Customer Reviews

The Sanctuary: A Novel

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I really liked Khoury's first novel, "The Last Templar", and gave it a rave review last year when it first hit the shelves. I was eagerly awaiting his next book.

What a disappointment. Most writers improve upon the skills they exhibit in their first published work; sadly, Khoury hasn't pulled this off. I didn't think it was possible for a writer to become formulaic with only two published works, but sadly that's what's happened here.

Whereas I found "Templar" to be original, fast paced, and with richly drawn characters, "Sanctuary" was simply a "Templar" knock-off without the upside. The characterizations were flat and - in some cases - confusing. Characters suddenly changed actions and apparent motivations mid-stream simply as a device to create surprise twists in a mundane and linear plot. The "McGuffin" of the story (I won't reveal it so as not to spoil it for others) was unbelievable, and again lacked clarity. Whereas in "Templar" the flashback scenes almost stole the whole book, in "Sanctuary" they were - again - muddled and disjointed.

Further, Khoury wrote this whole thing in the breathless style of pulp fiction, with non-stop chases and gunfights, and cliché damsels-in-distress. Frankly, that's pretty boring. Look at some of Tom Clancy's best work; the scenes of actual violence are few and far between, used to great effect as highlights to the plot, not as the only point to the story. As Hitchcock said, it's not the violence that's terrifying, it's the anticipation of the violence. Khoury needs to learn that lesson.

One last thing. Whoever edited this book needs to take another crack before the paperback version comes out. There are a lot of misusages of American English, unforgivable for a book in which the central characters are all Americans. For example, many times in the book, when writing about a gun being pointed at another character, Khoury refers to the end of the gun barrel as the gun's "nozzle". I don't know what Khoury's native language is, but fire hoses have "nozzles". Guns have "muzzles".

Sorry, can't recommend this one at all.

Good read. Mr. Khoury tackles an interesting subject: What if you could live 3 times longer than the average person? Would this bring you happiness? Or, would it bring problems that the average person does not have to deal with? In this interesting "time" thriller Mr. Khoury endeavors to answer this. Using flashbacks to prior centuries and a race between ancient antagonists and their offspring, The Sanctuary alternates between the old and modern day to analyze a quest for an age altering elixir of life. It's real, it works, but does it bring happiness? That seems to be the premise that Mr. Khoury tries to answer.
The problem with books of this type is they usually become bloated with several plot lines running simultaneously. Not so with The Sanctuary. Mr. Khoury keeps the past in perspective and keeps the reader engaged with the present. Hard to do but The Sanctuary pulls it off. Also, when dealing with elixirs and immortality the tendency is to pontificate but in The Sanctuary Mr. Khoury allows the story to carry the action. The ending is reasonable and not too far fetched. Mr. Khoury does a good job with a difficult subject and keeps the reader involved.
No gratuitous sex or language. Some violence but necessary for plot development. The wolves scene toward the end is well done.
Recommended. Not quite as good as The Last Templar but a good solid read that tackles a difficult subject. Will make the reader think.

For those who pressed on, I hope the book gets better. Never before have I quit a book in the middle. The Sanctuary forced me to do it.

Ladies, please don't take this next section the wrong way. Tess, the heroine of Khoury's The Last Templar, I could handle. As an encore, Khoury drums up a grandmotherly archaeologist and her daughter. The characters didn't have much substance, whether on the side of good or evil, they were character props more than well drawn characters. They simply couldn't hold my attention.

A struggling author friend of mine read one time that, "the road to hell is paved with adverbs". Now, I may be exaggerating here because I no longer have the text in front of me, but - in the first section, taking place in Naples of the past, Khoury uses "menacingly" four times in as many paragraphs. Amateurish.

Skip over this one.

I bought this to read at the beach after reading some of the editorial blurbs inside the cover. What a mistake. I kept waiting for something to happen--endlessly. By page 50 the reader knows exactly how the book is going to turn out and who is really who. After reading it I tried to give it away, but nobody else wanted it. I left it in the beach cottage.

This fantastical thriller is a riveting thriller with some interesting curves thrown in for the first 80 percent of the novel. The last 20 percent, however, is a disappointment. Much of it seems like filler, and the ends that need to be tied up are done so in a hurried and a little too pat manner. It seems strange that he seemed to waste so many pages on unnecessary scenes and then hurried at the very end. Still, it is a cut above much of the other thriller genre.

I enjoyed Khoury's first novel, "The Last Templar." Khoury's considerable screenwriting talents drove the plot, making the story play like a movie inside my head as I read it. As he has mentioned in numerous interviews, Khoury originally created "The Last Templar" as a screenplay, and the book was accordingly cinematic from beginning to end.

Good as "Templar" is, Khoury's second novel, "The Sanctuary," is far richer. In "Sanctuary" we find Khoury maturing as a true novelist, rather than a screenwriter. The characters in "Sanctuary" are not created for the screen, but for the page. They are deeper, more nuanced, and most interestingly, more flawed than the ones in "Templar." The "Sanctuary" characters are as multifaceted, and at times as unpredictable, as Beirut, the fascinating city in which much of the story occurs. Beirut itself, a city where what one feels is often incongruent with what one sees, is as much a character as the people Khoury propels through the enthralling action in "Sanctuary." The city mirrors the characters' individual struggles to balance hope and despair, joy and terror, survival and destruction.

The most compelling aspect of the novel is its theme, urging us to assess not only the benefits, but the consequences and responsibilities of living lives much longer than those afforded us by current actuarial tables. The novel wisely suggests our instinctive desire for materially extended lifespans be contemplated with as much focus on the qualitative as on the quantitative. It may not be so axiomatic whoever breathes longest, breathes best.

