false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170843498m/73935.jpg 73935 11 Most of Stephen Lawhead's popular historical fantasies are part of one or another of his sagas, trilogies, or cycles. For readers who enjoy big galloping yarns set in distant lands, and don't mind having their hands held by the author every step of the way, the first volume of his new Christian trilogy should hit the spot.<p> The framing device begins at the end of the nineteenth century, in Edinburgh, where Gordon Murray is about to be inducted into an ancient brotherhood whose secret rites involve a sacred relic: the iron lance of the title. The main narrative is set in eleventh century Orkney. When Pope Urban II calls for the retaking of Jerusalem from the infidel, the local lord, Ranulf, joins the Crusade with his elder sons, leaving behind young Murdo to oversee the family holdings. When the Church, through a nefarious scheme, confiscates the house and holdings, Murdo has no choice but to follow the Crusaders to the Holy Land and bring his father home to fix the whole mess.<p> Lawhead paints a vast and exotic canvas of medieval world politics, then peoples it with colorful characters--cunning Byzantine rulers, bluff Norman knights, gap-toothed, shaggy-brained Saxon peasants--who encounter visions and miracles, brutality and ambition, love and justice. At the end of the main narrative, Murdo gets what he wants but not in the ways expected. The framing narrative ends with hints that, as the world lurches towards a new millennium, Gordon Murray's Christian secret society is the world's only hope for survival, and the time nears for the brotherhood to reveal itself. <I>--Luc Duplessis</I> 344010 1998 The Iron Lance (The Celtic Crusades, Book 1) total:350|5:73|4:147|3:97|2:25|1:8| 350 1302 527 21 4 0 false false Mon Jun 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 06:20:52 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 29 13:17:20 -0700 2009 Rating B+
Review As I've found with all of Stephen Lawhead's books (my initiation into the world of Celtic mythology and the Fantasy sub-genre), this book was just a little slow on the ramp-up of the book, but, paradoxically, by the end, I couldn't read it fast enough.

The story of M...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 16:03:33 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 05:57:38 -0800 2009 “How long could it take to liberate the Holy Land from the slack grasp of a few Arabs?”

I wasn’t very far into Stephen R. Lawhead’s The Iron Lance before things started to feel a little familiar. The irony, of course, is that the book was written in 1998, well before our current ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 19 13:09:24 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 05 23:50:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Aug 21 15:54:57 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 15:56:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Apr 06 06:10:23 -0700 2007 Sat Apr 14 08:53:09 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jun 02 15:52:53 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 15:54:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 08:01:38 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 08:14:32 -0800 2008 1
]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 07:59:51 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 08:00:21 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Sep 21 07:09:49 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 07:10:26 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jan 16 14:39:25 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 12:52:48 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 18 18:08:07 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 18:09:10 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Mar 28 12:25:32 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 28 12:26:21 -0700 2007 Favorite Quotes

We could but stand aside and watch as the manifold catastrophes of man and nature wreaked havoc great and dire upon the world. In this, I began to learn something of the heroic patience of the saints. To stand aside and watch while the worst mistakes were made again and ag...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Oct 24 14:35:02 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 03 15:09:55 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 14:35:02 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Aug 03 06:19:44 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 08:02:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 true false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Nov 08 13:20:22 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 08 13:23:43 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 14 08:30:25 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 08:33:55 -0700 2008
Lawhead has a way with the times. I admit I sometimes skips over his narrative to hit the high points. I know I did near t...more...]]> 1 0 false false Sat Mar 22 12:19:12 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 22 12:21:34 -0700 2008
No matter how good the author, I still can't get past the idea of sacking a city which was sacred not only to the supposed in...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Mar 05 13:28:53 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 05 13:29:43 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 16:53:23 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 17:42:07 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Thu Jul 17 13:34:28 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 17 13:36:28 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=73935