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The Paradise War (The Song of Albion #1)

4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 · rating details · 3,647 ratings · 244 reviews

Picture a world intricately entwined with our own yet separate, pulsing with the raw energy and vivid color of Celtic myth come to life. Picture Albion. And enter Lewis Gillies, an Oxford student whose search for a missing friend leads him through a door to another reality- and unimagined discoveries about life, good and evil, and his own identity and destiny. In an ancien...more

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published June 28th 1991 by Lion Publishing Corporation (first published 1991)

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Apr 16, 2009 Kat Hooper rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

As an avid fantasy reader, I was reluctant to try this trilogy because Lawhead is not one of the best known fantasy writers. My husband bought me the book because Lawhead is a Christian and he thought I should try it.

I was very pleasantly surprised! The writing is excellent. The story is interesting, meaningful, and epic in scope while still progressing rapidly enough to finish in three books.

It contains all of the elements I look for in a fantasy: vivid d...more

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May 09, 2008 Werner rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fantasy fans who don't mind violence

Shelves: fantasy, books-i-own

This is the first book of a trilogy; and like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books (which he originally didn't want to separate into three volumes --that was the publisher's idea), the Song of Albion books basically form a unit that should be read and considered together. An evangelical, Lawhead displays the influence of C. S. Lewis in places in his writing; the Christian symbolism in the last volume, The Endless Knot, is particularly clear. But his fantasy vision is his own, heavily influenced as...more

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Jul 14, 2010 Margaret rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sc-fi-fantasy, thomas-nelson, own

Well. I must admit I did return this to the library without finishing it. I kept reading and reading, almost to halfway through it just hoping for something to pick up and excite me. But it didn't... even when I got to the Otherworld. Steven Lawhead just did so much better with Hood. With Hood I was enraptured and in love with all the characters and events and could not read fast enough to get what was coming next. But perhaps it is because Hood was from last year (2006) where The Paradise War i...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Joseph Marsh rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

The problem with this book is that it takes a long time to really get anywhere. It takes just over half the book for anything of particular interest to happen. (view spoiler) That point made me sit up and go "where the heck did that come from?" Until that point the story barely even felt li...more

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Mar 23, 2012 Adam K. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes I'm intrigued by a book for shallow reasons--in this case, the cover design. But marketing and packaging go a long way, so I suppose I'm not to be blamed for it. Anyway, borrowed this from a friend and took at least a year and a half to get around to it. I knew practically nothing about the Song of Albion series or Stephen Lawhead, but he apparently has a cult following, and rightly so. This book has found a rightful placein the modern, authentic-manhood, John Eldredge/Robert Lewis era...more Sometimes I'm intrigued by a book for shallow reasons--in this case, the cover design. But marketing and packaging go a long way, so I suppose I'm not to be blamed for it. Anyway, borrowed this from a friend and took at least a year and a half to get around to it. I knew practically nothing about the Song of Albion series or Stephen Lawhead, but he apparently has a cult following, and rightly so. This book has found a rightful placein the modern, authentic-manhood, John Eldredge/Robert Lewis era of Christianity, in which Christian men get together to take CCW classes, shoot skeet, and discuss their rights to shoot trespassers on sight. Of course, not much of those three topics ostensibly has anything to do with Christianity, but a criticism the modern evangelical church has leveled against itself is that men have given over their role as protective guardian of their wives and children, so there is much about reclaiming that. Part of that culture is a celebration of manhood folk heroes, William Wallace from Braveheart being the prime example. That's where Lawhead comes in. A college student follows his friend into another dimension where the Celtic warrior way of life is still the norm, where men converse with their fists, drink gallons of ale and beer, and carry around the disembodied heads of their kills in battle as trophies. Again, this has something to do with Christianity, but, well...I'm making it sound like I didn't enjoy the book when I actually did, very much, and the thrilling sense of coming alive through an adventure to which you feel called is very palpable as an overriding theme to Lawhead's narrative. Add to that the authenticating details of the culture and the language, and you feel quite transported and swept away. There are spiritual themes of good versus evil at work here, kind of a universal, more broad theme, but it's good to see the TRIUMPH of an absolute good celebrated. And I must say, good on Thomas Nelson for printing this, what with its occasional very light profanity and frequent very heavy blood. I didn't know a Christian publisher would have the brass to publish something that uses "damn" and "hell" as simple expletives, nor would it put something out there that used alcoholic beverages without condemning the people drinking them to a fate worse than death. I found the cadence of the writing here to be somewhat curious. Lawhead starts out with a very witty style. Much of the main character's first-person perspective is light-heartedly self-effacing, and the descriptions and characterizations are gleefully over the top in the early going, with phrases and rambling commentary on ideas that goes past its due. I enjoyed that. It was playful and endearing. Near the point where our hero disappears into the whatchamacallit (too lazy to look it up), the wit and banter stop, however, and the narrative gets serious. I knew at some point Lawhead would have to settle down, but it was an abrupt switch in the language, and I was sad to see it go. Then, however, it returns, minus the wit, and it achieves something near poetic. When demons appear on the scene and the narrator begins to describe them, there is such a mixture of words like "putrescence" and "corpulescence" as to make your ears and mouth feel stuffed with it. If you've read it, you perhaps know the paragraph I'm talking about and would agree. I enjoyed each of these styles on either side of the "plain English" divide and would have liked to see a better blend from one into the other. Nevertheless, Lawhead gave me the escapism I was seeking. I read 300 pages of the book practically in one sitting. I haven't done that since Stephen King's The Stand.(less)

