On This Page
Description
From the dreaming spires of Oxford, Lewis Gillies drives north to seek a mythical creature in a misty glen in Scotland. Expecting little more than a weekend diversion, Lewis finds himself in a mystical place where two worlds meet, in the time-between-times--and in the heart of a battle between good and evil. The ancient Celts admitted no separation between this world and the Otherworld: the two were delicately interwoven, each dependent on the other. The Paradise War crosses the thin places show more between this world and that, as Lewis Gillies comes face-to-face with an ancient mystery--and a cosmic catastrophe in the making. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
Rosenectur Lawhead and Litfin have the same premise of Christian beliefs found within a fantasy story. The Gift features a post-apocalyptic world where characters are searching for lost truths from our world. The Paradise War features characters from our world lost in an ancient civilization searching for truth.
Member Reviews
Summary: Lewis, an Oxford graduate student, follows his impulsive friend Simon on a trip to Scotland to investigate a tabloid report of an aurochs turning up in a farmer's field. Simon thinks the animal came from the Otherworld, and while they are investigating a Celtic mound, Simon too gets pulled into the Otherworld. Lewis realizes the barrier between the worlds is weakening, must enter the Otherworld himself to save Simon and prevent disaster. However, once there, Lewis realizes that there is more at stake: dark forces threaten not just the Otherworld, but the entire fabric of existence.
Review: The first quarter of this book was very enjoyable - Simon and Lewis tooling around Scotland was interesting, there was sufficient mystery and show more fantasy elements cropping up to promise good things to come, and it was subtly snarky and rather funny. However, at about page 100, it gets to the chapter when the Professor explains the philosophy and metaphysics of the Otherworld, and I started to get worried (and bored), and then once Lewis enters the Otherworld for himself, the entire tone changed and my interest just dropped straight off. When the characters are actually doing things, it's okay, but there's a lot of standing around and praising how wonderful the Otherworld is. By the halfway point of the book, I was thinking "yes, yes, I get it, in the Otherworld, men are real men, women are real women, the sky is blue the hills are green, the water is clear, can we please move on?" But no, no, we couldn't. The plot of the last half of the book (the forces of Evil are loose in Albion) is seemingly completely divorced from what came before it (weakening barrier between our world and the Otherworld), and while I hope this will be reconciled later in the trilogy, it made this book feel like reading two separate books - the first of which I enjoyed, the second of which spent too much time on heavy-handed description and relied too heavily on fantasy cliche.
Recommendation: This book was obviously based on a lot of very detailed and well-research Celtic mythology, and it might be worth picking up for that, but overall, I was unimpressed, and unlikely to pick up the sequels. show less
Review: The first quarter of this book was very enjoyable - Simon and Lewis tooling around Scotland was interesting, there was sufficient mystery and show more fantasy elements cropping up to promise good things to come, and it was subtly snarky and rather funny. However, at about page 100, it gets to the chapter when the Professor explains the philosophy and metaphysics of the Otherworld, and I started to get worried (and bored), and then once Lewis enters the Otherworld for himself, the entire tone changed and my interest just dropped straight off. When the characters are actually doing things, it's okay, but there's a lot of standing around and praising how wonderful the Otherworld is. By the halfway point of the book, I was thinking "yes, yes, I get it, in the Otherworld, men are real men, women are real women, the sky is blue the hills are green, the water is clear, can we please move on?" But no, no, we couldn't. The plot of the last half of the book (the forces of Evil are loose in Albion) is seemingly completely divorced from what came before it (weakening barrier between our world and the Otherworld), and while I hope this will be reconciled later in the trilogy, it made this book feel like reading two separate books - the first of which I enjoyed, the second of which spent too much time on heavy-handed description and relied too heavily on fantasy cliche.
Recommendation: This book was obviously based on a lot of very detailed and well-research Celtic mythology, and it might be worth picking up for that, but overall, I was unimpressed, and unlikely to pick up the sequels. show less
As much as I love the Pendragon Cycle, I think an argument could be made that The Paradise War is a stronger story. It's very nearly as archetypal - modern man finds a path into magical land of legend, saves world, etc - but the tensions set up between the two modern characters, the well-executed portrayal of the seductiveness of a world that accepts you as you are, and the mythic, if somewhat muddled, climax create a cohesive and compelling narrative. It does not stand on its own - the ending is a cliffhanger - but it holds together well.
Well. I must admit I did return this to the library without finishing it. I kept reading and reading, almost to halfway through it just hoping for something to pick up and excite me. But it didn't... even when I got to the Otherworld. [author: Steven Lawhead] just did so much better with [book: Hood]. With [book: Hood] I was enraptured and in love with all the characters and events and could not read fast enough to get what was coming next. But perhaps it is because Hood was from last year (2006) where The Paradise War is from 1991, maybe Lawhead has just gotten better. Who knows. Either way, I do not really recommend this book. There are too many other, better things out there to read.
