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Heavens War
1938: As the world moves toward global war, a secret angelic battle is waged in the heavenly realms to determine mankind's fate. The infamous Aleister Crowley plans to manipulate those angelic struggles and thus shape the world according to his will. Only "The Inklings" -- fantasy authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams -- oppose him. They must decipher a landscape of sacred geometry to intercept Crowley at the threshold of heaven. And, for one of the Inklings, the pursuit will reach outside time itself.
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 6, 2003
About the author
Micah S. Harris
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 20, 2012
Disappointing! The Inklings, a clique of writer friends, principally including C.S Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams, clash with the famous occultist Aleister Crowley in a celestial duel for the fate of the world. Occultist Arthur Waite figures in the story as well. This setup had so much potential, both as speculative fiction and philosophically, yet it fell flat, and was nearly unreadable.
I have read that the author was attempting to write this in the style of Charles Williams (who is the principal Inkling in this story). That may be the explanation for this graphic novel’s failure. Williams work is more obscure than his friends Lewis and Tolkien. He wrote speculative fiction full of occult lore, loaded with theological implications. Yet, even in the best of his novels he had an oblique writing style that was an obstacle to be overcome for readers interested in his ideas. Choosing to mimic his writing style in the graphic novel format was not wise.
I have read that the author was attempting to write this in the style of Charles Williams (who is the principal Inkling in this story). That may be the explanation for this graphic novel’s failure. Williams work is more obscure than his friends Lewis and Tolkien. He wrote speculative fiction full of occult lore, loaded with theological implications. Yet, even in the best of his novels he had an oblique writing style that was an obstacle to be overcome for readers interested in his ideas. Choosing to mimic his writing style in the graphic novel format was not wise.
November 29, 2012
Note: I read this in 2005 and wrote a review on Amazon that I just realized I never put here. So here it is:
To appreciate Heaven's War, I had to give it a few rereads. First off, though CS Lewis and Tolkien are important characters, the story's central figure is the lesser known inkling, Charles Williams. I can't speak authoritatively, having never read Williams, but it apparently is written in his style and follows the themes of his books. I suspect some fans of Lewis and Tolkien will be slightly disappointed, but for what the author is attempting to accomplish here, I have to admit it works.
In short, Aleister Crowley is seeking secrets of the Rennes-le-Chateau and is pursuing an aging Arthur Waite for answers. Waite fears for his life and the secrets he believes he has nearly uncovered, and calls on Charles Williams for help. By association, this involves Lewis and Tolkien as well. Essentially, Crowley wants to find the gate to heaven and affect the battle between good and evil at the heavenly realm, with heavy repercussions for those on earth.
If you're immediately familiar with Crowley, Waite, Gnosticism and the Holy Blood, Holy Grail theories and such, you've got a great head start on understanding the plot. The focus on these pseudo historical and anti-Christian theories is concerning, though after reading the annotations in the back of the book, I'm confident that he views the claims made by such theories as essentially false. They advance the plot, but we're not supposed to assume that when Waite discusses Gnostic cosmology that he's describing the truth (in fact, without spoiling too much, a guide in heaven notes that the Gnostic Cathers find heaven disappointingly "sensuous"). The details of all this is mostly over my own head, I'm afraid. More familiar to me was the imagery Harris uses in his descriptions of heaven, though I didn't catch all this until reading the annotations.
The flow can be confusing if you're the sort to impatiently skip long pieces of dialog. This is not an easy reading book, if you haven't figured it out yet. The central conflicts are ideological, not physical (no, Tolkien doesn't pick up a sword and attack Crowley while he casts some black magic spell, get that expectation out of your head), the philosophical assertations of Lewis, Crowley, etc. drive the it, and in fact Lewis' idea of evil (as recalled by Williams) vs. Crowley's rather "post-modern" view is the driving point of the final climactic "battle."
The drawing is probably the weakest point of the novel, unfortunately. Of course this isn't an action based comic, so the story itself is a limiting influence, but the black and white with no shading just isn't that interesting to look at.
In summary, I liked it but I had to work at it to do so, which is something most people don't come to a graphic novel expecting to do. Having no prior knowledge of figures like Waite and Williams and only a "pop culture" knowledge of Crowley hurt me more than a little bit here. Still, a solid 4/5 star rating. I'm now interested in reading some of Charles Williams' work.
