The Paradise War by Stephen R. LawheadMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The first in a trilogy, The Paradise War follows the amazing and fantastic adventure of a young college student by the name of Lewis Gillies. When he follows his friend on an sudden and unlikely urge to explore the strange appearance of a long extinct beast in Scotland, he is shocked when his friend disappears inside a cairn and does not return. It is only when he attempts to follow Simon that he understands why.
Albion is where he finds himself. It is the Otherworld, and he is thrust into it so quickly and violently that he doesn't even have time to protest the series of events that lead to his warrior training and the events that will follow. Lewis is in Albion, a land so steeped in Celtic myth, lore, legend, and culture that the novel resonates with this fantastic framework and thrills the reader with their own discovery of it.
Lewis comes to love Albion so well that the thought of returning to the drab, gray, meaningless life that he left behind him makes him sick. How could a person desire to take a shadow of a thing over the reality? He comes to realize, though, that the presence of strangers has brought a new influence in to the ancient ways and traditions of the country, and that it is steadily bringing about the downfall of the world. Simon is a changed man, and his greedy words of dissent whispered into the right ear causes waves that cannot be stopped. Lewis realizes that he must prevent anything else from taking place, and though it grieves his heart, he tries to force Simon back to their own world, only to be met with surprise.
This book is my introduction to the works of Stephen Lawhead, and I must say that I am very impressed. He has created a rich and colorful world that so thoroughly held me captive in a way that books have not done for a while. I fell in love with the beautiful descriptions, the wonderful lore that made the skillful foundation for the work, and the very characters themselves caught at my mind and are still clinging there.
I personally loved The Paradise War and can't wait to finish the second book in the series, The Silver Hand, although I would probably not recommend the series for younger teens and below.
Finally, I just want to say, I think I love Great Britain more than ever! At the very least I find the ancient history and mythology fascinating.
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That sounds very interesting! I will have to check it out. Lawhead is an interesting author to me, because I've read his first ever published trilogy, and it was....bad. I mean the writing was awful, (think, how did this even get published?) although the story was interesting. But then I read the first couple books in his Pendragon cycle, and the writing was MUCH improved. I will have to go find this one!
ReplyDeleteYour review made this book very intriguing. I've read elsewhere that with this series, Lawhead creates a new Celtic mythology and that he uses a lot of ancient Celtic words. Did that make the reading more difficult, or did it not bother you? I think I shall give this one and then see if I still want to read on, to read all the volumes. Thanks for taking the time to write this review! Have a nice week! Flora
ReplyDeleteI did not feel that the use of ancient Celtic words made the reading more difficult at all. Whether that is because it's just not hard, or if I just enjoy that sort of thing I don't know, but I would enjoy hearing your opinion if you decide to read it!
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