht. I never actually read the book till it came out, but when it did, I read it through in a few long sittings.

What I found was three books in one. On the surface, it is a good international thriller, with a talented but flawed hero, a team of realistic supporting characters, some whiz-bang science and spy tradecraft, and a varied assortment of bad guys. I appreciated the fact that the violence was not romanticized, and the consequences of violence had equal billing. The second book, contained within the first, is the story of a man who drinks too much, battles with anger, guilt, and his own limited emotional perception, and is afraid that his wife is drifting away from him. His search for his wife is literal, emotional, and globally metaphoric.

The third book, paralleling the first two, is a scientific and philosophical exploration of the fundamental question of evil. Hecht provides no easy answers, but provides a number of interesting avenues of thought. The one that catches me is this: Are good and evil human-created concepts that we impose on events, or are these concepts inherent in the structure of the natural world?

It is the love story, the hero's inner struggles, and the wide philosophical scope that lift this book above the usual cold war spy story or nuke terrorist novel. It is a fitting second novel for Daniel Hecht, after Skull Session. Skull Session was a gothic murder mystery that explored the question of human destiny and genetics by way of neurology. Hecht entertains us and makes us think.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful And Suspenseful, January 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Babel Effect (Hardcover)

I can't remember reading many books that made me think so much, all the while engaging me in such a well woven story. This is, perhaps, the only suspense novel that I've ever given to other people to read just so that we could discuss the underlying ideas. I'd recommend The Babel Effect as highly as anything I've read in a long time.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly conceived!, January 9, 2001

By 

Charlotte Vale-Allen (CT USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Babel Effect (Hardcover)

As he demonstrated in Skull Session, Daniel Hecht is a gifted writer of formidable imagination. He is a producer of trenchant prose on wonderfully unique themes. In The Babel Effect, he tackles the malaise that affects much of the general population as a result of escalating violence, and suggests a very viable thesis for the underlying cause(s). This is not light reading, but it's a powerful, thought-provoking book that ultimately catches fire and burns, hot and bright, right to the end. Compelling, fascinating--all the good adjectives apply to a very special book. I recommend both Skull Session and The Babel Effect. Both will stay with you for a long, long time.