Heretic

The Reich, or the Workers' Paradise, or the Umma - whatever, they are all the same. They are lying promises of Peace and Paradise on Earth, to be brought about by self-designated elites who exempt themselves from guilt for any amount of larceny and murder.

In this volume, in 1347 Gascony, Thomas of Hookton fights the final battle with his evil doppleganger, who claims that his plans will ". . .bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. . . That is all I want, Thomas."

"So my father had to die for that?"

"I wish it had not been necessary, but he was hiding the Grail. He was an enemy of God."

And so Thomas kills in combat the man who had murdered so many defenseless people.

“Heretic” struck me as very different to the first two books in the Grail series. A couple of episodes did draw me in but on the whole I found it lacking. I do like the main character – Thomas – but missed his Jewish friend who has a passion for checking the colour of people’s urine, plus Thomas's one-time lover Jeanette, neither of which appear at all in this volume.

I would’ve rated this novel three stars but, like all the Bernard Cornwell books that I’ve read to date, I’ve deducted a star because they are all let down by substandard elements of style. Long-winded sentences are plentiful. The needless dialogue attribution drives me to distraction whilst the overuse of the word “then” is surprising for such a show more seasoned author.

This, of all the books I’ve *ever* read, may well hold the record of overusing the word “then”. Sometimes it’s in consecutive sentences. Occasionally it’s used twice in the same sentence. The best authors avoid using “then” wherever possible. It is achievable to write a long novel without using this word at all, except maybe in dialogue, but in the main narrative it sounds like a child’s voice. Think of a seven-year-old telling you about their holiday: “And then I did this, and then I did that, and then …’

Take this for example:

>Then the routiers would take a new oath, go to war and fight until a truce was called, and then, knowing no trade except killing, they would go back to the lonelier stretches of countryside and find a town to savage.The routiers would take a new oath. They’d go to war until a truce was called. Knowing no trade except killing, they’d return to the lonelier stretches of countryside and find a town to savage.The valley where that poor village lay had already been plundered, and so he meant to stop in the next valley where a slew of plump settlements were strung along the road south from Masseube, and then, when his men were busy about their devil’s business, he and a few men would ride with Robbie to the hills overlooking Astarac and, if there were no coredors or other enemies in sight, let the Scotsman ride on alone.‘I was reminded the other day,’ he said, ‘of one of the psalms of David.'‘I am Galat Lorret,’ Lorret said.He was dressed all in black. Black boots, black breeches, black jerkin, black cloak, black broad-brimmed hat and a sword scabbard sheathed in black cloth. show less

Heretic is the final book in the Grail series by Cornwell. It picks up where Vagabond left off.

Thomas is fighting in Calais when he decides to continue his search for the Grail. He takes a small band of mercenaries to France where he believes his cousin, who is also hunting the Grail, may be and captures a small village. He rides out looting neighboring settlements attempting to lure his cousin to him. Once again, a woman becomes the root of his troubles.

On taking over the village, he pardons a woman being held captive in the castle who was named a heretic by the local priests and refuses to burn her at the stake. He falls for her, and so does one his men who is also a good friend, and it becomes a dividing point between the two. show more Before he has the opportunity the fight his cousin, he's fighting his own men and being cast out as a heretic himself. It's devastating for him but he still doesn't give up the search, wondering about god's plan and his own place in the world.

I flew through this book. For some reason, I needed to know what happened to Thomas. During this series, he gets captured several times, hung, tortured, becomes a leader, falls in and out of love, loses his faith, and finds it again. While I did feel a tinge of sorrow for him, he didn't let you down. He was so driven to find his cousin and keep him from the Grail and, while his quest was single minded, he wasn't and that made him very likable.

This book, as with all three in this series, is violent. Deaths are described in graphic detail as well as a few torture scenes. It's not for the fainthearted. If you're the type of reader that will skip disturbing scenes, that might not work in this book. You'd end up skipping so much that you'd miss a good portion of the book. It's these battles and hard to read scenes that make these characters as good as they are. Cornwell has a way with warfare --- it's very real, sad, dirty, and disgusting. It does make the series what it is though. show less

We are thinning out the non-player characters with this installment of the "Grail Quest" trilogy. As it's the last volume, there are numerous grudges to pay off, as Thomas of Hookton heads away from the siege of Calais, and into the Black Death. It's a good wind-up book.

As I have come to expect from this brilliant Author, this book is well researched and written with quality characters throughout. The action wanes a little mid way through, compared to the two previous books in the series but picks up again towards a terrific ending. Clever descriptive narrative throughout. The holy grail part of the series is a trifle far fetched but enjoyable all the same.
Recommended.

This one was actually a huge letdown. For a start, several of the supporting characters from the first two books were put on a bus, with no knowledge of their whereabouts or their fates, nor even a mention. Especially considering that Thomas and Jeanette seem to get back together at the end of Vagabond, her sudden disappearance and replacement by a sultrier figure was, in my mind, a poor choice. Nor was I very happy about the way some of the conflicts in this book were borne out. The villain in particular received a particularly unsatisfactory end considering his intelligence, deviousness and dangerousness. So too I feel that Cornwell flubbed his attempt to introduce the Black Death, which could have been a *huge* game changer and plot show more hook but in the end seems to be merely window dressing. All in all a very unsatisfactory end to a trilogy that began with such promise. show less

Another in the Grail Quest Series, I doubt there will be another one. I think he has run out of ideas for his lead Character, Thomas Hookton. Overall it was a pretty good read but I did not like the opening 25 pages which did little to further the plot. I like it when he builds to a battle and carries you into it, not where you are thrust into a battle from almost page one. He did this before in Copperhead (the Starbuck Chronicles) and I almost put the book down. I hope this is not a formula that repeats in future books as I really like his writing otherwise.