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sorinahiggins's review
5.0
Here is my summary of "War in Heaven" on my Charles Williams website, "The Oddest Inkling": https://theoddestinkling.wordpress.com/?s=war+in+heaven.
leesmyth's review
4.0
I liked it a lot overall, the twists and turns - it's got elements of murder mystery and detective story, a comedy of manners, and then a bit of demonic possession for the horror genre. Two of the villains are a bit stereotyped for modern tastes, and their evil scheme is perhaps somewhat underwhelming, but otherwise it works if you don't mind everything getting all entangled with the supernatural.
The opening scene is a lot of fun, as is the best-developed villain and his amoral collaborator. And the good guys do a glorious bit of social engineering at one point to evade the villains.
But perhaps my favorite scene is one where three members of London's police force are trying to get to a particular address. The underlings haven't been able to find it, so the Big Cheese heads out to see what's going on:
The opening scene is a lot of fun, as is the best-developed villain and his amoral collaborator. And the good guys do a glorious bit of social engineering at one point to evade the villains.
But perhaps my favorite scene is one where three members of London's police force are trying to get to a particular address. The underlings haven't been able to find it, so the Big Cheese heads out to see what's going on:
At what he hoped was the corner of Lord Mayor's Street he ran directly into a stationary figure.(ch. 16, p. 261)
"What the hell——" he began. "Sorry, sir. Oh, it's you, Pewitt. Damnation, man, why don't you shout instead of knocking me down? All right, all right. But standing at the corner of the street won't find the house, you know. Where's the constable? Why don't you keep together? Oh, he's here, is he! Couldn't even one of you look for the house instead of holding a revival meeting at the street corner? Now for God's sake don't apologize or I shall have to begin too, and we shall look like a ring of chimpanzees at the Zoo. I know as well as you do that I'm in a vile temper. Come along and let's have a look. Where's the grocer's?"
He was shown it. Then, he first, Pewitt second, and the constable last, they edged along the houses, their torches turned on the windows. "That's the grocer's," the Commissioner went on. "And here—this blasted fog's thicker than ever—is the end of the grocer's, I suppose; at least it's the end of a window. Then this must be the confectioner's. I believe I saw a cake; the blind's only half down. And here's a door, the confectioner's door. Didn't you think of doing it this way, Pewitt?"
"Yes, sir," Pewitt said, "the constable and I have done it about seventeen times."
rheren's review
3.0
I read this as part of a book club. It has some clever phrases that I very much enjoyed and some interesting parts, but as a story it felt offputting somehow. The characters weren't cardboard or annoying, they were fairly well-realized and authentic feeling, but I did have trouble following their motivations: the archdeacon seemed terribly passive almost everywhere except the one time when he suddenly steals something and runs like mad. The duke seems in control and immovable except suddenly when he stumbles into something totally unprepared and then just falls to pieces. Mr. Persimmons similarly seemed totally in control and dedicated, until suddenly he's turning himself in to the police simply because someone told him to. Parts of the story just struck me as odd. It was okay, but not my favorite.
bkoser's review
4.0
Charles Williams both benefits and suffers from being forever linked to his Inkling friends J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.
He suffers from the inevitable comparison, lacking the grace of Tolkien and the vim of Lewis. The main flaw of the book is that the middle feels purposeless, not advancing the plot or fleshing out the characters or themes. His primary career was as an editor, so I feel like he should have known to add plot or cut 100 pages. It's not a character-driven story, which is also usually a downside for me.
However, he benefits from continuing to be read because of his connection to his more popular counterparts. And by the end of the book, I decided he is worth reading. Unlike Tolkien's and (for the most part*) Lewis's works, War in Heaven is set in the real world. In Williams's Christian worldview, the physical and spiritual are two equally real and equally important realms. Heaven is not a cloudy aether where the dead go when they die, but a mysterious world that interacts and intersects with the familiar physical one. And the physical world is not evil and base, but rather gets its power and meaning from the spiritual.
The final chapter is Dante-esque and very affecting. By itself it pushes the book from a 3-star, not recommended to 3.5-star, mild recommendation. Just skim through the middle to get to the final few chapters.
