Author: allen0997
Between Two Fires ~ A Capsule Book Review
Between Two Fires
~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp ~
Between Two Fires is a 2012 speculative-fiction novel by Chrisopher Buehlman. The year is 1348. The place is France. The country is ravaged by war with England (the Hundred Years War) and by a horrible disease known as the Black Plague. (The world is such a mess, we are told, because Lucifer and the other fallen angels are waging war in heaven.)
Thomas de Givras, a former knight of the Crusades, has fallen on hard times. His armor is tarnished. He has been excommunicated from the church and he has been stripped of his property. He is not old but not young, either. He has joined a band of brigands. They accost people on the road and rob them.
When he encounters a young girl named Delphine, a recent plague orphan, he sees that there is something special about her. She claims she can see angels and she asks him to accompany her to Paris and then Avignon. Although he is not known for his generous nature, he decides it is in his best interest to do as she asks. Along the way, they meet Father Matthieu, a homosexual priest who drinks too much wine. He confides that he was caught in a compromising situation with another man right before the plague struck. As a result, he lost his church and his congregation. Delphine takes pity on him. The three of them (Thomas, Delphine, and Father Matthieu) make quite a trio.
In Paris, Delphine acquires the Spear of Longinus from a seller of relics. Before the trio leaves the city, they are attacked by possessed statues of the Virgin Mary and other saints. They have several other encounters with fallen angels before they reach Avignon. Father Matthieu is killed by a demon in the River Rhone. Thomas, by chance, meets the man who ruined him, D’Évreux, and challenges him to a duel. Thomas is victorious and D’Évreux is killed.
In Avignon, Thomas and Delphine uncover a plot to kill Pope Clement and replace him with a demon look-alike. In the fight that ensues, Delphine is killed, but Archangel Michael and the heavenly host emerge from her body to defeat the false pope and his army of demons. Thomas’s soul is dragged into Hell by the fleeing demons, where he is tortured. Delphine descends into Hell to look for him, at which time she reveals that she is both Jesus Christ and the girl Delphine. Thomas awakens in his own body. Everyone except Thomas forgets the supernatural aspects of that night, believing the damage was from an earthquake. Thomas returns to Normandy and lives in the castle he lived in before it was taken away. Delphine becomes a nun; Thomas considers her his adopted daughter.
Copyright © 2024 by Allen Kopp
The Demon of Unrest ~ A Capsule Book Review
~ The Demon of Unrest ~
~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp ~
In the lead-up to the Civil War, the long-simmering animosity between the North and the South was centered around Fort Sumter, in Charleston Bay. Fort Sumter was a federal fort, held by Union forces, surrounded by Southern troops and Southern sympathizers. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, so it was “all-in” for the South. The newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln, seemed ill-at-ease in the role of commander-in-chief. He was afraid he was going to ignite an all-out civil war, so he didn’t know how to handle Fort Sumter. Should he evacuate the Union forces there to a safer location? Should he instruct the commander to surrender the fort? Should he resupply the fort with food and ammunition? (He couldn’t exactly let the people there starve to death, could he?) For a long time he did nothing because he didn’t know what to do.
Finally, in April 1861, after several months of suspense, the stalemate was broken when Southern forces attacked Fort Sumter. Federal forces fought back, but weakly at first. (They had used most of their ammunition in practice firing.) The “siege” of Fort Sumter lasted about a day and a half. The people of Charlotte, South Carolina, gathered on the beach to watch (and hear) the fighting, as if it was a sporting event or a celebration. When it was all over, it was a victory for the South, but the Federal commander in charge of Fort Sumter, Robert Anderson, was hailed as something of a hero by both sides for his perseverance and professionalism.
Fort Sumter was, of course, the beginning of the American Civil War. There was a belief in the beginning that it would be a short war and that both sides would quickly settle their differences. The South, especially, was overly confident. The truth was that it was a bitter, bloody, brutal war that lasted four years and resulted in the deaths of some 750,000 Americans.
The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson is the true story of Fort Sumter in the long march to the American Civil War. It’s a long book, minutely detailed, but it never seems ponderous, as you might expect of a historical subject. It remains gripping and engaging throughout, even if we know what happens in the end.
Copyright © 2024 by Allen Kopp
Literary Fictions 