Scan barcode
manwithanagenda's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Well, I feel a bit cheated. This book had a brilliant opening line and scenes that were pregeniters of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. I thought I had stumbled onto something rich.
Unfortunately the book gets weighted down with theology and overwriting along the lines of unneeded explanations. It just got so boring, and how old it is is no excuse. I suspect Charles Williams merely had lapses of old fuddy-duddyness. Or he let good ol' J.R.R. act as his editor on some chapters. We don't quite get to endless treks across Hollin but some scenes got close.
Because, you see, Charles Williams was a member of the Inklings, that 'informal' literary club that also boasted J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis as members. So when this little hot pink number crossed my desk I was intrigued.
The humor comes only in spurts, whole scenes can be narrated with a light touch of social satire and wit and absurdity that made me smile; other scenes verged on paint drying, or worse, preaching. OK, so that last bit is a trifle unfair. You have a story involving the holy grail, a struggle between an Archdeacan and a group of Satanists you should really expect some religion to play a part. But it did go on sometimes.
What Williams really did well were the transitions from everyday life or light humor into seriously creepy scenes involving a sinister older man trying to win over a young boy for the devil. Some of that though might be from a modern lens where I try to comprehend an intelligent young couple consigning their little boy over to an eccentric old man for hours on end full of 'secret games' without batting an eye. Its not like the old man's a relative, or even a friend of the family. He's the retired father of their boss. "Oh yes, do take Adrien into London for the weekend. That sounds lovely!"
What? No! That's a terrible idea. Different times I suppose, but it just adds an extra layer of creepiness onto a novel full of sinister and unnerving events. Just be prepared to gloss over some theological exposition and there's a fine early supernatural thriller here, with funny in.
Unfortunately the book gets weighted down with theology and overwriting along the lines of unneeded explanations. It just got so boring, and how old it is is no excuse. I suspect Charles Williams merely had lapses of old fuddy-duddyness. Or he let good ol' J.R.R. act as his editor on some chapters. We don't quite get to endless treks across Hollin but some scenes got close.
Because, you see, Charles Williams was a member of the Inklings, that 'informal' literary club that also boasted J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis as members. So when this little hot pink number crossed my desk I was intrigued.
The humor comes only in spurts, whole scenes can be narrated with a light touch of social satire and wit and absurdity that made me smile; other scenes verged on paint drying, or worse, preaching. OK, so that last bit is a trifle unfair. You have a story involving the holy grail, a struggle between an Archdeacan and a group of Satanists you should really expect some religion to play a part. But it did go on sometimes.
What Williams really did well were the transitions from everyday life or light humor into seriously creepy scenes involving a sinister older man trying to win over a young boy for the devil. Some of that though might be from a modern lens where I try to comprehend an intelligent young couple consigning their little boy over to an eccentric old man for hours on end full of 'secret games' without batting an eye. Its not like the old man's a relative, or even a friend of the family. He's the retired father of their boss. "Oh yes, do take Adrien into London for the weekend. That sounds lovely!"
What? No! That's a terrible idea. Different times I suppose, but it just adds an extra layer of creepiness onto a novel full of sinister and unnerving events. Just be prepared to gloss over some theological exposition and there's a fine early supernatural thriller here, with funny in.
prebeartobemoosified's review
4.0
Very weird. Really difficult to understand when you're not paying attention to each word and how that describes the trippy Arthurian nightmare. My favourite character doesn't live to see the confusing end, so I wasn't pleased about that. Very strange. I might reread when I don't have to read it in two days. Can't decide between three and four stars, so I'll give it four.
elvenbookworm's review
4.0
It seems odd to me that though I've loved the two most prominent Inklings (Lewis and Tolkien) for many years, I'd never ventured into the works of the others until now. It took a most unpleasant illness and the resulting long weekend to get me to sit down with this book. I am most glad that I finally did.
War in Heaven is densly populated with complex characters, complicated plotting, and weighty moral issues. A pall of darkness hangs over London, the lives of the characters, and this book as first a corpse is discovered under an unfortunate book-editor's desk, and then the Graal turns up in a little country church. It would be impossible too give a concise summary, but suffice to say that the plot involves Satan-worshippers, a secretly evil archaeologist, the corrupting of a child, a vanishing chemist's shop, a mysterious lotion, a young man in a grey suit, an eccentric Duke (shades of Bertie Wooster), and almost anything else you can think of.
