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Let me begin by saying I have a low tolerance for stupidity. A random way to start talking about a good book, I know, but bear with me. Thanks to that low tolerance, I have on more than one occasion put a book down to keep the idiotic characters from frustrating me out of the delight I usually have simply picking up a book. While reading Silenced, I almost put it down for that very reason several times. The characters and their native intelligence came through for me, but there were a couple close calls there when I was really gritting my teeth. The salvation of their silliness, I think, was the fact that those scenes in which they portrayed it were short, hence granting us some relief. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I’ll move along to the story itself. Second in this new series by Left Behind author Jerry Jenkins, Silenced plops us back into the future world of Paul Stepola, where practicing religion of any kind is illegal. In the first book, we watched as Paul, an agent in the intelligence agency whose goal is to eradicate the Christian underground, came to faith himself and in the process helped save thousands of believers thanks to his place in that agency and his extraordinary faith in the Lord to perform the miraculous. In this sequel, Paul continues the parallel to his namesake’s story by leaving his own country and going to Europe to make contact with other believers. That’s one of his reasons, anyway. Officially, he is going to investigate the religious element of three ghastly acts of terrorism. Paul’s opinion is that the mastermind, Styr Magnor, is not really the Christian he claims to be, but rather that he is using the reputation of the miracles God performed to further his own image. A safe bet, considering the fact that the true believers trusted God to do the dirty work for them and didn’t need the use of bombs, especially when the targets were so huge that some of their own were taken out as well. Paul’s investigation makes his opinions solidify, but searching through official channels accomplishes nothing. He turns to his brothers in the underground, although the European sect isn’t quite as organized as their American counterparts. It takes him a while to gain the trust of those believers, but his honesty prevails. Connections in France prove to be the link he needs to Magnor. Meanwhile, Paul’s bosses back in the good old USSA are beginning to suspect that he’s a double agent, that he may have flipped to these radicals’ side. Since one of his bosses is his father-in-law, that puts family relations in a bit of a bind. Said father-in-law, Ranold, is one of those annoying men who can never seem to make up his mind about whether or not he trusts Paul. One minute he’s honestly lauding him as the best, the next he’s claiming to have always wondered if he had succumbed to the weakness of faith. The extremist attitude is one perfectly in character, and it wasn’t him that inspired the teeth grinding so much as the influence he had on others. Most specifically, his daughter Jae, Paul’s wife. And here we arrive at the true heart of the novel. All the action takes place in the above issues, but all of the discovery and exploration is within this one. Throughout the entire book, Jae is searching, using Paul’s discs of the New Testament to try to come to a better understanding of the good man her husband has become. She doesn’t know if he has really bought into it or if some of the ideas have just made their way into his heart, but either way she loves the man he suddenly is. She can’t trust, however, that it is a change that will stay until she can better grasp what caused it to begin with. Jenkins here employs a great commentary on the investigation into Christianity. He starts on the assumption that the actual story of the gospels is unknown (since Jae doesn’t have those discs and obviously never heard the stories in this anti-religious world) and is hence tossed into the growth of the church without knowing its premise. This makes the epistles a puzzle, one that raises many questions that unbelievers would come to. I do admire the way he handled Jae’s inner thoughts on the subject, especially the way she kept dismissing it and yet returning to it. That struck me as very accurate to the way any monumental thought buries itself within us and then clings. Jae, however, was also the cause of most of my frustration. Okay, so maybe it’s perfectly reasonable that she doubt her husband at the first test, and perhaps I should simply focus on the fact that she didn’t disappoint me in the end. Perhaps I’m just such an optimist that I can’t identify with her pessimism. Whatever the reason, I was actually growling at her, and if she had been flesh and blood rather than typescript, I may have had to give her a good shake and demand she not be an idiot. I am consoled with the fact that eventually shook herself. It took her long enough. But I grant that this is a perfectly valid and even recommended technique for upping the levels of suspense. I may rather bite my nails in anticipation than grind my teeth in frustration, but both accomplish the same end. And on that note, I must comment on the ending. The believers around the world claim that God will perform another great miracle. They state it as fact. Yet they pray against it. God acts as He will, of course, but I really have to wonder, as a lot of characters probably will to, if this was really the way to go about it. I mean, I thought a house divided against itself could not stand; so how can Christians who ask for one thing and pray they don’t receive it really expect to stand firm against their opposition? The answer, of course, does not come in this book. Jenkins obviously has another sequel up his sleeve. And I still hope, as I did when I reviewed Soon, that he doesn’t draw this out forever. My teeth can only stand to lose so much enamel.
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