The Sign [Mass Market Paperback]

Raymond Khoury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2010

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Templar

New York Times bestselling author Raymond Khoury returns with a provocative thriller set at the intersection of science, religion, and history in which a sign in the heavens may unleash hell on earth...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set against a backdrop of ancient and modern religious conflict, this solid thriller from bestseller Khoury (The Last Templar) explores a number of current planetary preoccupations, from far-right political demagoguery to global warming. While in Antarctica covering the breakup of the continent's ice shelf, TV reporter Grace Logan and her crew are astounded to see a bright, shimmering sphere of light in the sky. They film this astronomical anomaly as it runs through a variety of tricks, then disappears. People around the globe wonder: is it a UFO? a sign from God? or some sort of techno trick fashioned by perpetrators unknown? After the blazing sign reappears over the Arctic, a possible link emerges to an old Catholic priest, who has heard on a desolate mountain in Egypt a portentous voice in his head (Are you ready to lead your people to salvation?). Unrelenting action and a suitably twisted ending compensate for the clichéd prose. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Lately, several thrillers (i.e., Tom Knox's The Genesis Secret) have taken potshots at religion, pitting sophistication and intellect against devotion and personal faith. In a departure from his time-shifting narratives about document-protecting secret societies (e.g., The Last Templar, The Sanctuary), Khoury's new novel challenges that dichotomy. During filming in Antarctica, a news crew witnesses a shimmering sphere, unexplainable by any scientific expert. Meanwhile, in Egypt, the broadcast of the event startles a group of Coptic priests, who recognize the symbol as identical to one rendered by a prominent priest visiting their monastery. Is the mysterious symbol a sign from God or a hoax to discredit the faithful? Speaking through Father Jerome, Khoury pitches an eloquent argument for the value of personal responsibility toward one another while maintaining careful stewardship of the earth. This is a thoughtful book with a powerful message and yet also a thrilling read with compelling, well-developed characters. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/09.]—Laura A.B. Cifelli, Ft. Myers-Lee Cty. P.L., Ft. Myers, FL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Signet; Reprint edition (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451228200
• ISBN-13: 978-0451228208
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (140 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Reference > Fun Facts > Curiosities & Wonders

More About the Author

I was born in Beirut, a Scorpio and the youngest of three. The civil war broke out there when I was 14 and my parents, in a noble effort to keep us alive into adulthood, wisely moved us to Rye, NY. I stayed there until I graduated from Rye Country Day School, then, intent on thwarting my parents' nurturing instincts, I decided to go back to Lebanon to study architecture at the American University of Beirut. Which, in hindsight, wasn't as nutty a decision as you might think. Those years, marred by repeated flare-ups of fighting and a couple of invasions, were emotionally taxing, harrowing, sometimes dangerous, often maddeningly frustrating, but always intense in the most visceral sense of the word and, weirdly enough, I wouldn't have missed them for the world. Maybe that's the Scorpio in me...

So there I was, gingerly studying architecture in the hopes of one day helping rebuild the city (rumours that a local cabal of intensely purist architects was having ugly buildings selectively blown up remain unproven). The civil war erupted again a few weeks after I graduated, and I was evacuated out from the beach down the road from our apartment on a sunny but sad day in February, 1984, by the Marine Corp's 22nd Amphibious Unit on board a Chinook helicopter, to whom I'll be eternally grateful (the Marines, not the chopper).

I ended up in London, where I joined a small architecture practice. The architecture scene in Europe was pretty bleak at that time, so I decided to explore other career options. I got an MBA at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and joined an investment bank, selling gold-linked convertibles and other far less exotic financial instruments, surrounded by Gekko wannabes and hating waking up every day. In fairness, I have to credit those 'wilderness' years with one wonderful thing: meeting my gorgeous wife, who tolerated my exhausting yearnings for something more fulfilling and eventually gave me two incredible daughters.

I left the glamorous (at the time, anyway) world of investment banking after three years to return to my creative roots. I bounced around for a while, trying different things, and during a business trip to the Bahamas (don't ask), I met a banker who dabbled in the film business. I've always been a film geek and harbored a burning desire to make movies, so at dinner one night, I bounced an idea off him, and the idea struck a chord. I had a new partner, and we agreed to develop my idea into a screenplay -- by hiring a professional screenwriter he'd worked with.

Several conference calls later, the outlines coming back from Los Angeles weren't what I had in mind. I offered to write an outline myself. When I faxed my notes to my partner (yes, this was in the early 90s, long before email), he called me up and said, "Our man in L.A. isn't going to write this movie for us. You are. You're a writer."