Though the story is often very dark, with the powers of Hell waxing strong and terrifying, there are moments of levity to balance the gravity. It is interesting to note the similarities between this and the third book in Lewis's Space Trilogy; it is obvious Jack drew heavily upon his friend's writing style. It is also interesting to note that Tolkien disliked Williams, and it is possible that Lewis's growing friendship with Williams signified the end of his closeness with Tolkien. For more about the relationships between these Inklings, I would heartily recommend reading Alan Jacob's [b:The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis|660367|The Narnian The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis|Alan Jacobs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176853477s/660367.jpg|1732054]. I'm currently reading Descent into Hell, another of William's books. We'll see how it compares.
War in Heaven is densly populated with complex characters, complicated plotting, and weighty moral issues. A pall of darkness hangs over London, the lives of the characters, and this book as first a corpse is discovered under an unfortunate book-editor's desk, and then the Graal turns up in a little country church. It would be impossible too give a concise summary, but suffice to say that the plot involves Satan-worshippers, a secretly evil archaeologist, the corrupting of a child, a vanishing chemist's shop, a mysterious lotion, a young man in a grey suit, an eccentric Duke (shades of Bertie Wooster), and almost anything else you can think of.
Though the story is often very dark, with the powers of Hell waxing strong and terrifying, there are moments of levity to balance the gravity. It is interesting to note the similarities between this and the third book in Lewis's Space Trilogy; it is obvious Jack drew heavily upon his friend's writing style. It is also interesting to note that Tolkien disliked Williams, and it is possible that Lewis's growing friendship with Williams signified the end of his closeness with Tolkien. For more about the relationships between these Inklings, I would heartily recommend reading Alan Jacob's [b:The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis|660367|The Narnian The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis|Alan Jacobs|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176853477s/660367.jpg|1732054]. I'm currently reading Descent into Hell, another of William's books. We'll see how it compares.
kjcharles's review
"The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse." Hell of a way to start a book.
An extraordinary occult thriller set at first in a London publishing house run by the two kinds of publisher (1: flaccid dweeb publishing trashy novels for money; 2: evil incarnate). The publishing stuff is genuinely hilarious, but we soon discover via a late amendment to page proofs that the Holy Grail (here Graal) has been found in a small English village, and off we go. Heroes are the Archdeacon of the parish, a publisher's clerk (marketing), and a duke with a sideline in poetry. It is impossible not to enjoy this book.
Villains are the evil publisher, a particularly shitty author (see?) and a couple of sinister foreigners. The latter two are rather from central casting but although one is IDd as Jewish I didn't get the usual whiff of antisemitism here: he was an individual, albeit not a particularly individualised one. As an occult thriller to do with the Grail this is obviously heavily pegged around religion, but it's extremely Anglican, which is to say very few of the MCs believe in God as such, and the Archdeacon is embarrassed by displays of religion,and, refreshingly, thinks the Grail is a trivial object that isn't worth human suffering. The general sense is very much *not* the sweaty "you must find devotion and convert" mood of the crappier occult thriller, and yes I read too many of these.
Most of all the villains are not stock Satanists who are on the evil side to provide an antagonist. The evil publisher is, in fact a malignant narcissist, a manipulative abuser whose pleasure in controlling and hurting others is the thing that leads him to evil magic, rather than vice versa. The shitty author is a hugely selfish mannerless brute with no care for others. They are terrible people before they are anything in the way of occult, and this really make the book zing. There's a fantastic scene where one of the baddies is in trouble and asks his partner in crime for help, and is impatiently told "You're not interesting enough to run any risks for." Oh.
And the best bit is, we get the villain POVs and with that a sense of their impending doom. The villains generally have the upper hand, and the good guys are not by any means safe at any point, but by far the two scariest parts of the book are moments when the bad guys have a sense of their eternal fate - the one in a shabby shop with a door that won't ever open, the other given a comparison of himself to an ant inside the chalice's smooth interior, scrabbling, unable to get out. It's cosmic and metaphysical horror but the sense is powerful.
This is very metaphysical all told (it's by one of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien's writing group) and it goes into the mythological at points with the Grail-protector who is genuinely quite scary-nasty on the side of good. A fascinating read which kept me thoroughly hooked.
An extraordinary occult thriller set at first in a London publishing house run by the two kinds of publisher (1: flaccid dweeb publishing trashy novels for money; 2: evil incarnate). The publishing stuff is genuinely hilarious, but we soon discover via a late amendment to page proofs that the Holy Grail (here Graal) has been found in a small English village, and off we go. Heroes are the Archdeacon of the parish, a publisher's clerk (marketing), and a duke with a sideline in poetry. It is impossible not to enjoy this book.