To appreciate Heaven's War, I had to give it a few rereads. First off, though CS Lewis and Tolkien are important characters, the story's central figure is the lesser known inkling, Charles Williams. I can't speak authoritatively, having never read Williams, but it apparently is written in his style and follows the themes of his books. I suspect some fans of Lewis and Tolkien will be slightly disappointed, but for what the author is attempting to accomplish here, I have to admit it works.
In short, Aleister Crowley is seeking secrets of the Rennes-le-Chateau and is pursuing an aging Arthur Waite for answers. Waite fears for his life and the secrets he believes he has nearly uncovered, and calls on Charles Williams for help. By association, this involves Lewis and Tolkien as well. Essentially, Crowley wants to find the gate to heaven and affect the battle between good and evil at the heavenly realm, with heavy repercussions for those on earth.
If you're immediately familiar with Crowley, Waite, Gnosticism and the Holy Blood, Holy Grail theories and such, you've got a great head start on understanding the plot. The focus on these pseudo historical and anti-Christian theories is concerning, though after reading the annotations in the back of the book, I'm confident that he views the claims made by such theories as essentially false. They advance the plot, but we're not supposed to assume that when Waite discusses Gnostic cosmology that he's describing the truth (in fact, without spoiling too much, a guide in heaven notes that the Gnostic Cathers find heaven disappointingly "sensuous"). The details of all this is mostly over my own head, I'm afraid. More familiar to me was the imagery Harris uses in his descriptions of heaven, though I didn't catch all this until reading the annotations.
The flow can be confusing if you're the sort to impatiently skip long pieces of dialog. This is not an easy reading book, if you haven't figured it out yet. The central conflicts are ideological, not physical (no, Tolkien doesn't pick up a sword and attack Crowley while he casts some black magic spell, get that expectation out of your head), the philosophical assertations of Lewis, Crowley, etc. drive the it, and in fact Lewis' idea of evil (as recalled by Williams) vs. Crowley's rather "post-modern" view is the driving point of the final climactic "battle."
The drawing is probably the weakest point of the novel, unfortunately. Of course this isn't an action based comic, so the story itself is a limiting influence, but the black and white with no shading just isn't that interesting to look at.
In summary, I liked it but I had to work at it to do so, which is something most people don't come to a graphic novel expecting to do. Having no prior knowledge of figures like Waite and Williams and only a "pop culture" knowledge of Crowley hurt me more than a little bit here. Still, a solid 4/5 star rating. I'm now interested in reading some of Charles Williams' work.
July 10, 2017
Struggled to read it. Michael Gaydos' art was disappointing by his standards. Micah Harris would be better off writing articles, he strangled this with exposition. I wanted to like this, but couldn't.
July 10, 2017
This was incredibly stupid. It is probably the worst representation of Crowley since the equally stupid movie written by Bruce Dickinson.
December 31, 2020
How did I not know this existed? Tolkien and Lewis as supernatural superheroes. Yes.
March 14, 2023
Interesting graphic novel about time and space, good and evil, and a war in heaven led by aleister Crowley against Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Read
September 5, 2025The cover is so sick. What a pity that the comic is mid lol
March 22, 2017
Though a bit uneven, Heaven's War is an interesting read about the intersection of the spiritual realm and the space/time continuum. If you've ever wanted to see Tolkien and Lewis team up to battle Alistair Crowley, this is the book for which you've been waiting. Its fusion of fiction and known historical events is reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code but with a Back to the Future twist, in which events affect not only the material world but the spiritual realms and vice versa. It's a somewhat unique experience, albeit one that can be hard to follow at times. I like it more as I reflect on it further, which is typically a good sign.
October 8, 2015
In Micah Harris and Michael Gaydos's graphic novel Heaven's War the clique of theologians and writers known as the Inklings must use art history and detective work to stop Aleister Crowley from invading heaven.
It's not as exciting as that summary makes it sound. The plot largely cribs Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, with dull nonsense about secret societies and messages hidden in paintings. Heaven's War was originally published a year after The Da Vinci Code and any similarities are interesting but almost certainly unintentional.