So I did. And it got shortlisted for the Fulbright Fellowship in Screenwriting award, which I had to apply for under a friend's name (I wasn't eligible, but that's another long story). My next script, a semi-autobiographical screenplay about my college years during the war, was also nominated for the award a year later. Then the next year, in 1995, I optioned the film rights to Melvyn Bragg's novel, THE MAID OF BUTTERMERE and wrote the adaptation myself while completing an original screenplay called... THE LAST TEMPLAR. Buttermere found its way to Robert DeNiro, who announced in Variety that he would be producing it and playing the lead. The Last Templar... well, if you're reading this, you know that after ten years or so, it managed the quantum leap off my laptop's hard drive and into novel form, but that's a longer story, one I'll go through in a separate post...

Since then, and after working as a screenwriter and a producer on shows like the BBC series Spooks, (MI-5 in the US), I'm now solely focused on the novels, the fifth of which is THE DEVIL'S ELIXIR.

And that's about it... Thanks for taking the time to explore my ramblings, and if you do pick up one of my books, I hope you have a blast reading it. And let me know-connect with me on facebook on my Official Fan Page (and NOT on one of the others that I don't manage!). Enjoy!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A THRILLING, THOUGHT PROVOKING READ ... BUT NOT FOR EVERYONE!, June 15, 2009

By 

N. Farrell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sign (Hardcover)

I just finished The Sign and couldn't put it down. It was a real page turner, and at the same time it had a lot of great ideas and comments that really made me think. I thnk it's Mr Khoury's best book so far. I loved Gracie and Matt, I thought they were great characters that felt natural and very real to me. I also loved Jabba and his banter with Matt. The story is fast paced and huge with great action that takes you around the world. I could already see it as a movie especially every time the sign shows up, from the great opening in Antarctica to the big moments at the end which I won't describe here not to ruin it for everyone who didn't read it yet.

But reading the other reviews here, a word of warning: this book might not be for you! It all depends on what your political view is. Even though it's the characters in the book who are talking, I did get the feeling that Mr Khoury agrees with their point of view. I happen to agree with it, so it wasn't a problem for me, I loved it. But if you think keeping religion and politics separate is a bad idea (even though it's something our founding fathers wanted), if you think America was at its best these last eight years, if you think the war in Iraq wasn't a humanitarian tragedy, if you think the wrong person won the election and is now our president, and if you watch Beck and Hannity and Limbaugh and not Jon Stewart, then this book DEFINITELY isn't for you!!!

35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, intelligent thriller with a good mix of religion and science, July 1, 2009

By 

P. A. Smith (Lafayette, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sign (Hardcover)

I am a Sunday school teacher and a Ph.D. chemist. I make these admissions to demonstrate that I am not a "religious nut" nor an "athiest scientist". Not suggesting anyone else here is; just stating that I am not.

If you enjoy intelligent writing that has just the right mix of science, religion, mother-earth love, and happy endings, this would be a good book for you. I don't understand the bitterness of some of the reviews. I didn't feel this book expressed hate towards any group. In fact, I thought it was an incredibly open-minded writing praising ALL religions. A quote from the book: "We all pray to the same God. That's all that matters. ... God doesn't care about what you eat or what you drink. He doesn't care about how often you pray to him or what words you use or where you go to do that. He doesn't care who you vote for. He only cares about how you behave toward one another. That's all that matters."

That doesn't sound hateful to me.

Read the book- read it as it is (a novel). Enjoy it. I did.

29 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Summer Read, July 6, 2009

By 

Fred Rayworth (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sign (Hardcover)

Unlike the vast majority of critiquers, I really enjoyed this book. It was a great chase/race against time and met my definition of an easy read. I had no problem with his view on religion or his view on Bush, though he tended to get a bit preachy, especially toward the end. However, the action never stopped and the story moved right along.

Where I didn't like the way Matthew Reilly made the Americans the super bad guys in his books, and him being a New Zealander, I had no problem with Mr. Khoury (a Brit) using Americans as bad guys because he also used them as the good guys so it didn't look so biased.

I almost put the book down because I thought it was a Christian novel, but it turned out to be just a thriller with all religions being knocked. Sure he gave Bush a good bashing, but it's not surprising considering the polarization our former Dubya caused with the rest of the world.

As for the writing, as with other Brits, he tends to mix points of view with abandon, and breaks the "rules" us unpublished writers are stuck to. However, it was only annoying in a couple of spots where I wasn't sure who's head he was in.

Also, Mr. Khoury resolved things in a way I liked, so that was a big plus for me. I can understand why Christians and Bush lovers would hate this book and that's fine. There are plenty of books I hate for my own reasons. In this case, I loved it. I will have to look for his other works. Highly recommended.