The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Last Templar
Book Review: Another DaVinci Code-wanna-be
Summary: 1 Stars
Mr. Khoury obviously tried hard, but the end result was a definite bust. I finished the book only because I was on a trans-atlantic flight and needed to read. Some characters he develops well - others not. Some aspects of the plot are good - some so shallow it's inconceivable. Seems to be another DaVinci wannabe to me - one that I cannot recommend to anyone.Book Review: Another bad attempt
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is a formula.. Characters are not well drawn. The book moves briskly in the first 100 pages and then bogs down into avery preachy last 300 pages. Khoury is a screen writer and this book shows. It reads like a bad "B" movie.Book Review: Another take on a popular topic
Summary: 4 Stars
A recent review called this book "another Da Vincy Code knock-off". I utterly disagree. It is simply another take on a currently popular topic (think about it - the premise of The Da Vinci Code, for example, is almost identical to what has been described in a number of earlier novels, but nobody complained about that - and there is actually a great German book called 'Das Jesus Video' by Andreas Eschbach, which I hope will be available in English soon, as it is truly a great novel, with yet another spin on everything...).
I enjoyed "The Last Templar" from beginning to end. I've always been partial to novels spanning several centuries, and the ideas put forth in this novel are rather intriguing, especially considering what has been happening in our world recently. The Templars have long fanned the imaginations of many, and there is still a lot of mystery and secrecy which makes their history so interesting. Khoury cleverly weaves known facts, speculations, opinions together with his personal analysis and a lot of imagination.
Book Review: Author simply wimped out at the end
Summary: 1 Stars
Great premise and VERY strong beginning. Had very high hopes for this book. At the end, the author wimped out and decided to be safe and have the "big historical find that will shake the foundations of the world's religions" suppressed.
Makes me wish the author had had a stiffer backbone or simply not written the book at all. If you aren't going to finish what you start, don't start it to begin with, Mr. Khoury...
Book Review: Bad Religion
Summary: 2 Stars
That author Raymond Khoury is a screenwriter is no surprise: he goes straight to central casting to pick up the cardboard players for this windy diatribe on Christianity and those unsophisticated masses who would follow organized religion. We have Tess, an archeologist with the swagger and sex appeal of Laura Croft, Sean, the straight arrow G-man with a troubled past, and the evil Vatican City henchman doing double duty with, who else, the CIA. But Khoury's cartoon characters are miles-deep compared to the mind-numbing, cartoon-bubble dialog they spew. And were all this not bad enough, the reader is subjected to an improbable love affair between Tess and Sean, nearly as painful to read as the Star Wars romance between young Anakin Skywalker and Natalie Portman was to watch.
But an entertaining novel need not be great literature, and in fairness, Khoury and "The Last Templar" get off to a fast and promising start. Parallel stories beginning with the fall of Acre in 1291 AD and a truly original and harrowing invasion of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art captures enough action and historical background to qualify for a Preston/Child thriller; I found myself thinking that perhaps this really was the complement to "The DaVinci Code" that so many have tried without success. Regrettably, this promise quickly fades as Khoury instead climbs onto his pulpit, assaulting the unsuspecting reader with a made-for-TV movie harangue on the evils of Christianity that will play well only to the John Lennon "Imagine" crowd. I'm neither spiritual nor a Roman Catholic, and have no problem enjoying Dan Brown-style religious conspiracy. Khoury's rants are simply annoying; his attacks on religion are clumsily executed and overdone. And in top Hollywood Politically Correct form, while assaulting Christianity with impunity, Khoury tiptoes gently around issues that may offend the Moslem reader.
So what could have been a contemporary twist on the enigmatic Templars and a fun story of medieval knights and the Crusades is instead is nothing more than pompous secular bombast wrapped around shaky history and a preposterous love affair. Keep looking for that "DaVinci Code" encore.