DEAD MEN’S SECRETS by Jonathan Gray

by JF

Since this guy is a lot more into compiling lists of things rather than writing an actual properly formatted book, that is how I will deal with this book review:

The Good:
Gray adheres to a literal interpretation of the historical events recorded in the Book of Genesis.
The highly unusual, exquisitely unorthodox archaeological claims made by Gray should be fascinating to most anybody, but especially so for believers of God’s Word.
Gray’s central thesis that ancient man, far from being in any ways primitive, was in fact much more technologically advanced than modern man, would seem to comport perfectly with the Genesis account.

The Bad:
A number of type errors.
Extremely poor formatting (Each of Gray’s chapters consist of a paragraph or two of prose, and then fusillade after fusillade of disjointed lists of arcane and weird archaeological findings from around the world.)
Even the few proper paragraphs which Gray writes at the beginning of each chapter are severely marred by amateurish writing in which Gray unsuccessfully tries to blend a little fictitious screenplay-type dialogue in with his ostensibly non-fictional claims and lists. Thus, it is impossible to get into any kind of reading rhythm with this. The only way to get through it is to read it in small chunks, put it down, and come back later for another small chunk. In other words: on-the-toilet reading.
The photographs which Gray gives are all of a very poor quality.
Gray assumes that NASA’s account of the “Apollo moon landings” is true.

The Ugly:
Gray gives highly unusual and disgracefully sporadic source notes for his highly unusual, exquisitely unorthodox claims, and this seriously undermines his credibility.

When I first found out about this book and the claims made within it, I was extremely eager to obtain and read it. Now, having finished with it, I am very disappointed. Not because I don’t believe the claims made my Jonathan Gray, but because of Gray’s poor level of scholarship. This is a book which is screaming for a more professional rendering. I found out after I bought this that Gray has been a guest on the government-shill radio show, Coast to Coast. That right there would have warned me to temper my expectations about this work, and I might have not bothered getting it at all.

Rating: Δ Δ
6/2012