The Templar Legacy: A Novel
by Steve Berry
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steve BerryEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-11-27
ISBN: 0345504410
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of The Templar Legacy: A Novel
Book Review: Not a Fun Read
Summary: 1 Stars
I finished reading Steve Berry's THE TEMPLAR LEGACY. It wasn't a fun read. As several reviewers noted, Berry introduces numerous characters, but doesn't bother to develop them. So I found it hard to care for any of these folks, and that is a fatal flaw for any novel.
Even the hero of the story, Cotton Malone, is as flat as a pancake. He just happens to be there, observing all the other characters, who obviously have a lot more at stake than he does. As for Stephanie Nelle, another key character, she is downright unlikable. The rest of the gang is equally unappealing.
Moreover, the plot is awkward. Too confusing, too wordy. What little action there is (mostly chases and gunfights) is boring and repetitive. Between the action, Berry interjects a constant barrage of historical information. (Or is it misinformation?) Much of this material is dry as dust and unenlightening as well. In my opinion, this is a tedious book.
Let's face it. Berry is on a crusade of his own. It's a full fledged assault on the essence of Christianity. His characters repeat over and over and over again: "The Gospels are inconsistent with each other.' The main point of Berry's novel is that rational-modern-day reasonable-educated people "know" the resurrection of Jesus never happened. Berry's goal is to show what might have happened to build up this fantastic legend. Then for good measure the characters in this book find not only Jesus's bones, but also a very convenient confession letter from Simon (Peter) claiming the whole story of miracles and resurrection is nothing but a fraud. The author admits this letter came from his own imagination.
What Steve Berry overlooks is the real historical Simon (Peter) died a very long, slow, painful death rather than deny Jesus's deity. There is no doubt Peter and Paul plus many others really did believe they saw, heard, and spoke to the risen Christ. How do we know that? They were willing to die for it. Now, what would Steve Berry be willing to stake his life on?
Has Berry even read the Bible? Here are a few quotes from THE TEMPLAR LEGACY:
1. Steve Berry: "There's absolutely no mention of Jesus ever saying a word about the prayer in the garden or the temptation in the wilderness. Yet we know its every detail. How? All of the Gospels speak of the disciples fleeing at Jesus's arrest - so none of them were there - yet detailed accounts of the crucifixion are recorded in all four. Where did these details come from? What the Roman soldiers did, what Pilate and Simon did. How would the Gospel writers know any of that?"
Answer: John 16:7-14 (New International Version) "But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you."
2. Steve Berry: "Matthew says Jesus was an aristocrat, descended from David, in line to be king. Luke agrees with the David connection, but points to a lesser class."
Answer: Jesus's ancestry is listed both in Matthew 1:1-18 and in Luke 3:23-38. Read those passages for yourself. The names differ in Matthew and Luke, but to claim "Matthew says Jesus was an aristocrat, descended from David, in line to be king", while Luke "points to a lesser class" is entirely in the imagination of Steve Berry. If he had simply said the genealogies were inconsistent, he would have had a point.
3. Steve Berry: "Mark went an entirely different direction and spawned the image of a poor carpenter."
Answer: Matthew refers to Jesus as the carpenter's son. Mark refers to Jesus as the carpenter. Neither say or infer "a poor carpenter".
Here are the only passages speaking of "carpenter" in the Gospels:
Matthew 13:55 (New International Version): "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?"
Mark 6:3 (New International Version): "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him."
4. Steve Berry: "Luke says shepherds visited. Matthew calls them wise men."
Answer: The NIV calls the "wise men" Magi. To state the obvious, isn't it just possible that both shepherds and Magi visited Jesus? None of the Gospels tells us everything that happened. They each selected the events they wanted to relate. Luke saw fit to mention the shepherds, while Matthew spoke of the Magi. That's not a contradiction. To imply they were the same people merely illustrates Berry's attempt to ridicule the scriptures.
5. Steve Berry: "Luke said the holy family lived in Nazareth and journeyed to Bethlehem for a birth in a manger. Matthew says the family was well off and lived in Bethlehem where Jesus was born -- not in a manger but in a house."
Answer: Yes, Luke does tell us Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem, but he never uses Berry's term: "the holy family". Matthew, on the other hand, neither says nor implies "the family was well off" nor does he claim "Jesus was born in a house". This is what Matthew writes about the birth of Jesus:
Matthew 1:24-2:1 (New International Version): " When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem."
Again, the two Gospels provide us with different details of the same event, but neither contradicts the another.
6. Steve Berry: "The Gospels don't even agree on the date of the crucifixion. John says the day before the Passover, the other three say the day after."
Answer: Berry is right about John. John 19:31 (New International Version): "Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath."
That Sabbath was Passover.
However, he is wrong about Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Matthew 27:62 (New International Version): "The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate."
Mark 15:42 (New International Version): "It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath)."
Luke 23:54 (New International Version): "It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin."
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all agree on the date of the crucifixion. It was on the Day of Preparation for the Sabbath -- Friday. Now, what does that tell us about Steve Berry's research? His objectivity? His fairness? If he is going to write on the Bible, he should at least make an effort to read it first.
Summary of The Templar Legacy: A Novel
The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was?and its true nature could change the modern world.Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts?and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he?d left behind.
It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton?s former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who?s far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she?s not alone. Competing for the historic prize?and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses?is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.
Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world?and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees.
From the Hardcover edition.
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