All Things Are Lights

This doorstop volume is something like a hipper, sexier version of the medieval novels of Sir Walter Scott. Its protagonist is a troubadour and Cathar sympathizer who goes on crusade to Egypt with Louis IX. Shea is best known for his co-authorship of the 1970s conspiracy romp Illuminatus!, and there are hints here of a great benevolent conspiracy, while the foreground is occupied by malicious conspiracies against the hero and the throne of France.

The pacing of the book is fast, covering six years at the middle of the thirteenth century, and the plot is engaging. The narrative style is pretty transparent, never getting in the way of the story. The historical elements are well-researched and credible. I enjoyed this read a great deal, show more and I would recommend it to fans of chivalry and/or heresy.

I read a withdrawn library copy in pocket paperback format. The thirty-year-old book was already well worn when I started reading it, and had literally gone to pieces when I finished. All Things Are Lights is out of print, but it has been published online by the author's estate under a creative commons license. Although not flagged as a sequel, there is a two-volume novel called The Saracen which features the son of the hero of All Things Are Lights. The Saracen is available for free download at Project Gutenberg, and I may eventually read it also. show less

This is one of my favorite works of historical fiction and has a secure place on my bookshelf. The book seems to be out of print (though I note a Kindle edition is available on Amazon), but the author's son has made it available on the internet for free under a creative commons license, so if you think you might want to read the novel, you can find it here. This is one of those few books that have been able to move me to tears. It's certainly never dull and provides a gripping adventure and strikes a chord with me in its themes of love, religious tolerance, redemption, and how there are things that can't be extinguished by the sword that find ways to emerge again into history.

I think part of why I found this book so fascinating is show more because it explores areas of history I was so unfamiliar with before reading this book. When most people think of the Crusades, they think of the wars in the Holy Land between Christians and Muslims. I think I was also not alone in thinking of Medieval Europe as monolithically Catholic. But this book begins in 1244 France with the "Albigensian Crusade" that pitted Christian against Christian as the orthodox elements fought against the Cathars who held the religious allegiance of close to half of the inhabitants of Southern France. The title refers to the central idea of the Cathars, that "all things are lights" and their beliefs and practices as depicted in the novel fascinated me. When the story starts, the protagonist of the book, Roland, wearing the cross of the crusader, is climbing up a mountain to get into a Cathar fortress about to fall to rescue his love Diane. Roland is a knight and a troubadour, and the book takes in not just the crusades but Courtly Love and the Knights Templar. And yes, there is a strand here about secret societies and the occult, but it certainly for me makes a much more credible and entertaining story than The Da Vinci Code. show less

A historical novel set at the time of the Cathar Crusade and the later Seventh Crusade. Not bad, but I thought the plot elements didn't quite mesh: Catharism, courtly love, troubadors, the Templars (yes, it touched on Sangreal territory), and a love story.

Fictional tale set in the Lange d’Oc region of France, about the Cathar “heresy” and the Catholic church’s mass murder of its members.

Cathars, troubedours, nobles, St. Louis and Crusade, Templars, etc.

uitgeleend aan Marion