Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more (except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdalan) and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight
Important deets:
- Genre: Humor
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
Tonia's Review
While I like humorous books, Lamb was a bit of a departure for me because I don’t usually read religious books. I know Lamb appears to be as religious as the instructions for a dishwasher, but once you get into it, you realize that every dish is holy and even the soap will inherit the Kingdom, no matter how it wears its foreskin.
Even though I am Wiccan now, I was raised Baptist. Once upon a time, the idea that Christ had a childhood friend not mentioned in the God written word of the Bible would’ve made my eyes explode in shock. As it is, I got a bit wiggly just from lingering Christian guilt at treating Christ like a regular person and not something completely different.
But when it comes down to it, wasn’t that the whole point of sending Him here? So He could live as a regular person?
The story:
Moore immediately removes my years of Baptist angst by referring to the Son of God as Joshua instead of Jesus Christ. I appreciated this. It meant I didn’t cringe every time I heard JC say fuck, nor did it shock me when he instructed a young girl to give the bird to the temple priests. And I don’t mean a dove.
Biff as the pov narrator was great. He became the everyman Joshua wanted to be. Biff lied and stole and fought for Joshua so Joshua didn’t have to, yet Joshua wore the burden of those actions as if he did them himself. It was an interesting relationship. The bits about teaching Joshua about sex was fun and funny. I loved how bacon became a salient point of entering the Kingdom.
The bulk of the tale is about Joshua and Biff’s younger years. How they went into the orient in search of the three wise men. I won’t ruin it with a lot of detail, just suffice it to say Judaism isn’t the only religion you’re gonna learn a lot about in this book. It's filled with slyly hidden gems of multifaceted, multifaithed wisdom. I am going to recommend it to my church’s book club for that very reason.
I admit, I got a bit lost here and there and felt like I was missing out of some of the in jokes. It’s been a while since I picked up a bible, and I have never studied the Jewish faith, so at times I felt behind in the story.
The end was harsh, especially because you know what’s gonna happen. Well written but rough stuff.
The narration:
As for the narration, Stevens did a great job. I wasn’t sure at first when he introduced the prologue, but I settled in quickly to enjoy his cadence and pacing. He has great comedic timing, which is of course accentuated by the wonderfully funny material. Every time he would say aloud the things Joshua did, things you wouldn’t imagine him doing or felt kind of blasphemous for the Son of God to do, I felt like Stevens had set his jaw and puffed out his chest and was about to say, “Yeah, I went there. Moore went there. We said that. Whatcha gonna do about it?”
My only real issues are with the audio. Occasionally some music would creep in and while as a pace setter it was okay, I could’ve done without it. Especially when he had to start reading over the music and it seemed like it would never go away.
The other thing is the Audible platform. Normally the chapters have good head and foot room between chapters. This one had barely a split second between the last chapter and the next one. The words rolled over the top of each other, or in some cases were out entirely.
Overall:
In the end I give the audiobook three and a half zombie hands. I really enjoyed it, but the story would get away from me, the music was distracting and the Audibles format kept cutting off the ends of the chapters.
Even though I am Wiccan now, I was raised Baptist. Once upon a time, the idea that Christ had a childhood friend not mentioned in the God written word of the Bible would’ve made my eyes explode in shock. As it is, I got a bit wiggly just from lingering Christian guilt at treating Christ like a regular person and not something completely different.
But when it comes down to it, wasn’t that the whole point of sending Him here? So He could live as a regular person?
The story:
Moore immediately removes my years of Baptist angst by referring to the Son of God as Joshua instead of Jesus Christ. I appreciated this. It meant I didn’t cringe every time I heard JC say fuck, nor did it shock me when he instructed a young girl to give the bird to the temple priests. And I don’t mean a dove.
Biff as the pov narrator was great. He became the everyman Joshua wanted to be. Biff lied and stole and fought for Joshua so Joshua didn’t have to, yet Joshua wore the burden of those actions as if he did them himself. It was an interesting relationship. The bits about teaching Joshua about sex was fun and funny. I loved how bacon became a salient point of entering the Kingdom.
The bulk of the tale is about Joshua and Biff’s younger years. How they went into the orient in search of the three wise men. I won’t ruin it with a lot of detail, just suffice it to say Judaism isn’t the only religion you’re gonna learn a lot about in this book. It's filled with slyly hidden gems of multifaceted, multifaithed wisdom. I am going to recommend it to my church’s book club for that very reason.
I admit, I got a bit lost here and there and felt like I was missing out of some of the in jokes. It’s been a while since I picked up a bible, and I have never studied the Jewish faith, so at times I felt behind in the story.
The end was harsh, especially because you know what’s gonna happen. Well written but rough stuff.
The narration:
As for the narration, Stevens did a great job. I wasn’t sure at first when he introduced the prologue, but I settled in quickly to enjoy his cadence and pacing. He has great comedic timing, which is of course accentuated by the wonderfully funny material. Every time he would say aloud the things Joshua did, things you wouldn’t imagine him doing or felt kind of blasphemous for the Son of God to do, I felt like Stevens had set his jaw and puffed out his chest and was about to say, “Yeah, I went there. Moore went there. We said that. Whatcha gonna do about it?”
My only real issues are with the audio. Occasionally some music would creep in and while as a pace setter it was okay, I could’ve done without it. Especially when he had to start reading over the music and it seemed like it would never go away.
The other thing is the Audible platform. Normally the chapters have good head and foot room between chapters. This one had barely a split second between the last chapter and the next one. The words rolled over the top of each other, or in some cases were out entirely.
Overall:
In the end I give the audiobook three and a half zombie hands. I really enjoyed it, but the story would get away from me, the music was distracting and the Audibles format kept cutting off the ends of the chapters.
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