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Dec 07, 2010 Jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ancient history has always been a passion of mine, and when a book of Celtic mythology, the journey to the Otherworld, is written, I was peaked. It was not what I had expected, not by a long shot. A story that seemed to me to be a strange look at ancient Britain turned into a potential epic that was fascinating to explore.

That being said, the story did drag in several places. The imagery was lacking, and the book seemed somewhat passive to me. Things seemed to happen, but were not happening. It...more

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Apr 11, 2010 Annie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, christian-fiction

Definitely just the first act in a larger story, The Paradise War is good. not great. but definitely good.

I have to admit I didn't love the writing or the description. Even in trying to give words to an astounding world I felt like the description was trying too hard, or I was trying too hard to understand. The language is simple and uninteresting, until in brief moments when his words ring absolutely true and then I liked it a lot!

I didn't like the central character much; he was petulent and h...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Annika rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: didn-t-finish

I so wanted to like this story. It had all the makings of something spectacular that would intrigue me, the needy reader.

Celtic lore, Scotland Scotland Scotland, college boys, fantasy, traveling to Otherworlds....

The premise is great. The idea is great.

The execution was awful. I liked the first chapter. I could not even make it 20% into this story. This author is awful. Every single sentence had to use the most descriptive and over-the-top language to describe every single everyday mundane thin...more

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Dec 06, 2010 Mumbo Gumbo rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a positively dreadful book which had a good idea but a poor delivery. I understand that it has a tremendous following, but I can only suppose there must be hordes of readers out there who enjoy pointless verbosity.

The idea behind the story is time honored in fantasy: Guys from present find their way through a portal to another time/place/age/reality -- in this case something akin to Celtic Highlands, though the development of the Celtic angle was thinner than a razor. Once in the new la...more This was a positively dreadful book which had a good idea but a poor delivery. I understand that it has a tremendous following, but I can only suppose there must be hordes of readers out there who enjoy pointless verbosity.

The idea behind the story is time honored in fantasy: Guys from present find their way through a portal to another time/place/age/reality -- in this case something akin to Celtic Highlands, though the development of the Celtic angle was thinner than a razor. Once in the new land, both friends find themselves separated and eventually growing apart as they take opposite sides in a civil struggle. The problem is, the character development and plot development of the book are practically stillborn. Like an emu they never get off the ground.

Most annoying in the book is the author's opinion that readers have to be told the same thing at least a dozen times in different ways before they can understand it. He loves adverbs to the point of lunacy and bludgeons the reader with diatribes that eat up pages of the book without delivering anything in the way of progress. His characters are single dimensional and are constantly experiencing inexplicable mood changes, attitude adjustments and character shifts which do nothing but confuse the reader. Scenery is described in such detail that it becomes monotonous. When writing, even triads used in explanation become boring after awhile. This author sees nothing wrong with describing the same item with even 10 or 12 different descriptions, all of which say the same thing. It's as though he's giving us a V8 smack upside the head again and again because we are too stupid to get it the first time.

