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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  aethercowboy | Sep 15, 2009 |  The Iron Lance is classic Stephen Lawhead. A mix of well researched history and some bare faced fiction. It would be quite wrong to think the medieval world was just as he describes it, but he describes it so well and with such an attention to detail that people might be mistaken for sometimes doing just that. This book is the first in a trilogy which itself relies on some plot elements set up in the book "Patrick: Son of Ireland". In this story, Murdo Ranulfson's brothers go to fight in the crusade to free the Holy Land, leaving him (the youngest son) to tend the estates with his mother. However political shifts and a scheming bishop leave him dispossessed and the lad finds himself with no option but to travel to the Holy Land to bring back his father. But on the way he meets some monks from a curious celtic order - the Cele De. These monks are on a mission from God to bring back the Iron Lance that was used to pierce the side of the crucified Jesus. The tensions in this book are deliciously drawn, and Lawhead is very good at the writing of action scenes. This leads to a wonderful story with a great conclusion in a convincing historical setting. (  ) sirfurboy | Jun 23, 2009 | Excellent read, takes one on a trip to the Crusades, and on various journies through medievel Europe. (  ) charlie68 | Jun 5, 2009 | This massive historical-fantasy novel about the First Crusade begins a family-saga trilogy recounting the story of a mysterious mystical order founded upon the discovery of the spear that pierced Christ's side as he hung on the cross. The narrative is framed as a series of visions by a Victorian Scots lawyer, who begins by seeing his ancestors leaving the Orkneys on the Crusade, except for the youngest brother, Murdo, who remains behind to watch the family holdings. When fraudulent clerics take those lands, Murdo attempts to rejoin his family... (  ) farjourneys | Nov 27, 2005 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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The framing device begins at the end of the nineteenth century, in Edinburgh, where Gordon Murray is about to be inducted into an ancient brotherhood whose secret rites involve a sacred relic: the iron lance of the title. The main narrative is set in eleventh century Orkney. When Pope Urban II calls for the retaking of Jerusalem from the infidel, the local lord, Ranulf, joins the Crusade with his elder sons, leaving behind young Murdo to oversee the family holdings. When the Church, through a nefarious scheme, confiscates the house and holdings, Murdo has no choice but to follow the Crusaders to the Holy Land and bring his father home to fix the whole mess.
Lawhead paints a vast and exotic canvas of medieval world politics, then peoples it with colorful characters--cunning Byzantine rulers, bluff Norman knights, gap-toothed, shaggy-brained Saxon peasants--who encounter visions and miracles, brutality and ambition, love and justice. At the end of the main narrative, Murdo gets what he wants but not in the ways expected. The framing narrative ends with hints that, as the world lurches towards a new millennium, Gordon Murray's Christian secret society is the world's only hope for survival, and the time nears for the brotherhood to reveal itself. --Luc Duplessis
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:19 -0400)
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Wikipedia in English
Before reading this novel, my only experience with Lawhead was a heavy-handed Christian science fiction novel. Lawhead is much less heavy-handed with the message, though his work is clearly Christian-inspired.
The story is about a young boy whose elder male relatives head off to fight the Holy War. He's left behind with his mother and the servants. Upon returning one day from a holiday feast at a friend of the family's, his mother and he return to find their homestead pillaged.
This, and a vision of St. Peter leads him to join the Crusades, as well as to search for the Holy Lance.
The story is well written, featuring detailed characters and events. Lawhead has definitely learned a more subtle approach to writing, as I didn't feel particularly bashed over the head by this one.
You may enjoy it if you like historical fiction, historical fantasy, or Crusades-related fiction. (