Customer Reviews

In Tongues of the Dead

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4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I had intended to start my review by commenting that 'In Tongues of the Dead' was "a rookie effort by a rookie author." But, when I looked up information on the author, I discovered that Brad Kelln had written at least two other books. Books I will not be reading.

The book is based on a great premise. An autistic child seems to be able to read the Voynich Manuscript, a mysterious and undeciphered book held at a Yale library. According to the premise of the book, the book holds the secrets of the nephilim, the children born from the union of angels and human women. A priest, Father Benicio Valori, must protect the child from the angels that are after him and from his own church, since the Vatican is also after the child.

Although the book has an interesting premise, it is poorly executed. The writing seemed to belong more to that of a beginner's writing class than that of an author who has already written a couple of books. The writing is too obvious, too prosaic (both in language and events) and full of predictable, if not fool's proof, plot "twists". The narration is forced, trying too hard, forcing the intrigue and suspense early on in the novel. The author fails to weave the story naturally, forgetting to let each piece fall into place at its appropriate time. Instead, the writer seems to be working with a puzzle that has been finished from the beginning; all the pieces are in place, there is nothing much to discover and all the characters will eventually, and miraculously, bump into each other some way or another, in the middle of the street, as if it were the most natural thing that should be occuring.

The characters themselves are uni-dimensional and barely fleshed out. They are merely shells and react as such. For example, the Vatican sends two henchmen who are nothing more than two stupid thugs. Come on! The Vatican must have better resources than that! Further, the characters in the books seem all too willing and fast to lose their convictions and beliefs. Priests, Vatican henchmen, and the other characters are all put together with cheap tape and they are not holding together well.

The book is not engaging but, at least it is a fast read.

I didn't hate this book, but I didn't love it either. A homage to the DaVinci Code in many ways. I felt that a majority of the characters were underdeveloped, and a few of them were very cartoonish in their actions. The plot was okay, but I had a feeling of deja vu; I've been down this road before and down better roads. This book was just an okay read. If you're looking for The DaVinci Code redux, then you'll probably enjoy this, if you're looking for something more original, then pass this one up.

Brad Kelln must like periods. He must like them a lot. I say this because he uses so many of them. So did the folks who wrote the words "See Jane. See Jane run."

Unlike other adult books which engage the reader with rich language, complex and compelling sentence structure, and subtle nuances of meaning, Kelln spits out sentences that are as exciting as unfinished lumber being stacked one after the other in a haphazard pile. Substitute "and then this happened, and then this happened..." for his sentences and you have a close approximation of his prose style. While other books may inspire the reader to "hear" the voice of the author reflecting a variety of emotions, inflections and passion, reading "In Tongues of the Dead" only calls forth to one's inner ear the voice of Detective Joe Friday dryly saying "just the facts, m'am."

Character development in this book fares no better. Benecio Valori goes rapidly from a graduate student with a girlfriend, Jenna, whose dimples he loves, to having been `recruited' to become a priest by Cardinal Espinosa. Thirteen years later, Priest `Ben' unbelievably runs into (but not until page 233) Jenna who, coincidentally, had been thinking about him; she shows him to Wyatt's hospital room. No spoilers - what happens in the hospital room "happens" and we don't get back to Jenna until page 240 when Ben suddenly blurts out "I love her. I've always loved her." Pretty abrupt change for a man of the cloth. And that is the sum total of the book given over to exploring the relationship between Ben and Jenna. Not only for Ben and Jenna, for ANY of the characters, there is no build up of the complexities of human motivation, no explanations of the paths taken, decisions made, just bald statements that offer no explanation, no insight. The true irony of this lack is that Kelln is a clinical psychologist; human motivations and behavior are his stock in trade. Thankfully, by page 251, we are released from reading this tome.

I was drawn to this book by the selling point of an autistic child that could somehow read a 500-year-old religious text that no one else could. After finishing it, I realized I was tricked into reading a book that I would have ignored otherwise.

Many of the characters in this novel are one-dimensional. Jenna, Benicio, Maury & Jeremy, Azazel & Shemhazai, Father McCallum, and even Matthew himself have little to no background stories. This makes it very hard to care about what happens to them. Since the book's author is a clinical psychologist, it's not surprising that he gave the most depth to the character of Dr. Jake Tunnel, also a psychologist.

From their actions and words, Maury and Jeremy should have been named Beavis and Butthead. The mere idea of a secret Vatican branch sending two foul-mouthed bumbling imbeciles like these to keep a 500-year-old secret from coming to light is completely ridiculous. There are allusions to several evil deeds they have done in the name of the Vatican, but they are never discussed.

Azazel and Shemhazai had my interest from the get-go, but very little is said about them. I would have liked hearing about their generations of suffering and torment. However, this was not explored further.