I will certainly not be reading the second and third books because at this point I couldn't care less if Lewis/Llews and Simon/Siawn ever kiss and make up or become mortal enemies. Despite the constant drumming over the head of needless description, Albion is boring and lifeless. Insist all you want that it is brighter and richer and fuller and more amazing and more wonderful and glowing and more brilliant than our present world --- it is boring and nothing even remotely interesting happens in the book from first to last.

At best The Paradise War is a cardboard cutout world with paper doll characters which completely misses with any enthusiasm for the Celtic background or anything else. As I conclude the book I can't think of a single memorable quote or any other thing learned which I would want to share. A complete waste of time. Fortunately, I downloaded it for free from Kindle so I'm not out anything but the time spent trudging through it.(less)

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Jan 08, 2012 Eyebright rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Eyebright by: Georgie Penn

Shelves: adventure, fantasy, 2012, way-cool, favorites

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...more 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. (less)

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Mar 06, 2012 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I feel like this is the 90s version of the boy's adventure novels from the 50s--not that, as a girl, I don't like it, but that it's very much the sort of war-hero boy-to-man thing going on.
I will say that, re-reading this as a graduate student myself now, the academic structure of the first part of the book was just painfully right. I'm not at Oxford, but that atmosphere is sadly easy to recognize. I'd forgotten that Lewis and Simon were students at the beginning of this, and reading that part o...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, celtic-lore-culture

I picked up this book because of the Celtic connection, but if that doesn't work for you, at least attempt to read it for the epic rants of supporting character Simon- absolutely epic and wholly enjoyable. Too bad they didn't last longer- and this is a neat segue to my beef with this book- the characterization gets lost in the midst of the glorious descriptions and events of the Otherworld. I had just loved Simon's character- privileged, upper-crust young man with a sardonic wit and shallow, sel...more I picked up this book because of the Celtic connection, but if that doesn't work for you, at least attempt to read it for the epic rants of supporting character Simon- absolutely epic and wholly enjoyable. Too bad they didn't last longer- and this is a neat segue to my beef with this book- the characterization gets lost in the midst of the glorious descriptions and events of the Otherworld. I had just loved Simon's character- privileged, upper-crust young man with a sardonic wit and shallow, self-imposed discontent with anything and everything- just because he can. I loved his snide comments, his rants and soliloquies. Then he gets to the other side and in becoming a Celtic warrior, also loses his personality? I can understand that removal from the consumerist world was tantamount to removal of inflammatory topics, and that in an archetypal world there might not be much to gripe about, and yet I mourn the quick death of a highly amusing and potentially unforgettable character. And then there's Lewis, the main character. What is the point of making him a Celtic Studies graduate student if he barely gets to utilize his knowledge? Really, that he barely draws on his understanding in a world archetypal of the culture that he has studied for years is nothing short of ridiculous and a waste of a potentially crucial plot element. And that's the pity- sure, Lewis knows about standing stones and mounds, and knows a tiny bit Gaelic (he has an interpreter, so that doesn't even count towards justifying the Celtic connection)- but by and large, what could have been integral is reduced to an almost incidental element. That Lewis was a Celtic scholar makes no impact on the plot, and more disappointingly, on his insights and viewpoint. Therefore I got little out of this book in terms of a deeper understanding of Celtic lore. However- and I must be influenced by the early Simon if it took me this long to get here- I definitely did enjoy this book and will be reading the sequel.(less)

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Dec 20, 2012 Katie Curl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found myself randomly pursuing the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section in B&N when I stumbled upon The Song of Albion trilogy. I picked up the first book, skimmed it, and immediately grabbed the last two books and purchased them all in the spot.

Paradise War was simply incredible. Lawhead's language and imagery was crystal clear, much like Albion itself. Lawhead wrote in such a way that kept me enthralled, never knowing where the story would take me. I literally gasped at the end. Though I do have to m...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First book in the series. I thought it was going to be a book about two college students when the Otherworld invaded England (I was led to think this because of the description on the book cover "Wolves prowling the streets of Oxford. A green man haunting the Highlands. . ." and the first few pages). However, it is a book about a college student (technically grad student) who becomes an Otherwold (basically fantasy Celtic) warrior. Not as interesting. I didn't care much for the main character. I...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Cass rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007-and-earlier, books-i-own, fantasy

I finished this book the day my youngest sister was born. I had attempted the series and struggled with the open section. The first few (actually more than a few) chapters are downright boring. The author drags us through a long narration setting the scene for the two main characters in the books.

