Customer Reviews

Book of Q

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This really is not that good of a book. It starts out slow, speeds up very well about mid way through, then hits a serious wall when it should be climaxing. We run into old tired wishful thinking that some manuscript is going to bring down the Catholic church. (I am not a Catholic) The amount of time spent on a totally fictitious parchment that the author evidently desperately wishes existed really made finishing the book hard work for me. Jonathan Rabb is not Clancy or Grisham. The good news is that his books are only about half as long as theirs are.

Another rehash of the "priest-who-finds-document-which-will-change-the world" theme. Some of it was interesting, but the ending when an unearthed document has Christ speaking the most politically correct utterances ever...well, it was too much! Can someone write something original about "unearthed documents"?

This book is a thriller/adventure book. Of course, that is my opinion. It is not a historical mystery or historical thriller. It is not a revelation on the true word of Christ; however, it is a small diatribe on the institution of the Catholic Church. Again, this is only my opinion.

My point being, if you like the thriller or adventure genres, then you might find this book to your liking. If you are considering this book because you find the history of the church or scriptures interesting, or you are looking to find a new, different view of the Bible, look elsewhere.

The story centers on a young priest, Ian Pearse, who gets caught up in a quest to find an ancient scroll. The Manicheans, a secret society of a Faith long thought destroyed by the Catholic Church, desperately want to find the scroll so that they may, in turn, destroy the Catholic Church with its revelations on the true word of Christ.

'The Book of Q' is, at points, far-fetched and contrived. But, hey, this IS fiction. My biggest complaint is the unnecessary detail Rabb uses in his descriptions of the various locales used in the book. Without providing maps to reference, his use of exact street names, as well as exact landmarks, often ends up being frustrating, and distracts from the story. Unless, of course, you have actually been to Vatican City and the other places described in the book.

Read this book for the adventure and suspense, not for theological extrapolations.

Raab's "The Book of Q" weaves Vatican theology, Tom Clancy international conspiracy, and Indian Jones adventure into fairly coherent entertainment. In some ways, the work succeeds, but not entirely. Except for Professor Angeli, character development suffers consistently. Transistions often confuse, leaving one to wonder if chapters were somehow overlooked. Plot tangents, especially those concerning the fractured conspiracy, are hardly interesting and seldom necessary. Overall, it reads like a screenplay waiting for a movie, not a book seeking an audience.

A friend recommended this book, and I was a little unsure if it would be something for me. As a practicing Christian, I was concerned about the subject matter, but found Mr. Rabb's treatment of faith to be surprisingly non-dogmatic, yet serious enough so that it didn't get lost in the rather wonderful story he tells. This is a thriller, but far more. I discovered things about the early Christian church I had never known, and about the development of the liturgy, canon, etc. When a book can teach you that much while sprinting along at such a fantastic pace (I read it in three days), it deserves a lot of praise. Wonderful read, and I recommend it highly.

I couldn't help but think of Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose when I read this. Rabb has the same ability to take esoteric information and make it jump off the page. The cryptograms were amazing, and the description of the monastery in Greece and the "Vault" were fantastic (a little Indiana Jones there). I also like it when a writer knows a city as well as I do (Rabb has clearly spent a lot of time in Rome). That just makes it more authentic for me.

I agree with the other reviewer who said this isn't really about Christianity. Religion just happens to be the setting for a story that explores other issues like mass manipulation, self-doubt, and the power of language. That it all takes place in a totally gripping novel makes it even better.

The author is totally ignorant of majority of the things he writes about. His view of war in Bosnia is so one-sided and really insulting for the people who lived that war in real life. His research for the book is really minor, because his Croats bear Muslim and Serb names (and vice versa). Other thing, the Kosovo crisis - why did he put it in there, wasn't the war in Bosnia enough?? (I guess he needed 40-something pages to fill). I live on the territory of former Yugoslavia, and I was disgusted that once again the miseries of Balkan people are used as a backdrop for some wannabe priest-soldier-Indiana Jones escapades.

I have to give this book 1 star for the first 170 pages and 5 for the next 200 and average them together to get 3. This really is the tale of two books. The first part moves along at a very slow and plodding pace with a prose that makes you ask yourself whether it is worth it to keep on reading. Somewhere around page 170 the pace really picks up and your sticking around for the ending really pays off.

Basically the book is about an american priest in the Vatican who comes across a conspiracy to destroy the Papal Office and change the whole landscape of Christianity in the process. The way the organization plans to change Christianity is through mass bombings of churches (with the blame being put on Muslim terrorists) and the search for the Book of Q, which is the autobiographical account of Jesus' life. The priest rushes from the Vatican to Greece to Bosnia and back to the Vatican in search of the legendary book and a way to save the Catholic Church.

It is a well thought out idea and it is an excellent page turner. I liked how the author dealt with the Balkan problem of the late 90's in the first part of the book.

The action is good (if a little improbable) but the main thrust of the novel
is tracking down the Q and how he treated the Manichaeism heresy. The Amazon review by Kelly Flynn seems somewhat harsh. No, it is not as good as Brown's Angel and Demons, but it does stand very well for the genre.

I liked the fact that it made you think.

Although this does not approach the fabulous GOSPEL by Wilton Barnhardt (in which a fifth Gospel is uncovered and searched for by a priest and a woman) it is still a good read. It certainly does not merit the a * meted out by some reviewers - considering the praise for such mixed-up runarounds as The DaVinci Code. It dragged at times and some is outlandish but that's true of Clancy and (especially) Dale Brown. One problem was that it tried to be a religious mystery, spy tale and biography rolled in one. As a restul, each of the three suffered a bit.

Pearce, an American priest-to-be works in Bosnia during the war. His closest companions are a Croat man (Mendravic) and woman (Petra). He and the woman fall in love and before he returns make love in old church. They then narrowly escape a murder attempt. Fast Forward 8 years and the priest is in Rome as a Pope nears death. The reader learns that a crafty Manichaean is scheduled to be the next Pope. Pearce learns of a plot to replace Catholicism with Manichaeanism, historically Christianity's greatest rival. These believers have infiltrated all areas of the Church.

He obtains an ancient scroll that is actually a map with puzzles, a speciality of his. It leads to the Balkans - this time Kosovo - where he meets the Croats again. He discovers that he sired a son, Ivo, and the rest of the tale is a long search for the mythical "Hodoporia", the document that will usher in a religion for all. What it turns out to be, though, is the alleged "Q", a saying of the words of Jesus roughly used by the Gospel writers.

The new Manichean Pope carries out a grand scheme that unites Christendom against Islamic terrorists . In an avalanche of events all is finally reconciled. There is a satisfying personal ending - Pearce, Petra and Ivo unite and move to Boston. The story ending is less satisfactory. The Church uses the Q document but omits parts revealing that there was no Resurrection. So the Church endures but yet it is based on a lie.