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All Things Are Lights
Great efforts are now being put forward to found a "Garden City," which shall be a veritable Eden planted in the midst of orchards, and whose inhabitants shall live in comfort and comparative repose. And beautiful and laudable are all such efforts when they are prompted by unselfish love. But such a city cannot exist, or cannot long remain the Eden which it aims to be in its outward form, unless the majority of its inhabitants have subdued and conquered the inward selfishness.......
502 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
22 people are currently reading
217 people want to read
About the author
Robert Shea
67 books176 followersRobert Joseph Shea was a novelist and journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In 1986 it won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. Shea went on to write several action novels based in exotic historical settings.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 26, 2013
This is a surprisingly well written tale, with an excellent portrayal of King Louis IX of France. Although the book starts with the fall of the last Cathar fortress, Montsegur, in 1244, it provides a historically sound, comprehensible and non-romaticized introduction to the key issues involved in the Albigensian crusade (e.g. an independent Southern nobility with its own culture and language, a corrupt clergy that turned the common people against the Catholic church, a new interpretation of Christianity that was preached by devoted followers.) It avoids the use of magic and mystery, far too common when dealing with the Cathars, and instead presents complex, believable characters deserving of sympathy but flawed and inconsistent -- as we all are. This is without doubt the best book I have read on this fascinating episode in history.
March 4, 2020
See Keith and Helena's reviews.
"[Roland] was like a man who had been made to walk for uncounted hours at the very edge of a cliff. Again and again, facing death [and torture and seeing others die and be tortured] his mind and heart and body had been forced to their highest pitch of fury, terror and grief. . . . He felt only a dull ache of sorrow for those who had died this day and pity for all others, including himself, who must go on living and suffering." (from p. 344) This is a recurring pattern in this book.
"All things that are, are Lights."
The King of France, Louis the IX, a gentle, pious man, repeatedly tried to lead crusades to free Jerusalem from influences other than Christian, and fails.
The first part of this book, "France, 1244-1248," deals with the "Lights" part, and Diane who is a Cathar, is in Love with Roland, a troubadour. Diane, therefore, cannot touch Roland at all, though she is torn. But Roland also loves Nicolette, who is married to Amalric, a dastardly character.
The second part of the book deals with the Outremer 1249 - 1250, which we know as Egypt.
Roland is pressed into service to defend the King against foes stirred up by Amalric, who he learns is his half-brother. Diane is burned at the stake, but is saved from the pain by one of the Templars. Roland's jongleur, Perrin, is carried to a death pit of soldiers by the King, accompanied by many knights. Earlier, Roland sang:
"Above the rocks, upon the wind
The lowly seagull cries
The anchor up, my little craft
Slips out now with the tide.
Look not for me at the merry board,
My face is set to sea.
The morning dove flits through the trees
I hear her plaint no more.
The shore is fading fast away,
The waves will sing to me
Look not for me at the merry board,
My face is set to sea."
Roland and Amalric FINALLY have a pitched battle and guess who wins.
The King ransoms himself and the people who remain, and returns to France.
Like my review, this book jumps around.
"[Roland] was like a man who had been made to walk for uncounted hours at the very edge of a cliff. Again and again, facing death [and torture and seeing others die and be tortured] his mind and heart and body had been forced to their highest pitch of fury, terror and grief. . . . He felt only a dull ache of sorrow for those who had died this day and pity for all others, including himself, who must go on living and suffering." (from p. 344) This is a recurring pattern in this book.
"All things that are, are Lights."
The King of France, Louis the IX, a gentle, pious man, repeatedly tried to lead crusades to free Jerusalem from influences other than Christian, and fails.
The first part of this book, "France, 1244-1248," deals with the "Lights" part, and Diane who is a Cathar, is in Love with Roland, a troubadour. Diane, therefore, cannot touch Roland at all, though she is torn. But Roland also loves Nicolette, who is married to Amalric, a dastardly character.