My Dad had noticed the books and took this one to the hospital while we waited for the birth. My Dad share a long history of reading the same book together. Every time he put it down I would pick it up....more

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Jan 10, 2013 Lyssa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I would rate this somewhere between three and four stars. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style and the characters. I also enjoyed the almost unnoticeable transition between modern language and idioms to that of a characteristic fantasy novel. The story was well thought out (and I look forward to the next installment) but...it dragged. I think it's because unlike most fantasy novels, which involves several different characters engaging in the same plot for most of the story, this one focused pr...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Brittany rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Paradise War is a very well though out and captivating fantasy. It tells of how two Oxford students find themselves transported to the " Otherworld", a world that is ancient but dependent upon the modern world as the modern world depends on it. The ancient Celts put no difference between the real world and the otherworld. And so it is in this story; two separate worlds are delicately intertwined, and both are equally real.
I pretty much skipped the first 6 chapters because they were peppere...more

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Dec 03, 2010 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: christian fantasy readers, late teens, new to fantasy

Shelves: owned-book

Three Stars is my perfect rating for this book - no more and no less. It was not by any means a bad book, but was also not something that stood out or grabbed me. While the scenery, history, and lore shines through and is very well written, and I did very much enjoy the vocabulary in this novel, I felt the plot and pace rather systematic and predictable. The depth of most of the characters was mediocre, having a sampling of surface personalities you would find in any medieval story involving a k...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Selene rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasía

En este primer libro de la trilogía su autor nos sumerge en el mundo mágico de donde proceden todas las leyendas e historias celtas, el mundo de Albión. A través de los ojos de Lewis Gillies, estudiante americano en Oxford, observamos maravillados este nuevo mundo, cuando este entra a través de un portal entre los dos mundos durante la hora entre horas, en busca de su amigo Simon, un consentido niño rico que estudia con él en Oxford.
Su viaje a través de Albión lo cambiará, transformándolo y prep...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I must admit that I didn’t have much expectation to the new series. Mainly because of the "21 century boy" meets Celtic myths, aren’t my cup of tea. And yes here the “but” is coming in... But Lawhead doesn’t dwell on the part of a modern boy/man experiencing Celtic livelihood and mystic, but are more concentrated on how easily he except the world/universe he is travelled to and tries intellectually to integrate both aspect of the Celtic and "modern living.
The novel is fun and thrilling to read...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Branwen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-science-fiction

Lewis is an American student going to school in Oxford. When his roomate discovers a newspaper article about a legendary beast (an aurochs) that was sighted, they both go on a weekend adventure to try and see it. What they discover however, is a cairn that transports them into another world-the world of Albion.

This book was seriously amazing. I picked it up in the store because the cover caught my eye, but I didn't expect to get swept up in it like I did. It is an amazing fantasy story, with wri...more

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May 11, 2013 Andrew James Jiao rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

I liked The Paradise War mainly because of the witty incorporation of Celtic History and culture into Fantasy. The thing that kept me from rating it with 4 stars is the overly flowery descriptions. Although I appreciate the art in the text, and the sentences really sound great when you read them, I found it hard to visualize the scenes being described.

Overall I think it is a solid book, and I found myself rather pleasantly surprised by how good it turned out. Oftentimes readers compare every fa...more

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Oct 03, 2011 Rena rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tricky for me to rate this book. I read through sections quickly, but felt that not much was happening. Then I would put the book aside, take a break from it, and then try again. Since this is the first of a series I suspect that much of the action is coming in the next book. I'm just not sure I will continue. I really like it when I get caught up in a story and I feel as if I am in the story. When I feel connected to the characters, and can't wait to see what happens. I just didn't feel that wa...more

