I have a review of Christoph Amberger’s conspiracy fiction debut, “The Lazarus Smile” at Amazon. You can read it later in this post. But first, here’s a bit about Amberger.
Excerpt from a biography of Christoph Amberger:
“In 2005, Amberger published “Hot Trading Secrets: How to Get In and Out of the Market with Huge Gains in Any Climate” for New York-based John Wiley.
From 2007-10, he turned his attention to create Agora Inc.’s first internet video platform, TodaysFinancialNews.com. His weekly political show, “Amberger’s Smackdown”, was a favorite of his up to 200,000 readers of his daily e-letters. Amberger retired from Agora Inc. in January of 2010.
An avid competitive fencer and collector of fencing-related art and literature, he is considered one of the foremost authorities on Western swordplay. From 1994-2000, he published the trailblazing “Hammerterz Forum”… a journal devoted to the exploration of historical western swordplay. His 1998 book, “The Secret History of the Sword”, continues to be one of the perennial bestsellers of Western martial arts historiography.
In 2009, Amberger made his debut as a novelist with his conspiracy thriller “The Lazarus Smile”.
The book is published by Secret Archives Press and is serialized on Facebook, if you want to read it that way.
Here’s my Amazon review:
“I debated whether to give this exceptionally well-written book 4 or 5 stars only because it does jump around a bit. The plot is tricky and there are dozens of characters, ranging from first-century rivals of Nero to slum-dwellers in Sadr City. But the writing is so crisp it all comes together pretty soon, and if you’re willing to flip back and forth until you get the details, you will soon be engrossed. Amberger’s book isn’t your typical historical novel. It’s fast-paced and rich in detail. The wry insights and colorful imagery make its Byzantine century-spanning plot not just credible, but unnervingly plausible. An ancient manuscript contains proof that Saint Paul was actually part of a political conspiracy, thereby undermining the Roman church’s claim to enshrine the authentic teachings of Jesus. Naturally, everyone wants to get their hands on the papers, among them, the Vatican, the Nazis, and the Muslim Brotherhood. In the middle is Sebastian Stahl, a German immigrant and expert swordsman, whom a mysterious neighbor has given the papers to guard. Stahl sounds suspiciously like Amberger, a renowned fencer, scholar, and financial analyst, but he is a likeable everyman who manages to hold together the world-historical scheming around him.
What also holds it together are observations like this one about some would-be enemies of empire:
“American jihadis couldn’t tell a Shiite from a shiitake…..They were white boys with olive skins who’d get caught playing holy war with paintball guns. Osman was an American who resented Americans, because he thought in their eyes he wasn’t American enough.”
If you’re wondering how that fits in with Tiberius Alexander and Heinrich Himmler, read the book.
Now that I have, I’ll be busy trying to find out what really DID happen on the road to Damascus and whether much of what is taught to us as history is anything more than a form of mass manipulation.”
Comment:
What’s really interesting is that a conspiratorial view of Saint Paul is something David Icke, a prominent anti-NWO activist endorses.
Icke, however, not only thinks Paul was a Roman agent, he thinks Jesus didn’t exist historically. There he crosses the line, as far as I know, since there is as much evidence for the existence of Jesus as for many other figures. The historical problems lie elsewhere, in the veracity of specific claims about resurrection or miracles, for example.
Amberger’s book cites David Strauss’s criticism of the historicity of the Bible. Strauss and Renan (Vie de Jesus) dealt severe blows to orthodox belief in the nineteenth century, but it is not clear that they had the last words.
Thanks for that. I look forward to reading something of this genre at this time. It keeps my mind reeling in a different way than with what is going on in my life already. Thanks for your points of view.
Now that I know how it all ended, I’m going to go back and read it again for the writing.
He should write popular history. Not many people have the eye for detail and voice that lets complex events shape themselves into a story line you can follow….. and enjoy following.
Anyway, I was kind of intrigued to read it, given his background and fencing skills.
I don’t know if it was a good idea for me to post the piece, though.
A fencing financial analyst interested in conspiratorial history, mysterious documents, Nazis, and spy agencies is sure to get some internet troll adding it up as indisputable proof of my shady ties to the bowels of Langley.
I no more understand Icke’s motivation today than I did when I met him 15 years ago as he toured patriot groups across the US. I think he was promoting a book, or videos, or both.
As another conspiracy researcher wrote to me: What more perfect way to discredit conspiracy fact than by mixing it in with rubbish about greys and reptoids from Orion and how the Queen Mum can shape-shift into a blood-drinking snake person?
Paul is somewhat of a mystery. At times I am annoyed that he hogs the bulk of real estate in the NT. Talk about a Pauly-come-lately! Surely others who were there from the beginning deserve more space, like Peter, James, even Bartholomew. But then, it is written, “the last shall be first”…
Be that as it may, he is no conspirator. The real conspirators in puffing up Rome to be something it was never intended to be, are perhaps figures such as Irenaeus (one of the early “papal succession”/primacy-of-Rome mythmakers), and of course our friend Constantine, who officially established what he called Christianity. Thereafter, it was all downhill for at least the next millennium. Politicized religion, or if you will the deified state, is indeed a terrifying thing.
Icke is very suspect.
In the first place, with the caveat that I know his work only at second hand, his stuff looks like it’s a wholesale plagiarizing of Indian astrological and yogic texts and mythology.
The “lizards” are nothing more than a poetic way of talking about demonic energies..or serpent energies.
Then, he’s always flattering the masses and telling them how everything is the fault of this externalized evil.
Third, he’s not against money printing.
For him, it’s all about the people versus power.
I really suspect that kind of talk.
Lasting reform movements have to do more than demonize any group of people.
it occurred to me that the shape-shifting might be poetic language, or perhaps some kind of clairvoyant glimpse into their souls, but problem is, Icke does not qualify it in that way.
Somewhat tangentially: as a Christian, I think it’s unfortunate kundalini is called “serpent energy” because it seems to me it’s coming from a totally different place
.
“Then, he’s always flattering the masses and telling them how everything is the fault of this externalized evil.”
That’s a problem. The evil “out there” is a reflection. If evil sells, that means a lot of people are buying.
I’m not against money printing of the kind Ellen Brown advocate$.