"Hatzinikolaou, Leonidas - The Holy Pledge" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hatzinikolaou Leonidas)

"The Holy Pledge" by Leonidas Hatzinikolaou.

This is a political-religious thriller, scheduled to be published
around Christmas 2001 or perhaps early 2002, and will get a best-seller's
promotion. Marketing's already laying down plans for its pre-publication
campaign. It's worth it. I read it myself, and I give it a
five-star rating.
The novel was originally written in Greek, and this is its
English translation. If you like it, be sure to buy it when it gets
to the stores. This way, I won't feel bad for posting it ;-)
Meanwhile, enjoy!

(I've also included some info that I copy-pasted from the
supporting files).

:-=Krispos@videssos=-:
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The "Holy Pledge" is a high-concept novel, a political and religious thriller
inspired from present-day and historical events. Praised by the media for its
fast-paced plot, the richness of characterization and its accurate information
in topics ranging from Byzantine archaeology to cutting-edge technology, it was
received enthusiastically and was widely acclaimed in Greece by both reviewers
and the general public. To this day, after three years of a best-selling career,
the "Holy Pledge" remains firmly established in the market as a successful long-
seller.

The novel's main concept is based on a historically supported original
hypothesis of the author, according to which the Islamic religion was actually
founded by the devious Byzantine diplomacy aiming to establish a strong military
foothold in the Arabian peninsula. Since the Arabs of the pre-Islamic
era had rejected Christianity, the Byzantines changed their tactics and devised
another scheme to unite the desert nomads under one banner: they planned and
meticulously organized the establishment of a new militant religion. To this
end they chose a suitably charismatic man, trained him, secretly baptized him to
the Christian faith, and invested him with the appropriate social status for his
task, through their connections in Mecca.

The plot begins at the present, as Father Gregorios, a devout monk at
the monastery of St. Catherine, deep in the Sinai desert, accidentally discovers
a Byzantine dispatch originally intended for Emperor Heraclius, which alludes to
a second document, the Prophet's "Protocol of Baptism." To Father Gregorios's
intense disappointment, however, this potentially explosive manuscript is not
found in the crypt. So he sets out to find it.

And then all Hell breaks loose as the old monk and his companions realize
that they're being ruthlesly stalked by powerful enemies from all over the
world, in what they thought was an innocent quest to locate and retrieve a
Byzantine manuscript.