Villains are the evil publisher, a particularly shitty author (see?) and a couple of sinister foreigners. The latter two are rather from central casting but although one is IDd as Jewish I didn't get the usual whiff of antisemitism here: he was an individual, albeit not a particularly individualised one. As an occult thriller to do with the Grail this is obviously heavily pegged around religion, but it's extremely Anglican, which is to say very few of the MCs believe in God as such, and the Archdeacon is embarrassed by displays of religion,and, refreshingly, thinks the Grail is a trivial object that isn't worth human suffering. The general sense is very much *not* the sweaty "you must find devotion and convert" mood of the crappier occult thriller, and yes I read too many of these.
Most of all the villains are not stock Satanists who are on the evil side to provide an antagonist. The evil publisher is, in fact a malignant narcissist, a manipulative abuser whose pleasure in controlling and hurting others is the thing that leads him to evil magic, rather than vice versa. The shitty author is a hugely selfish mannerless brute with no care for others. They are terrible people before they are anything in the way of occult, and this really make the book zing. There's a fantastic scene where one of the baddies is in trouble and asks his partner in crime for help, and is impatiently told "You're not interesting enough to run any risks for." Oh.
And the best bit is, we get the villain POVs and with that a sense of their impending doom. The villains generally have the upper hand, and the good guys are not by any means safe at any point, but by far the two scariest parts of the book are moments when the bad guys have a sense of their eternal fate - the one in a shabby shop with a door that won't ever open, the other given a comparison of himself to an ant inside the chalice's smooth interior, scrabbling, unable to get out. It's cosmic and metaphysical horror but the sense is powerful.
This is very metaphysical all told (it's by one of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien's writing group) and it goes into the mythological at points with the Grail-protector who is genuinely quite scary-nasty on the side of good. A fascinating read which kept me thoroughly hooked.
tomasthanes's review
5.0
A complex novel with a lot of characters, deftly woven together. The following plot summary (possibly including a spoiler) is from https://theoddestinkling.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/war-in-heaven-week/:
The story opens in a publishing house with the discovery of a body. The murder‐interest is soon supplanted by an astonishing revelation: the Holy Graal resides in the quiet country parish of the unlikely hero, a dapper Anglican Archdeacon named Julian Davenant. Soon the murderer, Gregory Persimmons, hires a thug to whack the Archdeacon on the head and steal the Graal. Mr. Davenant calmly steals it back, gathering allies and enemies for a brief chase across the countryside into London. Meanwhile (besides using the Graal for a black mass and for spiritual domination), the villain has a side plan: warthe ravishing of a child’s soul. While apparently safe in the home of a Roman Catholic Duke, the Graal suffers a metaphysical attack, which the Archdeacon fends off by a mighty feat of prayer. Persimmons blackmails the priest into exchanging the Graal for, apparently, a woman’s salvation. At this point Prester John appears. The pace quickens as Persimmons and his cronies murder a young man trying to recover the Graal, lure the Archdeacon into their lair, and attempt to bind his body to a dead man’s soul. The Power of God sets the little priest free, Persimmons surrenders to police, the child is out of danger, and the Archdeacon dies a sublime death during Prester John’s celebration of the Eucharist.
That link also continues a discussion of the novel and its meanings. In the end, the only quest worth pursuing is not for the Graal but for God Himself.
The story opens in a publishing house with the discovery of a body. The murder‐interest is soon supplanted by an astonishing revelation: the Holy Graal resides in the quiet country parish of the unlikely hero, a dapper Anglican Archdeacon named Julian Davenant. Soon the murderer, Gregory Persimmons, hires a thug to whack the Archdeacon on the head and steal the Graal. Mr. Davenant calmly steals it back, gathering allies and enemies for a brief chase across the countryside into London. Meanwhile (besides using the Graal for a black mass and for spiritual domination), the villain has a side plan: warthe ravishing of a child’s soul. While apparently safe in the home of a Roman Catholic Duke, the Graal suffers a metaphysical attack, which the Archdeacon fends off by a mighty feat of prayer. Persimmons blackmails the priest into exchanging the Graal for, apparently, a woman’s salvation. At this point Prester John appears. The pace quickens as Persimmons and his cronies murder a young man trying to recover the Graal, lure the Archdeacon into their lair, and attempt to bind his body to a dead man’s soul. The Power of God sets the little priest free, Persimmons surrenders to police, the child is out of danger, and the Archdeacon dies a sublime death during Prester John’s celebration of the Eucharist.
That link also continues a discussion of the novel and its meanings. In the end, the only quest worth pursuing is not for the Graal but for God Himself.
More...