Much of the novel is told in paint-by-numbers format: So-and-so goes here. A phone call is made to the Vatican. They are followed. They escape. Another phone call is made to the Vatican. They are followed. They escape. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I was very surprised at the weak faith of the characters. Maury and Jeremy fashion their entire lives believing they are Nephilim. Benicio gives them a quick pep talk and all of a sudden, they aren't so sure of themselves. Benicio sees Jenna once after thirteen years and out of nowhere, he's ready to leave the church for her. For characters that claim to be doing God's work, their faith certainly folded like lawn chairs.

It's no surprise that Matthew's autism is clearly used as a selling point for this book. But where is the development? He was poorly depicted as an autistic child who screams whenever he's touched, has no problem urinating outside a public restroom (and yet uses one properly later in the novel) and is mute until he sees the Voynich and begins to speak. His character was stereotypical and quite frankly, insulting. It felt like the author took a quick glance at the definition of autism and slapped the label on this character without bothering to do any research. An attempt is made to justify this with both Benicio and Jake saying they never kept up with child psychology and don't remember much about autism.

Now, I can accept the existence of the Voynich document, and I am willing to accept the existence of the Grigori and the Nephilim, but all it took was one part to ruin the book for me.

Benicio talks about God using the great flood as a means to kill off the Nephilim:

"...When he tried to kill them off, he destroyed the world. Only he didn't get everyone. A few humans survived, and a few Nephilim survived."

Okay, this is where I say WHAT? He didn't get everyone?

Umm...I'm no expert on theology, but the idea of God "trying" to kill someone off is ridiculous. That's like believing a cockroach can hide on a white rug. If God wants someone gone, they're gone. I couldn't suspend my disbelief on that.

The last portion of the book attempted to clean up all the loose ends, but by this time, I was ready for it to be over. This novel felt like a combination of the worst parts of the films "Mercury Rising" and "Fallen". I wouldn't recommend this book.

However, if you have an interest in autism, I would strongly recommend The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for your fictional needs, or The Way I See It for non-fiction.

Readers who loved THE DAVINCI CODE have another author to search out. Brad Kelln's book is definitely more believable than TDC. The premise is based on a manuscript that really exists, the Biblical references (according to the author) are true, and the resulting tale is a fast-paced interesting book. I found the ending to be a bit fortuitous, and certainly well-telegraphed, but not untrue to the rest of the story as Kelln set it up. The plot is pretty straightforward, but the convoluted power structure of the Vatican and the other characters make for some very good reading.

When I got this book, I was thinking it was going to be something different, more exploratory, more grounded in the true mystery of the Voynich manuscript--as the cover blurb promises, a glimpse at "real-life mysteries and phenomena." I should have been tipped off by the words "fast-paced" and "thriller."

Now, I like to be thrilled as much as the next person, but just because a plot is "fast-paced" (like mud washing down an embankment in a brief rainstorm) does not mean it is thrilling. A true thriller requires more development and more surprises than one encounters in this book. I'm not a big fan of the thriller genre anyway, so maybe I should not be reviewing this book at all. Maybe people who are thriller fans would find this book satisfying--kind of like those who are addicted to Harlequin romances find bodice-ripping satisfying.

THE DAVINCI CODE this book is not, although it clearly aspires to be. Plot and derivation are about all it has going for it--but of a sketchy sort, like you'd expect from the screenplay of a made-for-TV movie, where the meat of it is meant to be filled in by lots of rushed activity and B-movie acting, all pseudo-enhanced by a dark, dagger-punctuated, building-evil score. In actuality, the experience is rather like witnessing Wolf Blitzer pant the news, to be frank.

A handful of threads of narrative are loosely woven together, and in none of them did I engage with a single character not made of cardboard. (They all eventually conveniently bump into each other, too, of course.) The chapters read like they were written according to the "write an hour a day no matter what, and in a few months you'll have a novel" plan. I hate to be so tough with my criticism, but I expected much more in the realm of character development from an author touted as "a clinical and forensic psychologist...an expert on violence risk assessment, dangerousness and psychopathic personalities." This could have been a much better book if more attention had been paid to fleshing out the characters and if the many cliched tricks had been resisted.

Perhaps, like Dr. Jake Tunnel (the clinical psychologist character in this book), writing is what Brad Kelln does when he longs to escape from the density and weight of his day job. The problem is, when I want that kind of escape, I want to read a book that's really going to take me somewhere else. Those who like literature of a subtler, more complex and more carefully developed sort will find this book utterly formulaic and boring. I had to force myself to keep reading it so that I could fairly review it, but I kept finding myself thinking "Oh, surely, not. He's not going THERE...he's not going to have THAT happen...oh, not AGAIN!" But, invariably, he did. Too predictable? You betcha. Also. Alas. For words.

Brad Kelln could easily give up his day job and become a full time mystery writer, as far as I'm concerned! This is an excellently researched, fast-moving, "what-if" kind of page turner. I had never heard of the Voynich Manuscript prior to reading this book, a severe lapse in my education for sure, but I definitely plan to learn more.

