May 01 2007

The Last Templar

Category: Books — ChrisM @ 5:02 pm

The Last Templar – Raymond Khoury

I bought this book at the airport, just before leaving Britain to live in Kazakhstan.
As with most books I buy at an airport, I was really looking for something relatively light to read, that could be read in small batches, whilst waiting for connecting flights etc.

As it turned out, I didn’t get around to reading until we’d started to move into our own flat over here in Astana. The basic outline of the story is split between two times – present day and the 13th Century (AD). For anyone not familiar with the stories and legends surrounding the Knights Templar, it wouldn’t do any harm to do a 5 minute research session before starting the novel. Luckily I’d seen a short documentary on TV a few months previously (hence my interest in the book), and was really looking forward to reading it.

The action really starts when a daring robbery is committed in present-day Manhattan, and a detective is assigned to investigating the background to it. Soon, the reader is given a small glimpse into the last breaths of the Knights Templar group, and their efforts to hide a priceless/vital piece of evidence from the people who are trying to obliterate the Knights.
Just what this item is, and why so many people were, and still are, interested in it, is explained in the book, and the climatic ending, although predictable in some ways, was still worth the reading.

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Sep 17 2006

All Consuming

Category: Books,Personal — ChrisM @ 11:43 pm

As you can see in the column on the right, I’ve signed up at allconsuming.net. You can enter the details of what you’re reading/listening to/doing/meeting.

I need to finish updating a few details, and change the widget used, so it displays previous items properly, but for now, here is the book list (roughly in the order they’ve been read since I arrived in Kazakhstan, in April) …

Jeremy Clarkson – Motorworld
Jeremy Clarkson – The World According To Clarkson
Raymond Khoury – The Last Templar

Lois McMaster Bujold – The Mountains of Mourning
Lois McMaster Bujold – Falling Free
Lois McMaster Bujold – Shards of Honour
Lois McMaster Bujold – Barrayar
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Warrior’s Apprentice
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Vor Game
Lois McMaster Bujold – Cetaganda
Lois McMaster Bujold – Ethan of Athos
Lois McMaster Bujold – Borders of Infinity
Lois McMaster Bujold – Brothers in Arms
Lois McMaster Bujold – Mirror Dance
Lois McMaster Bujold – Memory
Lois McMaster Bujold – Komarr
Lois McMaster Bujold – A Civil Campaign
Lois McMaster Bujold – Winterfair Gifts
Lois McMaster Bujold – Diplomatic Immunity
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Curse of Chalion
Lois McMaster Bujold – Paladin of Souls
Lois McMaster Bujold – The Hallowed Hunt

Richard P. Feynman – Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)

Dave Barry – Babies and Other Hazards of Sex: How to make a Tiny Person in only 9 months, with Tools You probably have around the Home
Dave Barry – Claw Your Way to the Top: How to Become the Head of a Major Corporation in Roughly a Week
Dave Barry – Dave Barry’s Bad Habits a 100% Fact-Free Book
Dave Barry – Dave Barry is not making this up
Dave Barry – Dave Barry slept here: A Sort of History of the United States
Dave Barry – Dave Barry’s greatest hits
Dave Barry – Dave Barry’s only travel guide you ll ever need
Dave Barry – guide to marriage and/or sex
Dave Barry – Homes And Other Black Holes
Dave Barry – Dave Barry’s Stay Fit and Healthy Until You’re Dead
Dave Barry – The Taming of the Screw

Neil Gaiman – American Gods
Neil Gaiman – Stardust

George Orwell – 1984
Michael Crichton – Rising Sun

Max Brooks – The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

Edwin A. Abbott – Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Isaac Asimov – I, Robot

Ray D. Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
Ray D. Bradbury – Quicker Than The Eye
Ray D. Bradbury – Zen in the Art of Writing

Arthur C Clarke – A Time Odyssey 1 – Time’s Eye
Arthur C Clarke – A Time Odyssey 2 – Sunstorm
Arthur C Clarke – 2001 A Space Odyssey – Odyssey 1
Arthur C Clarke – 2010 – Odyssey 2
Arthur C Clarke – 2061 – Odyssey 3
Arthur C Clarke – 3001 – The Final Odyssey – Odyssey 4
Arthur C Clarke – Rendezvous with Rama
Arthur C Clarke – The Star

James Clavell – Shogun

Phillip Kindrick Dick – A Scanner Darkly

Diana Wynne Jones – Howl’s Moving Castle

Jasper Fforde – Thursday Next 1 – The Eyre Affair
Jasper Fforde – Thursday Next 2 – Lost in a Good Look
Jasper Fforde – Thursday Next 3 – The Well of Lost Plots
Jasper Fforde – Thursday Next 4 – Something Rotten

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