From Tim Lahaye, creator of the best-selling Left Behind series, and author Bob Phillips, comes the latest in the Babylon Rising series, The Europa Conspiracy.Tim Lahaye proves he can do more than Left Behind in his latest end times thriller as Professor Michael Murphy, a Biblical Archaeologist, encounters great danger and great discovery at the hands of arch-nemesis Talon and the mysterious Methuselah.
In book one, Babylon Rising, Murphy loses his wife to the cruel claws of Talon. In book two, Secret On Ararat, Murphy and his crew uncover the hidden resting place of Noah's Ark. In this most recent volume, Murphy and his gang find the handwriting on the wall that signaled God's punishment on ancient Babylon.
While I've found each volume in the series to be riveting, I did find something in book three that has been driving me nuts. As Murphy makes his quest to Babylon in search of the handwriting of God, one of his partners is a professor named Bingham. On Page 311, when Murphy worries that Bingham might be dead and he dreads having to give the news to Bingham's wife and kids, Bingham shows up behind him with a camera in hand and asks, "Were you looking for this?" On Page 320, as Murphy and company are discussing leaving Israel, they mention that Bingham needs to get back to his wife and kids. On Page 327, while sitting in a restaurant with Levi Abrams, Murphy says, "I still haven't gotten over the loss of BINGMAN -- he was a really nice man. His death brought to mind Laura's death... ." There is no BINGMAN in the story, and it clearly is meant to refer to Bingham. I suspect that it got past the editor because of the discrepancy in names. Not only is the name incorrect, but Murphy also talks of Bingham's death, which never occurs in the story, either.
It's just one of those minor details that bugs me. Obviously we're to believe that Bingham was somehow killed, though we never learn how and are lead to believe the opposite. It's not a difficult thing to follow and didn't lessen my enjoyment of the book at all.
If you enjoy end times fiction such as Left Behind, pick up this series today. You won't be disappointed.
Joe
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8 comments:
I don't normally make it a practice to post a detailed description of the book. My goal is to share with the visitors to my site those books that I have enjoyed (and sometimes not enjoyed) and encourage them to explore the books on their own. You won't find spoilers here (not without a clear warning and a method of hiding them from those who don't want to see them), and you won't find synopses here. Just a few quick words about what I enjoy to read.
If you've enjoyed the rest of the series, I encourage you to read Eurpoa Conspiracy, as well, as I found it to be a good read (regardless of some not-so-stellar comments posted on Amazon).
Enjoy!
Joe
Glad I am not the only one who noticed this lack of editing (Just finished reading it). It drew away from the book but I enjoyed it despite this.
I, too, found such a major discrepancy to be quite a distraction. In fact, I caught it and immediately began flipping pages back and forth to make sure that I wasn't the one making the mistake. It's quite a huge slip, I would say. Nevertheless, the book was enjoyable.
Joe
Hi, I realize your blog entry is from 2/06 so I wonder if you'll even see this. I'm new to the Babylon Rising series and just yesterday finished book 3. The Bingham issue is driving me nuts!! I just spent 20 minutes online seeing if there was any way to contact the author and ask if it was a mistake, or if they meant to have Bingham die without explanation. (I did not notice the two different spellings of his name though). I gave up trying to find a way to contact LaHaye and upon searching for discussion about the contradition in the book, came across your blog. Do you know if the author ever addressed this contradiction in any way.
Thanks!
I have never heard any discussion about this obvious error. And it is very difficult to find any way to contact the authors.
The actual author of the book is Bob Phillips. Tim Lahaye is credited because he is the creator of the series and Bob Phillips does the writing under Dr. Lahaye's direction.
My best suggestion would be to attempt to contact the author(s) the old fashioned way: by snail mail. The books are published by Random House, and you can address your letter to:
Random House, Inc.
ATTN: Tim Lahaye
1745 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
or possibly:
Random House, Inc.
ATTN: Bob Phillips
1745 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
No guarantee that they'll actually get it, but that's how you used to reach an author in the good old day.
JOE
(212) 782-9000
(212) 782-9000
Thanks for the info. I found several book reviews that mentioned the contradiction. So I guess it was just an editing error. Oh well, I'll just let it go and move on to book four. ;-)
I recently checked this series out from the library, and noticed numerous typos in all four books. The Bingman, Bingham thing was maddening and I too, went back and forth for about 20 minutes trying to figure out what I missed. I also saw Isis referred to as Iris a few times.
I am just finishing book 3 also and noticed this and thought I was going crazy and had to flip back to check several times. I'm glad I'm not the only one. There were other typos in the books also the editing wasn't done very well. But the books are book anyway.
Dorothy
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