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Summary: The Holy gives meaning to the mysterious.
Review: Like the rest of Daniel Quinn's work, The Holy has changed my attitude about life and how I live it. As I sit here and write this review on my computer I look out my window into the forest and know there is a lot of things that exist, and occur, that can't be explained. If the mysterious don't seem mysterious to you, give The Holy a read. You never know what will happen within you and around you after.
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Summary: The holy war is not the one you think
Review: Once again, Daniel Quinn guides us through the maze of our own mythology. Three very different characters take turn after turn and yet as each corner seems to bring them more and more confusion, the end arrives to cast light upon the dark corners of our own souls. Here we discover the beliefs, ideas and reasoning that have been woven into the fabric of our lives and that continue to choke us of the very breathe of freedom that all souls desire.
If it sounds too unbelievable then you haven't met ISHMAEL. If you have, then I'm sure you'll agree that the awakening of the mind and spirit Daniel offered forth in that book, as with his subsequent writings, has again been visited in a different yet equally compelling tale of how the chains that bind us are each our own to break.
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Summary: This is no Ishmael
Review: The first thing a perspective reader needs to know about this book is that it has nothing in common with Ishmael. You wouldn't even guess that it was written by the same author. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but in this case it is. This is a "metaphysical thriller" according to the front jacket. Well, it is neither a thriller nor particularly metaphysical. The story is very superficial and unbelievable. The reader follows along through a series of story lines that lead nowhere with the thought that all will be revealed at some point. But no, the book simply ends with no enlightenment given, no story told, no insights gained, no pleasure taken. It is an empty, poorly executed book that will sell because the author has a following from earlier works that were profound and meaningful. This one isn't.
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Summary: A unique and grippingly written saga
Review: The Holy by Daniel Quinn is a dark, metaphysical thriller of a novel about a parallel race of beings, worshiped throughout human history as pagan gods, guardian spirits, shape-shifters, and mythical tricksters. But now they have decided that humanity is a threat to life itself, and their invitations to rapture and enlightenment are leading their followers and the rest of humanity down a very destructive road. The Holy is highly recommended as a unique and grippingly written saga of the weaknesses of human nature and its tenuous relationship with the consciousness beyond
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Summary: The Holy changed my life
Review: The Holy illuminated the spiritual side of my life, and peace and power are the gifts I have received from this great inspirational work. After reading it, I threw away all my self-help books! Thank you, Daniel Quinn.
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Summary: The Demons Among Us
Review: The Holy is more than just a philosophy about saving the planet (as if that isn't enough), it's more than a detective novel, or a vision quest, this novel presents a perpective on the world we live in that you won't get from other writers. Called a "guru" by critics too holy themselves to heed the inherant messages in his work, Quinn tells a story about lost souls seeking purpose, happiness, meaning.
Read on the literal level, this is an entertaining voyage. A figurative reading, and you will find it is but a road map for those lost souls seeking purpose, happiness, meaning.
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Summary: Quinn for Goth Kids
Review: The Holy is the flip-side of The Story of B. For every hidden stone B shines a light on, The Holy takes an underside peek. This is not an easy book to read for Cheery Optimists like myself-there is more blood, death, pain, and terror than in all Quinn's other books combined, yet in the end it's still the same world Quinn's been showing us since Ishmael. That said, The Holy doesn't quite live up to its own expectations (the glowing self-review on the dust-jacket, for example). It's not as plodding as After Dachau, but it could have lost fifty or a hundred pages somewhere. Too much of the action is spoon-fed, and Quinn has yet to improve his characterizations of children (think My Ishmael). Check this book out if you're looking for a great, epic horror ride-check out Quinn's first half dozen books if you'd rather rest on the brighter side.
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Summary: whoa
Review: This book can be viewed - and has been viewed by other reviewers - in two ways. As a fictional novel, it is excellent, by far Quinn's best - out of the 4 that I have read. As a work advancing the messages and theories of Quinn that his readers have come to love and expect, it will not satisfy people. This is not because Quinn tries and fails, but because he aims for something different: a beautiful and thrilling novel with subtle messages - that still make the reader think. This book proves to me that Quinn is not only a visionary, but a brilliant writer capable of weaving intriguing storylines with complex - yet not overly-distracting - messages. Superb.
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Summary: Quinn keeps getting better
Review: This book is exciting enough that although it's fairly long, I read it all in one day. I would have read it in one sitting, but life kept interrupting. But when I finished whatever task I had to accomplish, I scurried back to the book to find out what happened next. This book has the strongest and most well-drawn characters of any of Quinn's books, and the most interesting action. And the philosophy is, as always, excellent. This is a very very good book.
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Summary: "What if..."
Review: This is a book I wish my father had read. The Holy is about the journey, the voyage, the search, fueled by something deep within, catalyzed by the concepts/dreams/witches/'yoo-hoos'/goblins, the "others" who are worshipped by some, demonized by many, ignored by most. I find it hard to categorize Dan Quinn because he creates his own genre. At times he's off on a Stephen King riff, then he's writing the Mother of All Twilight Zone scripts, then The Magus influence creeps in, then into the breach with Carlos Castaneda, with Dean Koontz's macabre sense of place and dog, but in the end it's all Quinn, a writer with his own philosophical voice who takes us to places we never imagined, to challenge us with ideas about our own lives that we might not particularly want to hear. He's after his usual suspects - education that stifles creativity, civilization's willingness to destroy nature, any society that won't play the "what if" game. And "what if" is at the heart of Quinn's metaphysical adventure - in fact he's a master at the "what if" school of writing. Oh, to be in Quinn's head and look into a cactus and see what could be if...
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