Yesterday I read the whole entire day. And since I have a house, have started packing, am fairly ready for finals, and nothing else needed to be done, I didn’t feel guilty at all.
The Nameless Day is book one of the Crucible Trilogy, by Sara Douglass. Apparently, this series is the author’s favorite of her works, but so far I’m not all that impressed. The protagonist, Thomas Neville, is a fairly historically accurate 14th century priest but he does not inspire much sympathy from other characters or the reader. I especially disliked that while Thomas is extremely judgmental of every other character, each time his own virtue lapses he always finds ample excuse. Another major problem I had is that the action is slow, largely unexciting, and often predictable. Part of this is due to the fact that certain motifs in this book (the plow) have been recycled from her other novels. Despite all this, I did very much enjoy seeing good and evil arranged along opposing sides of actual historical issues during the French Revolution. The main character and struggling good guy priest finds evil amongst the leaders of the reformation and those who wish to overcome the long established social order, which I thought was an interesting twist. It was fun to see the origins of social contract theory and humanism alongside the typical magic and monsters.
Overall, if you want to read Sara Douglass/excellent fantasy you check out one of her other series. I highly recommend the Wayfarer Redemption novels, which are quite possibly even better than Lord of the Rings. I also enjoyed the Troy Game Quartet, which has some fun extras like reincarnating characters.
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