Review of Killing Abel

[Laura Gumban]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Killing Abel" by Michael Tieman.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Reading "Killing Abel" was an interesting adventure in biblical history meeting a modern re-telling. I found it to be distracting, however, when the author used modern vernacular, such as the term 'okay' (pages 14 & 18), which wasn't coined until the telegraph was in use. Also, the irreverent substitution of Meth for Methuselah was off-putting. Not to mention referring to God as "learning from men" and the dialogue on page 20 has God stating "Wisdom will come to Us in time..". This flies right in the face of all Christian doctrine and may cause readers to put the book down. The Christian belief is that God doesn't need to learn from man, He teaches man, and wisdom is already in God.

Otherwise, the re-telling was mostly true to the Bible and the creative content pretty well in line with scripture. The one glaring exception, though, was how the author treated the subject of the creation of the Nephilim. The Nephilim were, according to Biblical and extra-canonical sources, the offspring of the fallen 200 watchers. Those watchers were the 'sons of God' (angels) who lay with the 'daughters of men'. The 'sons' of God being plural, not Cain (or his 'mark') being singular. Therefore, the fathers of the Nephilim were multiple angels who now reside in the deepest earth to be judged at the end of time.

I will give the author credit for coming up with an idea that was extremely unusual for explaining Cain's mark. Although he did not make clear how a being with no form or substance, the mark of Cain, was responsible for the procreation of giants. It does make sense, though, for the mark to be a presence that reminds all of those who wish to do harm to Cain that he is marked by God for protection. How better than a constant shimmering aura?

And having the giants assist Noah and his sons with building the ark was imaginative. I have often pondered how those 3 men would have been able to construct such a ship without more assistance. Assistance in the form of compliant, slightly stupid, giants was a one way to explain the situation without the need for Noah to resort to violence to keep extra men out of the ark.

All in all, this was an imaginative, entertaining, and thought-provoking read. I look forward to the next installment in what I assume will be a series.

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Killing Abel
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