The Phoenician Code Paperback – October 22, 2011

Dan Brown has spawned a lot of conversation, some interesting, some inane. He also has spawned a whole series of imitators, people who want to jump on the bandwagon of discrediting the Catholic Church, and dredging up occult and obscure connections between things that really have no connection.This is another in that ilk, and it is perhaps the winner, if a prize were to be given for cramming the greatest number of abstruse details into a book. There are moments of action - but they are more than balanced out by the pages and pages and pages of "conversation" where members of the elite group share "wisdom" and "secrets" from the great cultures of the past. Yawn. Nonsense material, delivered in a style that would make a college professor blush - and that would clear his classroom in a very short period of time.The bottom line, as it usually is, is to discredit the Catholic Church, and in this case, along the way, much of the text of the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments. If you are compiling a list of books not to read - this one should certainly be on your list.

You have to read this book with an open mindKareem El Koussa’s “The Phoenician Code” Is a fictional novel that delves into a great civilization rarely talked about or mentioned, The Phoenician civilizationHe dares us readers to stop , think and ask questions we believed we knew the answers.The true origins of Jesus, was he a Jew or Phoenician? where was he born? Is there two Bethlehem? In “The Phoenician Code”, Paul the protagonist,a Lebanese scholar who for some reason (without giving away spoilers) goes on a journey around many countries searching for a truth and discovers many.Throughout his journey he meets people who would help him and others who would go all the way to stop him even committing a murder. Organizations are unraveled, secret societies so sinister and evil that have manipulated humanity for long time.The Phoenician Code is a suspenseful fictional novel, yet, you can sense the amount of research the writer did prior to writing it, but the smartest thing is making us care about his protagonist, live with him every moment, feel his frustration his anger , his fear his passion and his pride about his ancestors.

I came to this book having read Karim El Koussa's latest book, JESUS THE PHOENICIAN, which I enjoyed considerably and got quite a lot of completely new ideas and information from. I thought I had heard pretty much everything he had to say on the matter of the Phoenicians and so on, but I was very, very much wrong about that -- this and JESUS THE PHOENICIAN are not at all rearrangements of each other, meant to sell more books, but two very different books with lots of very different bodies of information in them. Yes, there is some overlap but I quite frankly didn't mind it because the information is fortified somewhat differently between these two books with different accessory facts that enhance the overall contextual understanding. On the whole, the depth and breadth of information El Koussa's mind contains and its sheer relentless perceptiveness is just astounding.I don't want to give away too much of this book, but I will say that El Koussa delves very deeply into the far-flung origins of Phoenician and Jewish history and finally explains the fundamental bases of the Freemasons and Knights Templar in a way that finally makes real and thorough sense. My only complaints -- and I'm not sure I'd call them hugely important ones -- are that he doesn't go into the history of the Parsees as Zoroastrians, or really talk very much about his take, if any, on the Zoroastrian philosophy and its history, for one. I would find such a thing very interesting to read, as a main appeal of his writing for me is his no-holds-barred opinions on things, which I may not always completely agree with, but he so often makes such a compelling case for, that I find myself tentatively agreeing with him more often than not.The other thing I wish this book had, is perhaps an index in the back. But is it appropriate for fictional books to have indices? I would say no, except that this isn't a pure work of fiction; let's be honest -- it's the kind of fiction that the late Michael Crichton used to write: a treatise wrapped in a fictional vector for easiest digestibility. And, as such, it presents a body of facts and topics. Because of this, I think it could use an easy-to-search index in the back.One other thing: Given that, according to El Koussa, the mythological system of the Babylonians ultimately had its origins in the same system as the Phoenicians, and that both systems apparently revolved around storm and rain gods, water gods, and so on, is the system which ultimately evolved into the Jewish "dualistic" system really all that bizarre and blasphemously different when compared to the Phoenician system? And doesn't even a system like Christianity also have to employ a certain amount of dualism, too, just to function? These are all concerns I have regarding how sinisterly El Koussa seems to regard the Jewish system. I understand and applaud his pride in his own people and civilizational roots, but is it possible he's a bit too hard on the Jews?That said, I highly and even supremely recommend this book. It quite literally offers the very deepest explanations to the deepest foundations of our human civilizational legacy and continuing traditions. I consider myself very lucky indeed that I discovered this writer and his ideas, and I will almost certainly be buying his third book on Pythagoras.

An excellent book in many ways. This is the third book by this author that I have read.Set your prejudices to one side. The book deals with intrigue, mystery, history and religious beliefs in ways that many will relish and some will see as contradictions to their present beliefs. If you like to be challenged, if you like to learn (or relearn) and if you like to become very involved in a book then this is for you.The author's literary style is an acquired taste - I have acquired it!I do recommend this book to anyone who wants a novel that will challenge excite and send them off to check original sources. The author must have done a huge amount of original research to be able to weave together the threads of this story line. Well done!

This is a fictionalized version covering some of the same ground as Koussa's Jesus the Phoenician. Both pursue a very interesting hypothesis that Koussa has researched pretty carefully. But the novel would not pass an amateur-level course in creative mystery writing. For example Koussa expects his readers to swallow a plot which includes mortal threats to an academic attending a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and then a high-speed escape where rear windows are shot out, and the murderers fly off the road into a fiery crash - all of this without any explanation why the threatened scholar does not think to notify the Swiss police, or even the posh hotel security! Then the book goes on with mystical experiences, etc. I suggest skipping it and going directly to Jesus the Phoenician, although I have my problems with that as well.

Found it exciting. Takes time to read properly.

This is a really badly written book. I can not believ I have paid for this, I have deleted it from my kindle.

Excellent book, highly recommended for those who are interested in Phoenician civilisation.

This is an excellent account of the history of the Middle East through an entertaining and easy to read novel.

Hard to believe this book is fictional. Everything I love about history is all gathered up into this book, SUPERB!