- Hardcover: 375 pages
- Publisher: Crown Publications; illustrated edition edition (27 Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 060960483X
- ISBN-13: 978-0609604830
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15.5 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,587,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
In his national bestseller The Overseer, Jonathan Rabb demonstrated his imaginative power and keen understanding of history with a superb thriller that dazzled critics and fans alike. The Book of Q now brings his gifts to full, stunning fruition.
Asia Minor, sixth century: After several centuries of conflict with the early Christian church, the Manichaeans, a heretical sect, vanish from the historical record.
Bosnia, 1992: Ian Pearse, a young American relief worker destined for the priesthood, has his faith tested by the horrors of war, but is jolted from his despair by a passionate affair with a Croatian woman named Petra.
Rome, present day: Father Pearse, now a researcher at the Vatican Library, comes into possession of an ancient scroll after the mysterious death of one Vatican priest and the disappearance of another. His scholar's curiosity aroused, he has the document translated by an old friend in Rome. He is stunned to learn that the scroll contains ingeniously coded letters and the text of the "Perfect Light," a Manichaean prayer that has never been found in its written form.
In the early days of the Christian church the Manichaeans had been an overly zealous, highly organized secret society, scorned by the church and seemingly driven out of existence. But these newly discovered documents indicate an earth-shattering alternate history, a long-dormant, highly evolved conspiracy carefully nurtured for centuries, and an even more important scroll hinted at in the letters that will facilitate "the great awakening."
When the pope dies of a sudden illness, Pearse is roughed up by Vatican security, who want the scroll, and when the woman who translated the prayer for him is kidnapped, he realizes that "the great awakening" is not an academic concept but something very real and dangerous. With his friend's life at stake, Pearse must find the document that holds the key to this Manichaean conspiracy.
Racing from the Vatican to Greece and back to Bosnia, Pearse has to decipher the cryptograms and codes that have been passed down for centuries from one Manichaean sect to another in the documents he finds. He is also reunited with Petra, the passionate, determined Croatian woman who has lingered in his mind since their time together in Bosnia years earlier. Together they must face a heresy that has been vigilantly guarded and cared for throughout the centuries until the time is right to unleash it on the world. And the time is now. . . .
Asia Minor, sixth century: After several centuries of conflict with the early Christian church, the Manichaeans, a heretical sect, vanish from the historical record.
Bosnia, 1992: Ian Pearse, a young American relief worker destined for the priesthood, has his faith tested by the horrors of war, but is jolted from his despair by a passionate affair with a Croatian woman named Petra.
Rome, present day: Father Pearse, now a researcher at the Vatican Library, comes into possession of an ancient scroll after the mysterious death of one Vatican priest and the disappearance of another. His scholar's curiosity aroused, he has the document translated by an old friend in Rome. He is stunned to learn that the scroll contains ingeniously coded letters and the text of the "Perfect Light," a Manichaean prayer that has never been found in its written form.
In the early days of the Christian church the Manichaeans had been an overly zealous, highly organized secret society, scorned by the church and seemingly driven out of existence. But these newly discovered documents indicate an earth-shattering alternate history, a long-dormant, highly evolved conspiracy carefully nurtured for centuries, and an even more important scroll hinted at in the letters that will facilitate "the great awakening."
When the pope dies of a sudden illness, Pearse is roughed up by Vatican security, who want the scroll, and when the woman who translated the prayer for him is kidnapped, he realizes that "the great awakening" is not an academic concept but something very real and dangerous. With his friend's life at stake, Pearse must find the document that holds the key to this Manichaean conspiracy.
Racing from the Vatican to Greece and back to Bosnia, Pearse has to decipher the cryptograms and codes that have been passed down for centuries from one Manichaean sect to another in the documents he finds. He is also reunited with Petra, the passionate, determined Croatian woman who has lingered in his mind since their time together in Bosnia years earlier. Together they must face a heresy that has been vigilantly guarded and cared for throughout the centuries until the time is right to unleash it on the world. And the time is now. . . .
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
From a taut beginning to a startling finish, this thoughtful, well written tale of modern mayhem and ancient texts involving benign scholars and wicked priests takes the reader from the mass graves of Bosnia to the vaults of the Vatican with an unlikely hero, a priest caught between sacred and profane love, a man who does not seem to know who his true enemy is and who his friends are. With flashes of humor thrown in, this is the perfect read for a winter evening!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! Even better than the first one.The story is settled mainly on the Balkans and Greek and the characters are better pictured. It kept me guessing till the end. The background and the storyline are really attractive. It is a winner, I cannot wait till the next one.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Good Solid Mediocre
30 Jan 2002
Format:Hardcover
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.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
here we go again
10 Oct 2001
Format:Hardcover
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"?
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Read this for fun, not Enlightment
26 Jun 2001
Format:Hardcover
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.
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