Two Oxford grad students find a portal between worlds in the shape of a cairn and find themselves (first one, then the other a few weeks later, which translates to years in the other world) pulled into a world inhabited by, essentially, ancient celts, and then entangled in the warrior ranks and embroiled in a semi-mystical war that may have repercussions in the 'real' world.
This one started out promising but once it transitioned to the other world, it faltered into a big load of meh. The main character/narrator was completely lacking in any sort of personality, so I struggled to care about what happened to him, and the plot was both convoluted and dull. Disappointing. Needless to mention, but I won't be continuing with the trilogy.
This one started out promising but once it transitioned to the other world, it faltered into a big load of meh. The main character/narrator was completely lacking in any sort of personality, so I struggled to care about what happened to him, and the plot was both convoluted and dull. Disappointing. Needless to mention, but I won't be continuing with the trilogy.
Two Oxford graduate students, Simon Rawnson and Lewis Gillies, discover that Carnwood Cairn in Scotland is a doorway to the Celtic Otherworld. Further, the doorway is destabilizing. If they don't stabilize it, both worlds will catastrophically suffer. After they slip through the doorway and into Albion, the Celtic paradise, they each become enchanted with the beauty and majesty of Otherworld life, and slowly forget about "reality". But then tribulation comes to Albion, and prophecy decrees that Lewis must help restore the Song of Albion to save the world he has come to love. The mystical foreboding begins to scatter the romanticized reality of Albion in this first volume of Lawhead's evocatively historical trilogy. The framing device show more provided by Professor Nettleton in Oxford as well as the menacing Society of Metaphysical Archaeologist keep the tension palpable in both universes.
resolved episodic ending, in a larger continuing story arc show less
resolved episodic ending, in a larger continuing story arc show less
Such a wonderful beginning to the trilogy! History and "magical" spins to it really excite me in books, and Lawhead is an expert! This entire trilogy is woven with such talent that you really begin to feel like Albion really is a place lost in time. Finding books that are truly Christian fiction in this manner is difficult, because the religious undertones are hidden and truly so essential to the tale that you almost do not realize they are there! There was so much going on in these books that reading them for a second and third time truly only brought out more details and perfect writing subtlety that the average reader misses on the first run.
The Paradise War by Stephen Lawhead, introduced me to Mr. Lawhead and I've been a devoted fan ever since. In this book, he imagines a parallel universe, connected by ancient cairns to England. The hero goes in and finds Albion, an idealization of England at its best. Life is more vivid, more beautiful, more breathtaking. The women are more beautiful, the men nobler, the kings more majestic. There are problems in paradise though. An ancient enemy reawakes and causes devastation. Since this world and our world are connected, disaster in one causes disaster in another. To solve the problems, an Oxford graduate student must change completely and become more than he ever imagined he could be.
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Celtic Fiction
26 works; 9 members
Best Mythic Fiction
35 works; 6 members
CCE 1000 Good Books List
1,033 works; 12 members
Frequently sought stories - Name that Book group
149 works; 11 members
Books Read in 2025
4,091 works; 97 members
Talk Discussions
Past Discussions
A Druid spear, a woolly mammoth, 2 college students who go back in time, and who become warriors fig in Name that Book (August 2011)
Author Information
103 Works 33,892 Members
Novelist Stephen R. Lawhead was born in July 2, 1950 in Kearney, Nebraska. He graduated from Kearney State College. He wrote his first novel, In the Hall of the Dragon King (1982) to try to support his family. This launched his literary career. Many of Lawhead's works are based on Celtic history and Arthurian legend. He has also written children's show more books, adapting many of them from stories he told his children. Lawhead's various series include Bright Empires, The Pendragon Cycle, and the King Raven Trilogy. The second book in the King Raven Trilogy, Scarlet, won a Christy Award in the category of Visionary Fiction. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Paradise War
- Original title
- The Paradise War
- Original publication date
- 1991-05
- People/Characters
- Simon Rawnson; Lewis Gillies; Tegid Tathal; Ollathir; Meldryn Mawr; Prince Meldron
- Important places
- Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK; Scotland, UK; The Otherworld; Albion; Prydain
- Epigraph*
- "Since all the world is but a story, it were well for thee to buy the more enduring story rather than the story that is less enduring. " The Judgment of St. Colum Cille (St. Columba of Scotland)
- Dedication*
- Voor Ruby Duryea
- First words*
- Het begon allemaal met de oeros.
- Quotations*
- Aangezien de hele wereld slechts een verhaal is,
zou u er goed aan doen,
het duurzamere verhaal te verwerven
in plaats van het minder duurzame.'
Het oordeel van St. Colum Cille
(St. Columba van Sch... (show all)otland) - Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Want ik had het Lied van Albion gehoord en mijn leven behoorde niet meer aan mij toe.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 2,014
- Popularity
- 10,405
- Reviews
- 27
- Rating
- (3.82)
- Languages
- 10 — Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 37
- UPCs
- 3
- ASINs
- 16