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A review by bkoser
War in Heaven by Charles Williams
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
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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.