The main character of this fantasy story is the real author Charles Williams, supported by his friends C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In fact, all the characters saving the angels appear to be real people. It's a risky choice, and Harris doesn't quite pull it off. The portrayal of Crowley in particular is amazingly shallow. Harris would have been better off inventing a fictional 'generic evil occultist', for Crowley here is portrayed with less subtlety and realism than Don Bluth's 1997 cartoon Anastasia paints Grigori Rasputin.
It's as if the only solid fact Harris learned about Crowley is that he was once called "the wickedest man in the world", and he decided to take that at its word and go from there. Crowley's teeth are sharpened, his eyes glow, and he wants to invade Heaven and help Satan win the war against God. The audience isn't really invited to speculate on why Crowley would want to do this. He was a moral relativist, Harris tells us, and everyone knows they are all coal-hearted miscreants.
Real Life Crowley:
True enough, everything is evil relatively to Adonai; for all stain is impurity. A bee's swarm is evil — inside one's clothes. "Dirt is matter in the wrong place." It is dirt to connect sex with statuary, morals with art.
Only Adonai, who is in a sense the True Meaning of everything, cannot defile any idea. This is a hard saying, though true, for nothing of course is dirtier than to try and use Adonai as a fig-leaf for one's shame.
To seduce women under the pretense of religion is unutterable foulness; though both adultery and religion are themselves clean. To mix jam and mustard is a messy mistake.
Cartoon Crowley:
We're not so different, you and I.
OK, that's a particularly silly example. Most of Harris's dialogue isn't quite that bad. Which is a good thing, because the story is primarily told through dialogue — it's a very "talking heads" story. The primary purpose of the book seems to be an allegorical explanation of Williams's keystone theology of "the doctrine of substituted love". Harris explains the concept well, though not nearly so well as Williams does in his own novels.
As a graphic novel, Heaven's War is a lot more accesible than Williams's esoteric, turgid prose. But much is lost in the simplification. The art is average, a cartoony style printed in black and white. Gaydos captures the likeness of his human subjects well — C.S. Lewis in particular — but when it comes to the fantasy, underwhelms. Angels are long-haired men in loincloths. Heaven is vague and ill-defined. The bad guy has fangs.
Heaven's War tries to emulate Charles Williams's own theological thrillers, but the attempt falls flat. The annotations are more interesting than the story itself. And his portrayal of Charles Williams as a fictional character could be more nuanced.
Crowley, in the story's climax, makes an attempt to turn Williams to the dark side by appealing to his sadomasochistic side. Naturally, Williams refuses to be converted to Satanism, but Crowley's attempt seems curiously half-hearted.
For Charles Williams really was fascinated by the occult, a facet of his character Harris downplays.
A quote from one of Williams's own novels, War in Heaven, describing a religious character at worship:
Of all those who lay awake under those midnight stars he was the only one who had a naturally religious spirit; to him only the unknown beyond man’s life presented itself as alive with hierarchical presences arrayed in rising orders to the central throne. To him alone sacraments were living realities... Prayer was natural to him ... He adored as he lay in vigil, and from that adoration issued the calm strength of a supernatural union.
The character described her is Gregory Persimmons, a Satanist. Crowley could have tried a little harder to turn Williams to the side that fights the side of the angels. But would the real Crowley have even bothered to give him the time of day?
It's not as exciting as that summary makes it sound. The plot largely cribs Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, with dull nonsense about secret societies and messages hidden in paintings. Heaven's War was originally published a year after The Da Vinci Code and any similarities are interesting but almost certainly unintentional.
The main character of this fantasy story is the real author Charles Williams, supported by his friends C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In fact, all the characters saving the angels appear to be real people. It's a risky choice, and Harris doesn't quite pull it off. The portrayal of Crowley in particular is amazingly shallow. Harris would have been better off inventing a fictional 'generic evil occultist', for Crowley here is portrayed with less subtlety and realism than Don Bluth's 1997 cartoon Anastasia paints Grigori Rasputin.
It's as if the only solid fact Harris learned about Crowley is that he was once called "the wickedest man in the world", and he decided to take that at its word and go from there. Crowley's teeth are sharpened, his eyes glow, and he wants to invade Heaven and help Satan win the war against God. The audience isn't really invited to speculate on why Crowley would want to do this. He was a moral relativist, Harris tells us, and everyone knows they are all coal-hearted miscreants.
