Reader expected to take too much on trust. Unconvincing - Rated 
This book starts well and, at first, makes an enthralling read, are we to discover something? well, the answer is a disappointed no. As a casual reader I felt I had come in halfway through some long discussion and was expected to either know, or guess, sundry points. Why is no list given of these Rex Deus families, we get mentions of various aristocratic people but no real facts. Its FACTS that are missing and one flounders in a mish mash of statements that could be speculation, deliberate hints, or something else, we're never too sure. As a Mason I find myself amused. My, my, how wrong can you get! I don't think the authors got the point about the Tarot for a start.
Concise and readable - Rated 
Very easy to digest with a few additional details I have not seen elsewhere (and I have read most of the books in this genre). Makes you think that the truth is not far from being revealed. I have yet to read the last chapter which a previous reviewer derises, so I await this treat with interest!
An unbearable disappointment... - Rated 
The real conspiracy at Rennes-leChateau is the plethora of authors riding the coat tails of seminal researchers. That is the case here! Wallace-Murphy was a sort of hero until this literary debacle. There is nothing new in this book that wasn't extracted from the bibliographic references. Please Tim, go spend 40 days in the desert brfore you ask me to spend another second and dollars to read your next contrivence. Sorry, but you deserve that slap.
A compelling read. - Rated 
This book grabs you and is almost impossible to put down once started. An erudite, eminently readable expose of the hypocrisy and brutality of the Church presented with skill and irrefuteable logic. Probably the best and most readable account of the early years of Chrisitainity, the Knights Templar, the Grail search and the foundations of Freemasonry that has been published in one very readable volume.
Excellent and thought-provoking, but... - Rated
I read this book as a follow-up to Knight and Lomas's 'The Hiram Key' and 'The Second Messiah', as I was fascinated by the notion of how Christian history could have been distorted by the early Christians and the true story of Jesus hidden and suppressed. Most of the book is a fascinating exploration of the Rex Deus legend, the Templars and the story of Jesus's supposed marriage to Mary Magdalene and the fate of their offspring. I found much of the book very convincing, as it is well-researched and annotated and presents a coherent and believeable story - until the last chapter. Oh dear. Suddenly, millennium fever grips the authors and the scholarly tone of the book descends into New Age mysticism and Age of Aquarius prophecies. I had been recommending the book to others up to that point, but the last chapter ruined the whole thing for me. This is a shame, because if what the book says is true (and, as I say, it is very convincing), then the history of the last 2000 years of Western society has been a complete sham. No wonder the Church is so keen to see the Dead Sea Scrolls locked away and the alternative history of the birth of Christianity kept well hidden from the eyes of the curious!
|