Kelln has written this excellent mystery as a fictional novel where the action, the characters (both good and not), the plot and all carry me along in this web of Nephilim, angels, dedicated priests (for good or ill) taking me on a roller coaster ride eagerly awaiting to see what comes next! I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!

With the shocks and surprises along the way, my heart was beating with excitement when the boy spoke and again when the boy was found; it raced during the beating and then the chase; it jumped for joy when Father Benicio found the boy and got away; and raced again when they were being chased...I could go on and on, but you have to BE there! And you have to experience the surpises at the end!

I will definitely be reading this book again. Soon. I always re-read favorite books after a year or two. But I don't think I can wait that long for this one!

All right Mr Kelln, get busy on your next one! PLEASE!

I have had this book sitting on my night stand for quite some time but finally got a chance to read it and boy was it worth the wait. I saw the other reviews saying the book was poorly written and the characters were one dimensional but I do not agree. While the book is based on an in-depth topic it was never meant to be anything more than a fast-paced thriller and it more than delivers in that regard.

In Tongues of the Dead is based on the premise that an undercover priest discovers that an autistic child is able to read a well-guarded and cryptic text (that actually exists) called the Voynich Manuscript. Once he reports his findings to the Vatican the game is afoot - while trying to discover the true meaning behind the Voynich numerous people are out to destroy both the manuscript and Matthew, the autistic boy who knows it's secrets. The book delves into the history of the Grigori (angels sent to earth to help humans), nephilim, the children born from the union of those angels and human women and other biblical ideas.

While I agree that the plot is a brilliant idea that could have been a best seller had the characters and plot been meatier I fully enjoyed the book as it is. More importantly, I learned a lot about the Voynich Manuscript as well as lesser known ideas from the bible. Some of the plot lines were a bit over the top and not well connected to the rest of the story and several of the characters could have been better woven into the story but don't let yourself get to caught up in the details and you will find a quick read to hold you over until Dan Brown's next novel arrives!

Dan Brown's literary works have gone a long way towards increasing the interest in the mysteries of the Bible and the Catholic Church. "The DaVinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" took well-researched parables, mythology, and rituals of the Catholic Church and combined it with fictional stories that created a narrative that was very compelling and felt almost plausible. The ancillary `Dan Brown Effect' has been to create a booming industry that dissects his novels while also taking the basic themes and creating other stories.

"In the Tongues of the Dead" is just such a tale. Instead of using a single protagonist, such as symbologist Robert Langdon (from Dan Brown's novels), author Brad Kelln has three separate protagonists, Father Ronald McCallum, Father Benicio Valori, and Dr. Jake Tunnel. Following Father McCallum's discovery of a young autistic child who is able to read a 400-year old manuscript that scholars, linguists, and scientists have been trying for decades to decipher, the lives of McCallum and the other protagonists become intertwined as they face forces from within the Catholic Church who do not want the manuscript's secrets revealed and others from beyond the earthly realm who seek its destruction.

This story does not have the depth of Dan Brown's novels. It might even be fair to call it "DaVinci Code-Lite". Yet, this does not prevent it from being equally entertaining. Once the action begins, it becomes a fascinating quest to see how all the involved parties will approach their part in the story and how it will reach its climax.

"In the Tongues of the Dead" is a quick read and it has some good Biblical mysteries and history for those who are fans of "The DaVinci Code". It is a quick read and is definitely recommended for those whose attention spans are not quite long enough to go through Dan Brown's work.

In Tongues of the Dead is not quite a The Da Vinci Code rip-off, but it is another in a long line of mediocre to poor novels trying to sponge off the success of The Da Vinci Code and the reading public's fascination with the mysteries surrounding religious artifacts.

The plot centers on a rare document called The Voynich manuscript which is purported to be the story of the Nephilim, a lineage from condemned angels who impregnated humans. The book is in a language that is unreadable and indecipherable and supposedly only descendants of the Nephilim can read it. One day an autistic foster child going on a tour of the Beinecke Rare Book Manuscript Library of Yale University appears to read from the book. A Vatican agent notifies his superiors who dispatch Father Benicio Valori to check out the claim. This leads to an unbelievably wild race among Vatican agents, Benicio Valori, and real Nephilim, to find the child, each for their own purposes.

The novel itself is quick paced and a fast read. It definitely does a good job keeping the reader's interest. The problem is the tale stretches credibility and there are some plot holes and rather convenient, for the writer, coincidences that make the novel a bit flat and lacking. Some of the characters are almost silly to the point of being ridiculous, which greatly detracts from the seriousness of the subject. The book becomes more farcical than entertaining by the end.

Overall this is at best a mediocre novel, but I would call it poor. At least the plot moves along fast enough to keep it from being tedious as well.