Real Life Crowley:
True enough, everything is evil relatively to Adonai; for all stain is impurity. A bee's swarm is evil — inside one's clothes. "Dirt is matter in the wrong place." It is dirt to connect sex with statuary, morals with art.
Only Adonai, who is in a sense the True Meaning of everything, cannot defile any idea. This is a hard saying, though true, for nothing of course is dirtier than to try and use Adonai as a fig-leaf for one's shame.
To seduce women under the pretense of religion is unutterable foulness; though both adultery and religion are themselves clean. To mix jam and mustard is a messy mistake.
Cartoon Crowley:
We're not so different, you and I.
OK, that's a particularly silly example. Most of Harris's dialogue isn't quite that bad. Which is a good thing, because the story is primarily told through dialogue — it's a very "talking heads" story. The primary purpose of the book seems to be an allegorical explanation of Williams's keystone theology of "the doctrine of substituted love". Harris explains the concept well, though not nearly so well as Williams does in his own novels.
As a graphic novel, Heaven's War is a lot more accesible than Williams's esoteric, turgid prose. But much is lost in the simplification. The art is average, a cartoony style printed in black and white. Gaydos captures the likeness of his human subjects well — C.S. Lewis in particular — but when it comes to the fantasy, underwhelms. Angels are long-haired men in loincloths. Heaven is vague and ill-defined. The bad guy has fangs.
Heaven's War tries to emulate Charles Williams's own theological thrillers, but the attempt falls flat. The annotations are more interesting than the story itself. And his portrayal of Charles Williams as a fictional character could be more nuanced.
Crowley, in the story's climax, makes an attempt to turn Williams to the dark side by appealing to his sadomasochistic side. Naturally, Williams refuses to be converted to Satanism, but Crowley's attempt seems curiously half-hearted.
For Charles Williams really was fascinated by the occult, a facet of his character Harris downplays.
A quote from one of Williams's own novels, War in Heaven, describing a religious character at worship:
Of all those who lay awake under those midnight stars he was the only one who had a naturally religious spirit; to him only the unknown beyond man’s life presented itself as alive with hierarchical presences arrayed in rising orders to the central throne. To him alone sacraments were living realities... Prayer was natural to him ... He adored as he lay in vigil, and from that adoration issued the calm strength of a supernatural union.
The character described her is Gregory Persimmons, a Satanist. Crowley could have tried a little harder to turn Williams to the side that fights the side of the angels. But would the real Crowley have even bothered to give him the time of day?
February 6, 2010
Weird but very interesting graphic novel, combining fantasy, philosophy, and historical fiction. Without giving anything away, the best description I can think of is that it's basically the DaVinci Code on acid, with Aleister Crowley instead of ridiculous albino assassin/monks. It's the story of British fantasy writer Charles Williams and two of his friends (CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien) as they race to stop an ancient relic with supernatural powers from falling into the wrong hands.
I'd never heard of Charles Williams before, but I'm definitely going to look into some of his books after reading this.
I'd never heard of Charles Williams before, but I'm definitely going to look into some of his books after reading this.
May 11, 2015
I had great hopes for this. A book where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien fight Aleister Crowley sounds genius. Unfortunately, nothing much happens. It's like reading a theologian's dissertation on the war in heaven. It's just too dense for the comic format. I would give it negative stars if I could.
July 24, 2014
Seriously, I couldn't make heads nor tails of it. Not sure why its a graphic novel. The art doesn't serve a purpose as 75% of the panels are full of word balloons. The story makes no sense. None. I don't know what else to say.
December 27, 2015
Misleading -- it's mostly about Charles Williams, an Inkling but not a famous one. It's not terribly bad, and seems to be accurate to the historical characters' actual beliefs, but it's just not very exciting.
September 4, 2016
If you know anything about the Inklings or Charles Williams you'll be immediately engaged otherwise it might take someone a bit to catch on to this cleverly researched, cerebral encounter with the occult.
February 2, 2012
I couldn't resist the novelty factor...but it ended up being just as silly as I was afraid it would be.
August 2, 2013
Amazing.
August 2, 2013
An amalgam of Christian conspiracy and mysticism. Fun!
June 30, 2014
This book has interesting ideas but it just doesn't manage to pull them together into a coherent plot.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews