Shadows of Ecstasy

This isn't as emotionally involving a novel as [b:All Hallows' Eve|143225|All Hallows' Eve|Charles Walter Stansby Williams|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172150891s/143225.jpg|138160], but it's unusual and memorable. In a subdued style that reads a little like an homage to H.G. Wells, Williams depicts a military and magical attack on Europe (and Western civilization and rational thought in general) led by a character who, as far as I know, has rarely appeared in fantasy novels: a secular humanist fascist pagan superman Messiah, who is the smartest and most honest person in the world. Williams gives equal weight to the possibilities that this person is the Antichrist, or that he's closer to the truth than anyone else, or both. In show more spite of its eerie timing (1933), people looking for political analogies in this story will become very confused.

Threads that are in most of Williams's novels, but particularly apparent in this one, are a strong and deliberate empathy that includes the villains; a constant deflection of conflict so that the opposed forces are often diplomatically hanging out in the same room; and a sense that mystical craziness and transformation are, if not necessarily good, still to be taken seriously. [a:Clive Barker|10366|Clive Barker|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1200469782p2/10366.jpg] in his later fantasy writing and [a:James Blaylock|86475|James P. Blaylock|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66.jpg] both carry on this tradition in very different styles. show less

Given that it as written in 1933, this is a quite remarkable book, about a successful (briefly) African invasion of London. my favorite part is before the invasion, when the African government which has overthrown the colonial powers announces (in very complimentary terms) the martyrdom of the Christian missionaries, and in the parliamentary debate the archbishop of Canterbury entirely agrees that martyrdom is the duty of Christians and the mssionaries should not be avenged. One marvellousvcharacter is a very intelligent and philosophical Zulu king who ultmately sides with the rebels, who are let by a European mystic,not a native African.

I enjoy a Charles Williams on occasion, and this is one of his better books. In it a man achieves the status of the Anti-Christ by using central African rituals. Somewhat racist and fully creepy. Fortunately, in Williams' world there is a God, who's on the job.
I understand the book was copyright 1925.

This is a second copy of Shadows of Ecstasy, the same editiin a the first copy already cataloged