"The Sanctuary" is a very entertaining novel, by a very astute novelist. It's the best novel I've read this year. I recommend it highly.

I found the book a fast read, faster and more riveting than The Last Templar. The scenes read like a movie script for a Matt Damon movie. However, the last part of the book became very convoluted as characters switched from good guy to bad guy and bad guy to good guy. Plot twists are fine, but Indiana Jones would never step out of character.
It seemed that Khoury reached a point in his writing where he didn't know how to end the book.
I felt the secret society connection should have been explained more and had a bigger role in the overall plot.
Yes, I enjoyed the book. I was just hoping for a little bit more.

Humans have long dreamed of immortality, in some cases devoting their lives to the quest. Raymond Khoury makes that dream the focus of his latest historical thriller, The Sanctuary. Built around two interwoven stories, one from the 18th century and one present day, most of the action takes place in Lebanon. When an unknown pack of thugs abducts archaeologist Evelyn Bishop, her daughter Mia, a geneticist, mounts a desperate search to retrieve her. Unbeknownst to Mia, there are others on the trail, people willing to kill to acquire what they believe Evelyn possesses. The arch villain is a diabolic doctor who, apparently supported by several governments, conducts ghastly experiments on human subjects. As the story progresses, it becomes a game of "who do you trust?", with plenty of car chases, shoot-outs, and other perils. It also provides an interesting view of the culture/political shock experienced by Westerners when they work in the Middle East. If you're up for another novel about secret societies guarding ancient mysteries, the Sanctuary should do the trick.

I see some people dissing this book for calling gun barrels "nozzles" instead of "muzzles." I guess I didn't expect a contemporary fictional novel to consult the "Little Brown Handbook" for the exactly proper use of commas and nomenclature.

That aside, I found the book engaging. The story was fast paced, with lots of twists and turns. There were a couple of slow points in the story, but in general I like this story better than "The Last Templar." I'll be buying "The Sign" when it is avaiable this Spring based on this book and "Templar."

In the dungeons of an old Templar castle, a dying man bequests an ancient half burned book to his young inquisitor. This act starts a feud between two families in the 18th century: Raimondo di Sangro, a prince, on one side; and a chameleon man who goes by many names--the most recent is the Count of Montferrat. Di Sangro has gone overboard to get the secret that the count has been hiding for generations--to no avail. Once again the Count eludes him.

Present day, in Lebanon, Evelyn Bishop, a famous archeologist in her sixties that calls Lebanon home, is visited by an old acquaintance, Farouk. He is a fellow Iraqi that was on an excavation with her in Iraq thirty years before. Farouk is trying to get cash, which he needs desperately to escape Iraq, and proposes to Evelyn to sell a loot that was offered to him. Among the loot's Polaroid that Farouk shows Evelyn, there is one of a book which clearly shows the picture of a snake in the form of a circle biting his tail. She can't stay long with him because she had prior plans and they agree to meet later

Evelyn had an appointment for lunch with her daughter, Mia, who just got to Beirut on an assignment--she is going to use Lebanese DNA to prove that both country's inhabitants, Christians and Muslims alike, are descendants of one culture, one tribe--hoping to inspire a feeling of unity.

Mia notices her mother is not quite herself, and Evelyn tells her about Farouk and the Ouroboros or "tail devourer" snake that the old friend has brought. Evelyn reveals to Mia that last time she saw an Ouroboros was on the dig where she met Mia's father, who is supposedly now dead.

All this talk makes Evelyn late for Farouk's meeting, thus she rushes out, leaving behind her cell phone. Mia notices this, and runs back to the hotel to catch her mother. She sees her talking to an Arab, which she imagines is Farouk. Mia had also noted a suspiciously parked Mercedes and a dark figures, so she yelled her mother's name to warn her. Farouk escapes, but Evelyn is taken hostage after a few bullets fly in the night by the people in the Mercedes.

Here is where the thrilling part of the book starts. There are three forces at bay, competing to get the Ouroboros book:

Tim Corben, a CIA agent, who rescues Mia from the rough men several times and protects her. Mia is scared by the strange dedication to the case Tom displays, but has no choice to join forces with him. It is Mia who, through her mother's notes and computer research, figures out what the Ouroboros is all about--but Corben dismisses it.

Then, there is Mr. Kirkwood, a worker for the UNESCO, who is also helping Mia rescue her mother. Mia confides her findings with him. Mr. Kirkwood takes a keen interest in resolving the mystery of the Ouroboros--again making Mia both nervous and suspicious.

Finally, there is the hakeem (the doctor), who is the most sinister of them all. He has a concealed, state of the art lab, somewhere in the Middle East, where gruesome experiments have been carried out on men, women, and children. He holds Evelyn hostage and wants to use her as bait to get the book--for he has the formula, but the formula is missing a key ingredient. The hakeem hopes that the book will help him find the missing ingredient.

As the power of the Ouroboros comes to light, multiple car chases, murders, lies, and change of alliances occur until we discover that the 18th century feud is alive and still ongoing.

The book is mainly fantasy and in spite of an extraordinary ending it is not believable.

A great read, but definitively not as good as The Last Templar. For one thing, Mia is not a believable character--she goes from a shy innocent girl, to a fast and furious warrior. The author also stretches her genetic knowledge and uses it to resolve mysteries that have little to do with her talents. It just did not worked for me.

Also the existence of the elixir described by the Ouroboros, makes this more a science fiction book than a historical fiction.