The Sword of the Templars

By: Paul Christopher

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

After a lifetime on the front lines, Army Ranger John Holliday has resigned himself to ending his career teaching at West Point. But when his uncle passes away, Holliday discovers a mysterious medieval sword - wrapped in Adolf Hitler's personal battle standard. Then someone burns down his uncle's house in an attempt to retrieve the sword, and Holliday realizes that he's being drawn into a war that has been fought for centuries.

Accompanied by his adventurous niece Peggy, Holliday must delve into the past and piece together the puzzle that was his uncle's life and his involvement with the enigmatic warriors known as the Knights Templar. But his search for answers soon becomes a race against ruthless, cunning opponents willing to die for their cause... and to kill Holliday for daring to uncover their past.

©2009 Paul Christopher (P)2010 Tantor

Interesting storyline

It took me about an hour into this book to become truly interested in the story, but then I was REALLY interested. My critique of the story would be that it was fractionally predictable, but the character development was very well done and I am looking forward to the next book. The narrator seemed to whine a bit too much for the female characters; I don't believe that they were "written" that way.

Good story, lots of Templar history, nice balance of good guy vs. bad guy.

Almost there

Sword of the Templars is well written, and well researched. It's full of great bits of trivia and the performance was good.

It was almost a really great book, but the overall plot was a touch predictable and wrapped up a bit to neatly.

I'll try the next book in the series and hope that it gets better.

Good story but

It leaves some loose ends. What happens with the dead bodies and abandon bullet ridden rental cars? Are we to assume the cops just ignored everything?

history with a twist

If you like history and want a mystery line as well, this series is for you!

Poor narration of a not-so-good story

The narration is mechanical, with pauses that disrupt the flow.

I'm wondering if you, like me, have experienced a car navigation system that says, "Turn left..." and you turn left, followed by the lady's voice in the navigation system continue with, "... in 500 feet."

The narration of this book is similar.

"What does this mean?" ... [pause] ... "she asked."

"It means we were lied to" ... [pause] ... "he replied."

No thanks on this narration. It about drives me crazy.

And the story is just barely enough to keep me listening. I kill a lot of time driving with these audible books, and this one does that - kills time - and I've done the same thing with a lot of books that were much better.

My suggestion: there are a lot of audible books better than this one. Spend your dime on another one, not this one.

I agree with William-Don't Buy

What disappointed you about The Sword of the Templars?

In William's review he said that it would have been less expensive for him if he hadn't purchased this book. He was so correct and I didn't listen the first time as a result this hurt more because I was burned twice. Buy almost anything else, but don't buy from this narrator or author. My grandson has a better grasp on the creation of storylines and he is just learning the process of how to create a storyline. The narrator needs help and a lot of it--very mo-no-t o n e and dry sounding.

Has The Sword of the Templars turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, just the author and the narrator

Would you be willing to try another one of Paul Boehmer’s performances?

Never, He doesn't reflect anything in his performance other than reading the words, let alone emotions. He just reads one word after another. I do believe the narrator can make or break the listening enjoyment of a book. In this case. he broke both books but it wasn't hard to do because the story was already fractured.

What character would you cut from The Sword of the Templars?

All of them.

Any additional comments?

This was awful and I have never complained before.

...And they say waterboarding is torture!!!

After disregarding a review by a fellow member on another of Mr. Christopher's Templar books, I must say that I should have heeded her advice.

The book starts off with a bashing of the military diatribe, then proceeds into a boring and mundane story. After almost two hours, and only one scene worth mentioning, and in mentioning I mean a scene that encouraged the reader to continue on. I am regretting ever purchasing this book.

Since I have already purchased the book, I have no choice but to trudge on to the end in the hopes that the author utilized a "How to book" in some way, shape, or form and benefited from its lessons. Otherwise, I would have to say -- "caveat emptor". Let the buyer beware.

The narrator fails to annonciate words correctly, saying "Oh Juice" instead of "Au jus", and calling a "Templar" a "Temp ah lar". Then fails to create a viable image of the characters he is portraying. Voices don't match the descriptions of the characters, and the effeminate tones the narrator imparts into a potential villian, not only makes it impossible to believe the seriousness of the character, but makes the listener want to fast forward to the next seen.

If I were to have to make a decision on purchasing this audible book again, I would close out my web browser, bang my hand with a hammer, then listen to Rosanne Barr's renditition of the "Star Spangled Banner" being played backwards. The pain would be the same and less expensive.

The premise of the story sounds great and the fact that there are three books in the series suggests that the storyline has potential, but even the best laid plans can fail if the foundation is not set correctly.

I am sorry if I portrayed this story in such a negative way, but if one person changes his mind on purchasing this audiobook, then the effort was worth it.

Worst narrator possible

This story has been told before, but it's mildly entertaining, so I'll give the story 3 stars. But this narrator is the worst I've listened to, and manages to be so distracting that the story gets lost in the narration. He sounds as if he's reading the words, and not reading a story. And he has the most annoying tendency to put a pause between the dialogue and the "he said". " 'That's right' [PAUSE].... he said". Most distracting. I cannot recommend this title by this narrator.