From Publishers Weekly
Quinn returns to fiction after a five-year hiatus with a sequel of sorts to Ishmael, winner of the Turner Tomorrow Award in 1991. Like its controversial predecessor, this book is not really a novel, but an extended Socratic dialogue that promulgates the same animist solutions to global problems that the author recorded last year in his spiritual autobiography, Providence: The Story of a Fifty-Year Vision Quest. The narrator, Jared Osborne, is a priest of the Laurentians, a fictional Roman Catholic order under an ancient, covert mandate to stand watch against the coming of the Antichrist. Although skeptical, Jared is enjoined by his superior to investigate Charles Atterley, an expatriate American preacher known to his followers as "B." Allowing Jared into his inner circle in Munich, B soon dispels both the concern that he is the Antichrist and the shivery intimations of apocalypse that make the opening chapters darkly intriguing. Through long, often numbingly repetitive parables and speeches, B instructs Jared in the solutions to overpopulation, ecological despoliation, cultural intolerance and other ills that have dogged civilization since the time of "the Great Forgetting" 10,000 years ago. B's smug pontificating and his disciples' unquestioning devotion reduces them to interchangeable mouthpieces for Quinn's philosophies. As a result, Jared's spiritual conversion away from Roman Catholicism and toward Quinn-ism, intended to be the book's dramatic high point, falls painfully flat. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Quinn, author of the best-selling cult classic Ishmael (LJ 12/91), returns with another quasispiritual tale about a priest who awaits the arrival of the Antichrist.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Father Jared Osborne journeys to Europe to seek out the one the masses call "B"--whom the church calls the Antichrist. B's message returns us to the time, millions of years ago, before mankind's "Great Forgetting," when the earth had a single religion-- a deep spiritual connection to the universe that was as unconscious as breathing. Heald's performance is masterful, almost intoxicating. The very nature of the story demands that it be heard, the way Jared hears B's teachings. Listeners are directly included in the story's final moments. More than a suspenseful story of good versus evil, The STORY OF B is about the power of minds that have changed--and chosen the truth. R.A.P. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Continuing the thought-provoking philosophical construct that he set up in Ishamel (1991), Quinn provides an even deeper and more wide-ranging story: Is the guru known as B the Antichrist? Jared Osborne is a priest of the Laurentian order, one of whose religious tasks is to identify the Antichrist. He is sent to Germany to ingratiate himself with B and divine his mission. Not surprisingly, Jared is soon in much deeper than he could possibly have imagined, questioning every facet of his own beliefs. Like his previous book, Quinn's new novel is heavily structured as philosophic instruction; here the topics are religions based on animism versus those based on salvation, the nature of society, and the destruction of the planet. Although this sounds like heavy going (and occasionally it is), the book is also enormously readable, with several shocking plot twists that help mold what could have been just a treatise into a good story. A must for fans of Ishmael, this disturbing, intelligent book will also attract new readers. Ilene Cooper


