Rating: 
Summary: Engaging Historical Fantasy
Review: Stephen Lawhead's "The Iron Lance" is an engrossing work of historical fantasy, set against the Celtic Crusades of 1099. The plot has two major threads:
- Thread One: Murdo, our hero, who follows his father and brothers to Jerusalem in 1099 from his home in the isles.
- Thread Two: A man whose name "is of no importance" in Scotland in 1899. He is an initiate of a sacred and secret Brotherhood. The plot follows Murdo through the "taking of the cross" to falling in love with Ragna, and the misfortunes heaped upon his family by the greedy local Bishop. Murdo travels to the Holy Land, on his own, to find his brothers and father and restore his family's lands. As he searches for his family in Jerusalem, he witnesses the terrible sacking of the city in 1099. Murdo is witness to political intrigue, many battles, and foreign cities and customs. The details of the second plot are interspersed throughout Murdo's journey. The reader is never quite sure how this Brotherhood relates to Murdo, the lines are left deliberately vague. This vagueness compels you to keep reading the series, to determine how these ancient Crusades fit in with 1899 Scotland and this mysterious Brotherhood. Lawhead has created a captivating novel with The Iron Lance. The attention to detail and historical accuracy make this a compelling work of historical fantasy.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible research, strong characters, a wonderful story!
Review: This is a must read! Lawhead has always done an incredible job writing trilogies (the original Pendragon trilogy, the Dragon King trilogy, and the Song of Albion trilogy were all excellent), but The Celtic Crusades just might surpass them all. The reason is the stregth of the historical truth that is behind this novel, and the books to follow. Lawhead has always done a wonderful job at historical research and his study of the Crusades is evident. Words aren't minced - he show's it exactly how it happened (or almost, historically it was bloodier). The Iron Lance is a sequal to Byzantium (a few hundred years later)and the book is just as good. If you enjoyed Byzantium (or any of Lawheads previous books - as I do - note my cool email address), you'll love The Iron Lance. I'm already watching the out-of-print web sources for The Black Rood advance copy. I can tell that this is a trilogy that will get stronger with every book. Read this book, you won't regret it - I guarantee! Also, ignore the bad review a few down from me, he obviously is missing a lot!
Rating:
Summary: Fans of the Crusades will enjoy this book
Review: This is a story full of adventure that will keep you going all the way. It's entertaining, it's instructive and most of all, it's orginal. Nice to see the involvement of the men from Orkney in the Crusades. Same goes for the Norsemen. There are some endearing characters in this book as well as some interesting twists. In all, a different look at a very documented time in history, the Crusades, which atmosphere and horror are well detailed in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Couldnt put it down
Review: This is my second read from Lawhead, the first being "Patrick, Son of Ireland". Patrick was just good enough to get me to try again and I'm glad I did. The Iron Lance was great from start to finish. I simply could not put it down and finished it in 2 days. I can't wait to get started on books 2 and 3 in this Celtic Crusades series. Hopefully Santa will bring them! Also, if this is your cup of tea, check out Bernard Cornwell.
Rating: 
Summary: Spiritually intriguing but finally unsatisfying
Review: Why is this book good but not great?
Three things make it good. The first is Murdo, the hasty, boy-wonder hero whom we follow from boyhood to manhood, and whom we wish to see succeed. The second is the pay-off--that point near or at the end where things turn out worse in some ways than we had hoped, yet in others, far better than we had dreamed. Lawhead gives us the payoff straight-away, without flashback or inference, right out of the characters' mouths, and the casual reader just needs that once in a while. The third is Lawhead's dependable ability to spark one's "Sehnsucht"--that deep-down yearning for something grander, greener, heroic, more beautiful and more raptuous, that all humans hope and pray is at the end of the metaphysical rainbow. Lawhead does it consistently by situating his readers in Celtic lore and drawing upon the Celts' rich spiritual tradition. This sets Lawhead's work apart from your average "slash 'n' spell" fantasy novel by grounding it in transcendent themes, and it was for this reason that I chose it from the myriad other dragon and druid selections lining Borders' "fantasy/sci-fi" shelves.
Three things make this story "not great." The first is Murdo. Murdo is indeed a likeable character, but he has been seen a hundred times before--the youngest brother who is left behind on the crusade but makes his own way to the Holy Land through crazy coincidences with the help of generous, shallow characters along the way. The second is the pay-off: sweet but predictable. The third is the (sorry, Stephen!) the shallowness of the spiritual dimension. I commend Lawhead for rising above the standard fantasy fare by consistently digging deeper into our souls and incorporating his own manifest spiritual wonder, informed by his evangelical Christian faith. He follows in the line of Lewis, but whereas simplicity enables the former's profundity, Lawhead's simpleness lacks depth. Murdo wrestles with the church's hypocrisy, and Lawhead invites the reader to wholeheartedly condemn the Crusades and the bishops, priests, emporers and monks who advanced it. But instead of truly wrestling with this grand historical problem and all the theological fallout, Lawhead allows no room for ambiguity and merely suggests that earthly kings are by definition corrupt, the medieval church was apostate, and that there is a "True-Path" and a "Holy Light"--the real "born-again-ness," the "real Christianity," if you will--that the Celts somehow held secret for centuries while the world went to hell in a handbasket. Perhaps this assessment is unfair, as I have not finished the trilogy. Maybe everything comes full-circle with "The Mystic Rose."
All in all, a fun read that's certainly worth $7.99 in paperback, but will leave the wrestlers-at-the-River-Jabbok among us unsatisfied.
|