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Nov 28, 2010 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't realize that this free Kindle book was fantasy -- I started to enjoy it almost immediately, when the hero was at Oxford -- I recognized many of the streets etc. When he followed his friend thru a "time warp" and ended in ancient Albion, the kingdom of the Celts, I was unable to not finish the book. It held me enthralled, all the while I was wondering what would happen. It would have been ideal except for the "human-ness" of all concerned. I think this is the first in a trilogy and if so...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Jeremy Preacher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: celtic, fantasy

As much as I love the Pendragon Cycle, I think an argument could be made that The Paradise War is a stronger story. It's very nearly as archetypal - modern man finds a path into magical land of legend, saves world, etc - but the tensions set up between the two modern characters, the well-executed portrayal of the seductiveness of a world that accepts you as you are, and the mythic, if somewhat muddled, climax create a cohesive and compelling narrative. It does not stand on its own - the ending i...more

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May 07, 2011 Daniela Romo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although it sounds like most people would disagree with me, I really liked the Pendragon Cycle better. The beginning held potential with the journey to the Otherworld, but once that was reached the story began to loose my interest as many years were skipped over. The comical nature of someone being out of their world and time and not fitting in should not be fast forwarded. Couldn't help but compare it to the Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which to me was so much better. It was more of a time trav...more

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Mar 09, 2013 missbowers rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

I read this book quickly; it was a quick read, I'll give it that. I don't think I loved it or liked it, though, and I do not feel compelled to read the other books in the series. I cannot quite say what I didn't like about it; I generally do like Lawhead books.

The language was different--a bit off--and I found the other world highly unbelievable--not, because it's fantasy, but because I just did not feel like I could buy into this perfect "paradise" where people killed one another. It seem impr...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Jenn rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This story is based heavily on celtic mythology. The main character knows almost nothing about the celts and has to have everything explained to him. He is a grad student. His major is celtic studies. How does that even make sense!?

I didn't end up finishing the book, got about halfway through and skimmed the rest. In the hands of a better writer the story might have been decent. The characters however were too weak and lacking in personality to carry the plot. As it is, if I could have given it...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Tim Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, reviewed

I began this book with great anticipation, having heard of it (and the series this novel begins) for years. In fact, I have had a copy of _The Paradise War_ on one of my bookshelves for longer than I care to admit, unread. This was my first novel by this author as well, one of the major writers in his field, so I had hoped I was in for a treat. Glancing at the glowing reviews that readers-like-me gave it, I just *knew* it had to be good.

Where are you going with this Tim? I think you know. It was...more I began this book with great anticipation, having heard of it (and the series this novel begins) for years. In fact, I have had a copy of _The Paradise War_ on one of my bookshelves for longer than I care to admit, unread. This was my first novel by this author as well, one of the major writers in his field, so I had hoped I was in for a treat. Glancing at the glowing reviews that readers-like-me gave it, I just *knew* it had to be good.

Where are you going with this Tim? I think you know. It was good, don’t get me wrong! Three stars, count ‘em! That is hardly a bad rating and the book had a lot of things I liked about it. I just wasn’t blown away and I am mildly mystified as to why. I will freely admit that I am one of those people that if something is oversold to me (or as I did with this series, let the anticipation build up waaaaay too long) it can mar my enjoyment of something. I can’t help but think that if I didn’t have all that in the way, I might have given it a higher rating. Of course, I also feel that there is nothing wrong with three stars (you have to watch out for two or one star ratings though!).

Again, I liked the book a good deal. I won’t rehash the premise – you can easily determine that yourself and probably already know something of that or you wouldn’t be reading my review, but this is the internet, so maybe I am wrong – but I will talk about what I liked in a non-spoilerish fashion as I can. First of all, I loved the idea of two friends, one an American studying in the England, the other his British friend, coming across evidence of what is obviously a fantasy world leaking into the real, modern world (something the book later calls, a few times, the manifest world). Anything like that, I love. My problem though (so much for listing what I liked first) is that that is not what the book is. I mean not really. These things, these creatures, that leak through, they certainly spur on our two main characters (well, really our main character, as the other, though important, is a secondary character) into action and get them involved in things, but they don’t become the premise of the book, with the fantasy in the modern world, as in Harry Potter or in the Fern Capel series. It is more about them in the fantasy world, not dealing with the leakages into the modern world. In fact, the leakages are never solved in this book, though that is in and of itself not a problem, as it is a first installment in a trilogy.