From Kirkus Reviews
Loose sequel to Quinn's debut novel, Ishmael (1992), the odd and controversial winner of the $500,000 Turner Tomorrow Award. In Ishmael, a young neophyte more or less accidentally apprenticed himself to a great talking ape, allowing Quinn to string together a series of Socratic dialogues on mankind's woes. Here, the device is much the same. We meet a young Laurentian priest, Jared Osbourne, who notes early on that the Laurentians still observe an old injunction: to watch for the appearance of the Antichrist. Jared is sent by his superior to investigate an itinerant European preacher known as B, a.k.a. Charles Atterley. Atterley isn't satanic in the least, however, nor even very religious, so the ``Antichrist'' tag is just a platform for Quinn to do his own preaching, which is reminiscent of the ape's declamations in Ishmael. When B is assassinated for his views, it makes little sense in terms of the plot, since all B does is talk (and talk)--he doesn't cast spells or plot world dominion. He talks about how primitive cultures were divided up into ``Leavers'' and ``Takers,'' how these ancient archetypes are still working themselves out, and how overpopulation will, in the next century, come near to obliterating us all. Modern agriculture, which Quinn thinks of as ``totalitarian'' because it's so divorced from nature, will not address the needs of 12 billion people (the UN estimate of how many of us there will be by 2040). The novel's format is artificial and far-fetched, but no matter: The author writes a facile, clear prose, and the ideas he wants to discuss are admittedly important. Quinn is a provocative thinker. Imagine a combination of Robert M. Pirsig for style, Ayn Rand for cardboard characters on soapboxes, and the Unabomber for a nature-centered but slightly menacing feel. The combination equals Quinn, and makes for a helluva rant. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
The Story of B combines Daniel Quinn's provocative and visionary ideas with a masterfully plotted story of adventure and suspense in this stunning, resonant novel that is sure to stay with readers long after they have finished the last page. Father Jared Osborne--bound by a centuries-old mandate held by his order to know before all others that the Antichrist is among us--is sent to Europe on a mission to find a peripatetic preacher whose radical message is attracting a growing circle of followers. The target of Osborne's investigation is an American known only as B. He isn't teaching New Age platitudes or building a fanatical following; instead, he is quietly uncovering the hidden history of our planet, redefining the fall of man, and retracing a path of human spirituality that extends millions of years into the past. From the beginning, Fr. Osborne is stunned, outraged, and awed by the simplicity and profundity of B's teachings. Is B merely a heretic--or is he the Antichrist sent to seduce humanity not with wickedness, but with ideas more alluring than those of traditional religion? With surprising twists and fascinating characters, The Story of B answers this question as it sends readers on an intellectual journey that will forever change the way they view spirituality, human history, and, indeed, the state of our present world.


From the Publisher

A new novel by the author of Ishmael

"Daniel Quinn has written two of the most unnerving and transformative books inrecent memory. The first was Ishmael; The Story of B is theother, a compelling `humantale' that will unglue, stun, shock, and rearrangeeverything you've learned and assume about Western civilization and ourfuture."
--Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce

"One of the most important storytellers of our age, Daniel Quinn, in TheStory of B, continues the journey begun so beautifully with Ishmael.Whether or not you agree with every word, there is no doubt that `B' offers usa unique opportunity--to think together about the unquestioned beliefs andassumptions that have shaped our culture over the past 10,000 years and thatwill, if they remain unquestioned, keep us on a path that seems increasinglyunsustainable."
--Peter M. Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline



From the Inside Flap
The Story of B combines Daniel Quinn's provocative and visionary ideas with a masterfully plotted story of adventure and suspense in this stunning, resonant novel that is sure to stay with readers long after they have finished the last page. Father Jared Osborne--bound by a centuries-old mandate held by his order to know before all others that the Antichrist is among us--is sent to Europe on a mission to find a peripatetic preacher whose radical message is attracting a growing circle of followers. The target of Osborne's investigation is an American known only as B. He isn't teaching New Age platitudes or building a fanatical following; instead, he is quietly uncovering the hidden history of our planet, redefining the fall of man, and retracing a path of human spirituality that extends millions of years into the past. From the beginning, Fr. Osborne is stunned, outraged, and awed by the simplicity and profundity of B's teachings. Is B merely a heretic--or is he the Antichrist sent to seduce humanity not with wickedness, but with ideas more alluring than those of traditional religion? With surprising twists and fascinating characters, The Story of B answers this question as it sends readers on an intellectual journey that will forever change the way they view spirituality, human history, and, indeed, the state of our present world.


