Joe's review
The Religion: A Novel
by Tim Willocks
Joe's review
The Religion: A Novel by Tim Willocks
Joe's review
rating:
Easily the best historical fiction novel I've ever read, Tim Willocks does a superb job describing in accuracy the often grisly details of the Great Siege of Malta by the Ottoman Turks in the mid-sixteenth century and their attempt to wipe out the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, otherwise popularly known as the Knights Hospitaller. "The Religion" is the first book of The Tannhauser Trilogy, which follows the adventures of Mattias Tannhauser, a German man abducted as a youth by Turks and forced to serve for years in the famous Jannisary corps of the Ottoman army. Later leaving the service of the Turkish Sultan, Tannhauser begins a lucrative life as trader in profitable goods such as wine, gunpowder, and opium when he gets drawn into the conflict on Malta between the Hospitallers and the Ottomans.
