I've been on a Lawhead kick lately; the "Celtic Crusades" series is another of his I've long put off reading for one reason or another. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I it. While told in third person, Lawhead avoids for the most part the "telling rather than showing" of his characters' emotions and motivations that is the bane of so many writers (and even himself in other books.) The history is fascinating, the plot compelling, and the pacing excellent - especially considering how easy it would have been to get bogged down in the minutia of the long, hard travel between the British Isles and the Holy Land. The plot itself revolves around the First Crusade and is takes place between ~1096 and 1099. Our main character is from Orkneyjar in the British Isles. While he desperately wants to follow his father and older brothers on the Crusade (although not out of any personal piety), he, only 16 years old, is instead forced to stay behind and hold down the family farm. Through a series of events he ends up chasing after them anyway some months later, and on the way meets up with a trio of monks from a curious sect who claim to guard the "Sanctus Clarus," or "Holy Light." They, and a series of visions he does not seek and only reluctantly acknowledges, end up radially changing the path of his life - unsurprisingly, the title object looms large in his destiny.What I liked about the book: The history. Like so many Americans of my generation, all I really knew about the crusades was what they taught in school - namely, "Catholics bad! Crusades Evil!" Lawhead did a good job of not only illuminating some of the complex motivations, but also in avoiding becoming simply one more voice mindlessly echoing the above sentiment. Certainly, the crusaders were as a group fairly ignorant, arrogant, and brutish and behaved in a manner no one could call Christian no matter how great their imagination. But, their enemies were no innocents either. Individual crusaders ran the gamut of pious to pitiless, and some (our hero included) came to quickly abhor the inhuman, hellish violence with which Jerusalem was conquered. Some of the nobles (most notably one who bears my great-grandfather's name of Magnus) were in the own way honorable men willing to right wrongs even for those who could not obviously be of much use to them. Similarly, the church itself was not presented as all bad, although most of the higher-ups were certainly impugned. Our "Cele De" monks were genuinely good people, if still children of their age in many of their opinions, assumptions, and (if you will) superstitions. What I didn't like: The story's "wrapper" concerns a secret brotherhood who are the modern descendants of the Cele De monks; the Dark-Ages monks themselves would probably have agreed with the label of "secret society." One of them has almost magical powers (although they're only briefly revealed in this volume). Despite the fact these characters clearly had a better grasp on Christianity than the rank in file, the whole thing smelled of Gnosticism. And then, of course, there is the Iron Lance itself. The veneration of icons is something that I've always found disquieting and superstitious and is one of the main reasons I am not myself Catholic. I have a little trouble turning this reaction off and simply accepting the story as it is. All in all: good, entertaining, and educational. Just don't swallow it whole.
Rating: 2* of fiveThe Publisher Says: In the year 1095, Pope Urban II declared war on the infidel. Kings, princes, and lords throughout Europe have joined the Crusade. To Murdo Ranulfson has fallen the duty of guarding his family's interests while his father and brothers fight to win Jerusalem. But when corrupt clergy prove enemies rather than protectors, Murdo must leave his native Scotland in search of his father. In the company of monks and warriors, he journeys far beyond the rolling fields of home, beyond the fabled Constantinople and the brooding walls of Antioch, to the Holy Land and the sword points of the Saracens. There, where blood, suffering, and human evil at its most horrifying are shot through with rays of the miraculous, he obtains the relic that will guide his life and the lives of his descendants for centuries. And there he grows from a callow youth to a man, trading cynicism for faith and selfishness for the heart of a leader. Steeped in heroism, treachery, and the clamor of battle, The Iron Lance begins a remarkable, masterfully woven epic trilogy of a Scottish noble family fighting for its existence and its faith during the age of the Great Crusades -- and of a secret society that will shape history for a thousand years.My Review: There was a time when I tried, and tried hard, to be a christian. Something alluring about feeling sure you're protected by a bid daddy who loves you. But the problem for me is, I have this logical outlook on life and I need stuff to make sense, to follow the rules of storytelling. This religion don't do none o' that, and plus it's riddled with exclusionary language, "moral" justifications for rotten stuff like slavery and incest, and so on and so forth.Horrible.This novel is a holdover possession from that period of my life. It's competently written, it's about a period of history I find enthralling, and I hated every single eyeblink I spent on it. There's persuasion and then there's bludgeoning. This is the latter. Had I paid the slightest attention, I would have noticed that the book was published by Zondervan...a christian publishing house. A foolish error on my part.This review is my reminder to myself: Openness to change is good, but don't get carried away. Borrow from the library. That way the crap that offends you can go back with no damage to your pocketbook. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
What do You think about The Iron Lance (2000)?