3.5 stars
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*The most notable exception, That Hideous Strength, was apparently inspired by Williams and his writing. While I'm here in the footnotes, I'll mention that Tim Powers, another author I quite enjoy, was inspired by Williams, and has written his fiction about the intersection of the natural and supernatural as well.
He suffers from the inevitable comparison, lacking the grace of Tolkien and the vim of Lewis. The main flaw of the book is that the middle feels purposeless, not advancing the plot or fleshing out the characters or themes. His primary career was as an editor, so I feel like he should have known to add plot or cut 100 pages. It's not a character-driven story, which is also usually a downside for me.
However, he benefits from continuing to be read because of his connection to his more popular counterparts. And by the end of the book, I decided he is worth reading. Unlike Tolkien's and (for the most part*) Lewis's works, War in Heaven is set in the real world. In Williams's Christian worldview, the physical and spiritual are two equally real and equally important realms. Heaven is not a cloudy aether where the dead go when they die, but a mysterious world that interacts and intersects with the familiar physical one. And the physical world is not evil and base, but rather gets its power and meaning from the spiritual.
The final chapter is Dante-esque and very affecting. By itself it pushes the book from a 3-star, not recommended to 3.5-star, mild recommendation. Just skim through the middle to get to the final few chapters.
3.5 stars
-------------
*The most notable exception, That Hideous Strength, was apparently inspired by Williams and his writing. While I'm here in the footnotes, I'll mention that Tim Powers, another author I quite enjoy, was inspired by Williams, and has written his fiction about the intersection of the natural and supernatural as well.
sonofstdavid's review
5.0
A mystical, modern, Graal-quest.
Williams's novel has a nearly dreamlike quality to it as he calmly explores the inequality of the supernatural dark and the supernatural light. His influence on CS Lewis can be easily felt as this novel feels like all of the weirder elements of That Hideous Strength dialed up a notch. And I happen to like the weirder elements of That Hideous Strength so it was perfect.
Williams's novel has a nearly dreamlike quality to it as he calmly explores the inequality of the supernatural dark and the supernatural light. His influence on CS Lewis can be easily felt as this novel feels like all of the weirder elements of That Hideous Strength dialed up a notch. And I happen to like the weirder elements of That Hideous Strength so it was perfect.
wilderminds's review
4.0
What an incredibly strange book. I felt it dragged a bit for the first half or so, but around the halfway point I was hooked. I'm always drawn in by Arthurian themes and references, and I loved the inclusion of Prester John who was absolutely terrifying in his power and ability even though he was one of the 'good guys'. Also a really interesting message about how ordinary people can easily and quickly become powerful forces for good or evil. I have a feeling I'll be reading more Charles Williams books after this one.
a_monkey's review
3.0
This was what Dennis Wheatley was always *trying* to write: prim ‘n’ proper diabolism amongst the English gentry with morbidly supernatural stakes and absurd levels of toodle-pip-old-chap Britishness. It’s been said that for Wheatley, satanism was just whoever he didn’t like, which was pretty much everyone; whereas Williams, who seems to have been a pretty major holy-roller even by the standards of his compatriots the Inklings, has a surer spiritual footing and manages to imbue the conflict with a good deal more passion than Wheatley tended to.
hstapp's review
3.0
This is my least favorite of the four Charles Williams novels that I've read. The other three being Place of the Lion, Many Dimensions, and Greater Trumps. This book is well written and interesting, but lacks the more interesting wow factor of his other novels. This book is his first, and it seems to me that he was hanging out with C.S. Lewis and Tolkien and said. I should write a Christian novel. He then proceeds to forget what he is writing, though the elements are still there, it is more an occult novel, but more an adventure book. The last chapter he remembers that it is supposed to be a christian novel (or one of the inklings intervenes) and he wraps it up in a neat little Christian package.
sylphium's review
4.0
"confusing" is the most appropriate work to describe this Christian murder mystery/mystical battle between Good-and-Evil for the Graal, but mysterious characters and neat descriptions of the holy artifact make this a nice read!