About the Author
Daniel Quinn's first book, Ishmael, won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, a prize for fiction presenting creative and positive solutions to global problems.  He is also the author of Providence, The Story of B, and My Ishmael.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Father Osborne is bound by a covert centuries-old mandate held by his religious order: to know before all others that the Antichrist is among us - and to try to suppress and destroy him. Every fifty years or so, a new candidate emerges and is investigated, despite the fact that they've always proved to be harmless - until now. The target of Osborne's investigation is an American known to his followers only as B. He isn't teaching meditation or goddess worship, faith healing or New Age spiritualism. He isn't out to make money or build a fanatical following. Instead he is quietly uncovering the hidden history of our planet, redefining the fall of man, and retracing a path of human spirituality that extends millions of years into the past. Osborne follows B's elusive trail from a dead end in Salzburg to an existentialist cabaret in Munich to a candlelit retreat in the subcellar of dilapidated theater, where he first encounters the mysterious B and his intriguing female colleague, Shirin. From the beginning, Osborne is stunned, outraged, and awed by the originality and power of B's teaching. Is B merely a heretic - or is he the Antichrist sent to seduce humanity not with wickedness but with ideas more alluring than those of traditional religion? Pressed by his superiors for a judgment, Osborne is driven to penetrate B's inner circle. There, as B's chosen disciple, he soon finds himself an anguished collaborator in the dismantling of his own religious foundations.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Quinn returns to fiction after a five-year hiatus with a sequel of sorts to Ishmael, winner of the Turner Tomorrow Award in 1991. Like its controversial predecessor, this book is not really a novel, but an extended Socratic dialogue that promulgates the same animist solutions to global problems that the author recorded last year in his spiritual autobiography, Providence: The Story of a Fifty-Year Vision Quest. The narrator, Jared Osborne, is a priest of the Laurentians, a fictional Roman Catholic order under an ancient, covert mandate to stand watch against the coming of the Antichrist. Although skeptical, Jared is enjoined by his superior to investigate Charles Atterley, an expatriate American preacher known to his followers as "B." Allowing Jared into his inner circle in Munich, B soon dispels both the concern that he is the Antichrist and the shivery intimations of apocalypse that make the opening chapters darkly intriguing. Through long, often numbingly repetitive parables and speeches, B instructs Jared in the solutions to overpopulation, ecological despoliation, cultural intolerance and other ills that have dogged civilization since the time of "the Great Forgetting" 10,000 years ago. B's smug pontificating and his disciples' unquestioning devotion reduces them to interchangeable mouthpieces for Quinn's philosophies. As a result, Jared's spiritual conversion away from Roman Catholicism and toward Quinn-ism, intended to be the book's dramatic high point, falls painfully flat. (Dec.)

Library Journal

Quinn, author of the best-selling cult classic Ishmael (LJ 12/91), returns with another quasispiritual tale about a priest who awaits the arrival of the Antichrist.

Kirkus Reviews

Loose sequel to Quinn's debut novel, Ishmael (1992), the odd and controversial winner of the $500,000 Turner Tomorrow Award.

In Ishmael, a young neophyte more or less accidentally apprenticed himself to a great talking ape, allowing Quinn to string together a series of Socratic dialogues on mankind's woes. Here, the device is much the same. We meet a young Laurentian priest, Jared Osbourne, who notes early on that the Laurentians still observe an old injunction: to watch for the appearance of the Antichrist. Jared is sent by his superior to investigate an itinerant European preacher known as B, a.k.a. Charles Atterley. Atterley isn't satanic in the least, however, nor even very religious, so the "Antichrist" tag is just a platform for Quinn to do his own preaching, which is reminiscent of the ape's declamations in Ishmael. When B is assassinated for his views, it makes little sense in terms of the plot, since all B does is talk (and talk)—he doesn't cast spells or plot world dominion. He talks about how primitive cultures were divided up into "Leavers" and "Takers," how these ancient archetypes are still working themselves out, and how overpopulation will, in the next century, come near to obliterating us all. Modern agriculture, which Quinn thinks of as "totalitarian" because it's so divorced from nature, will not address the needs of 12 billion people (the UN estimate of how many of us there will be by 2040). The novel's format is artificial and far-fetched, but no matter: The author writes a facile, clear prose, and the ideas he wants to discuss are admittedly important. Quinn is a provocative thinker. Imagine a combination of Robert M. Pirsig for style, Ayn Rand for cardboard characters on soapboxes, and the Unabomber for a nature-centered but slightly menacing feel.

The combination equals Quinn, and makes for a helluva rant.

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