Dieses Buch habe ich nun schon mehrmals gelesen und immer wieder gefällt es mir.Story:Die Geschichte beginnt in Schottland 1096. Papst Urban II. hat die Gläubigen zum Kreuzzug aufgerufen. Drei der Kreuzfahrer sind Ranulf, ein Gutsherr auf den Orkney-Inseln und seine beiden älteren Söhne. Murdo, der Hauptcharakter, muss alleine bei seiner Mutter bleiben und den Hof bewirtschaften.Doch ein gieriger Bischof vertreibt ihn und seine Mutter vom Gut um sich den Besitz unter den Nagel zu reißen.Murdo will nicht akzeptieren das der Hof verloren sein soll und reist durch das mittelalterliche Europa seinem Vater hinterher, damit dieser das Gut zurückfordern kann.Seine Abenteuer auf der Reise, eine kleine Liebesgeschichte und auch ein bisschen etwas über ein heiliges Artefakt werden erzählt.Ich mag dieses Buch, weil ich die Geschichte sehr interessant finde wie Murdo neue Länder kennenlernt. Neue Freunde findet (klingt abgedroschen) und das ausgerechnet in Mönchen, wobei er doch die Kirche allgemein einfach nicht ausstehen kann.
—Annemarie
today i finally finished this book and it was really good. first of all i liked the historical facts, i learned a lot with this books. i also loved that the main character is form the orkney islands. there were vikings, the varangian guard, greeks, other mediterranean people and of course asian people. how amazing it seems now that those people spent years on a crusade by ship! the book is very realistic and i love that. it is very easy to see that the church did not care about lives, some greater good or the welfare of people. money and power. this is all the church ever knew. i loved the welsh monk very very much, especially when he talked about cymru. beautiful words there :) all in all an epic book, easy to follow, honest for the horrors of battle and showing many sides to the coin. good and evil, it all mingles.. the only thing i did not like were the passages about the year 1899. finally i must say i did not get the ultimate goal or purpose of this. it did not make sense or fit in, at least not to me.
—Katrin
Very enjoyable; to me one of the more engrossing books on the Crusades. Lawhead was, if not at the top of his form, very close to it. I feel that honor is reserved for his Byzantium. Murdo, a young Orkneyman, sees his father and brothers go off on Crusade. To his disappointment, he is left home to take care of land and mother. When venal churchmen, by a trick, steal the family estate and it is now the property of a Norseman, Murdo takes ship for the Holy Land to bring his father back home. He meets three monks of the Cele De, an order with Celtic practices, frowned upon by the official Roman Catholic Church. All Crusaders have to pass through Constantinople on their way to Jerusalem and Emperor Alexios is only too happy to help them pass through his empire. Murdo participates in a quest to recover from the Turks the Holy Lance, the spear that pierced Christ's side at the Crucifixion.I liked Lawhead's unpretentious style. It was a tad overwrought towards the end, though. The story had three main subplots: that of a Scotsman in Victorian times in a secret society [descended from the Cele De] framing the main action; Murdo's story; that of the Crusade and Crusader States; and that of the wise, shrewd Emperor Alexios, his Drungarios and his Captain of the Excubitori. I got a feel for the Crusades. Descriptions were vivid. Battle scenes and duels were well presented. The characters were likeable. Murdo matures in his thinking in the course of the novel. The three delightful monks give a moral framework to the story and are a stark contrast to the greedy clergy. The novel was very readable.Highly recommended for those who enjoy historical novels on the Crusades.
—Jane