A second complaint is that though it becomes better explained later, the elements that come through seem to have a more fantastic component to them (not all of them, but some definitely are faerie like), but once the two real worlders get over to the Celtic fantasy realm that the bulk of the novel takes place in, you scarcely see for long stretches at a time these fantastic elements. Hard to go into more detail about without spoilers, but differences in geography aside (Lewis Gillies’ rapturous descriptions of the scenery could simply be chalked up to someone who has never seen unspoiled landscape and climate), the realm felt more historical than fantastic. Maybe this is a weird complaint, as I don’t mind that – I love Guy Gavrial Kay, who made a living doing much the same thing, using historical settings in a non-magical fantasy setting and the Celtic feel is fantastic, it just didn’t feel like the realm I thought the protagonist was going to. Maybe it is a subtle compliant and maybe I am just whining a little…..

Ok, back to things I liked. The Celtic feel, with the bards, the language, the warrior culture, the food, the drink, the music, very well done; no one that I am aware has done a truly Celtic (non pseudo-Celtic I mean Celtic) setting better. The battle scenes – and there are many – are very well written, very clear and easy to follow, and from what I have read in other books, that is not an easy feat, quite well done and just top rate. The feel of the scenery, which felt like SuperScotland or SuperIreland, was very well done. As they relate to the plot it was often done very well indeed; one series of adventures involving wolves tracking the good guys through snowy woods, extremely excellent. Many people talk about how time flows different in a faerie world or another dimension, but I think – no spoilers! – this author has done it by the far the best by *showing* it, not just talking about it. Another thing I really liked as that though the narrator does not change – it remains Lewis Gillies, though he develops other names in this otherworld as time progresses – his style and mannerisms change in a real subtle matter quite convincingly, from American college student to Celtic warrior. I thought that was excellent, as he becomes less and less amazed and incredulous and really comes to embrace these Celtic people’s viewpoint as his own as the years roll by.

Relating to that viewpoint, I can see why the author stuck with one view point the whole book, as in large part Lewis’ discovery of the realm of Albion was ours as well – sometimes it would have been nice to get a different point of view. A couple of things could have been better illustrated, or more actions could have been seen if wasn’t always only from the point of view of one character – a complaint I had about the _Green_ novels by Jay Lake. Maybe this is not a fair complaint, as there are good tradeoffs to having only character point of view – can be less confusing, leads to a well developed main character – but it is still not something I have seen much and can find it just odd feeling. Again, maybe that is just me.

I did have some problems with some of the actions in the climax; chiefly understanding just what happened. I won't go into them here, but I will say this; if you are have the main character as your only point of view, in my mind you shouldn't have him withhold what he is thinking to the reader. If you want that mystery, that is why you switch points of view.

It was a good book, I enjoyed it, I found it a fast read. I guess the things that keep me from putting a higher rating on it are the small things and maybe my own self-created obstacles. It is a good book, go read it if you haven’t already. I very much look forward to reading more Lawhead in the years to come; I can see why he has such a loyal following.
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Aug 29, 2012 Kerry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Inspired by Celtic lore, Lawhead creates a parallel universe (Ala...Narnia.) A rift is torn between the worlds and must be closed, some college students find the entrance (not located in a wardrobe), and two books later, parallel epic history is made.

The 'The Paradise War' is an enjoyable start to the Song of Albion trilogy. I might have liked if he made the story less dark, invested more in developing his character's depth, and created a good fool or two to provide some comic relief. Perhaps de...more

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About Stephen R. Lawhead

Stephen R. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of mythic history and imaginative fiction. His works include Byzantium, Patrick, and the series The Pendragon Cycle, The Celtic Crusades, and The Song of Albion.

Also see his fanpage at Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/stephenlawhead...

Stephen was born in 1950, in Nebraska in the USA. Most of his early life was spent in America where he earned...more

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“Unbelievers enjoy the security of their unbelief; there is great confidence in ignorance.” — 11 people liked it

“To friends! Life belongs to those who love, and where love reigns is man truly king!” — 9 people liked it

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The Paradise War (The Song of Albion #1)

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