The second part of the book deals with the Outremer 1249 - 1250, which we know as Egypt.
Roland is pressed into service to defend the King against foes stirred up by Amalric, who he learns is his half-brother. Diane is burned at the stake, but is saved from the pain by one of the Templars. Roland's jongleur, Perrin, is carried to a death pit of soldiers by the King, accompanied by many knights. Earlier, Roland sang:
"Above the rocks, upon the wind
The lowly seagull cries
The anchor up, my little craft
Slips out now with the tide.
Look not for me at the merry board,
My face is set to sea.
The morning dove flits through the trees
I hear her plaint no more.
The shore is fading fast away,
The waves will sing to me
Look not for me at the merry board,
My face is set to sea."
Roland and Amalric FINALLY have a pitched battle and guess who wins.
The King ransoms himself and the people who remain, and returns to France.
Like my review, this book jumps around.
November 14, 2018
Overall the book is well written. It has some of the qualities of a romance novel, which really isn’t my thing. There are things about it that bothered me, such as when Roland is described as swinging a 40 lb sword. No sword weighed 40lbs. Maybe 4. And the names of the main female characters were Nicolette and Diane. Which would not be common feminine names of 13th century Languadoc. So, some of the specifics didn’t seem to be well researched. But, I love the time period, and liked the way he used the Cathar beliefs and Albigensian Crusade in the storyline.
August 2, 2018
The Crusades, persecution of Cathars and a Man torn between 2 beautiful women.
Like the wonderful SHIKE duology, this is another gorgeously entertaining historical romp by Robert Shea.
Damn it! The man deserves to be more widely read
Like the wonderful SHIKE duology, this is another gorgeously entertaining historical romp by Robert Shea.
Damn it! The man deserves to be more widely read
April 6, 2020
Found this at a payless (actually much2 less) bookstore, and it seems that all the good books are found in those kind of shops! I just loved how the author intertwined real historical events with fiction, and inserted these wonderful characters into the history pages that shaped our world. The story is about Roland and his half brother Amalric, and how the rivalry between them sparks love, friendship, bertrayal, and deaths of other people around them, and the inevitable events that lead to the climatic duel between the two brothers at the end of the book.
I tried to find the author's other books but they seemed out of print. I learned that they are available to read on the internet.
I tried to find the author's other books but they seemed out of print. I learned that they are available to read on the internet.
July 10, 2023
Unfortunately this novel didn’t stand up well on my second read.
The setting during the Albigensian crusade and the troubadour tradition in Occitania were the attractions for me. I had a fond but vague memory of reading this book a long time ago, however the second time around, its unplausible character behaviours and too much romance made me pause and decide to set this book aside.
DNF @30%
The setting during the Albigensian crusade and the troubadour tradition in Occitania were the attractions for me. I had a fond but vague memory of reading this book a long time ago, however the second time around, its unplausible character behaviours and too much romance made me pause and decide to set this book aside.
DNF @30%
February 11, 2018
502 pages
August 7, 2011
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 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 that The Da Vinci Code.
I think part of why I found this book so fascinating is 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 that The Da Vinci Code.
August 15, 2018
A quite entertaining fictional narrative approach to Catharism and its influence on the rise of l'amour courtois among the troubadours of France—particularly the Languedoc region—in the era following the Albigensian Crusade and flowing into the Seventh Crusade led by St. Louis IX of France. A bit more than half of the book is set in medieval France, with the remainder in the so-called Holy Land, more accurately Egypt, herein referred to as "Outremer."
Central themes are the tensions between love and duty, the practical and the romantic, spirit and flesh, religion and spirituality, rulership and tyranny, and of course orthodoxy and heresy. If you're into stuff like that, with knights and love polygons and daring do and flawed, distinctly human (if not always perfectly believable) characters, this should be right up your jousting list. (Yes, there is also jousting.) In fact, I dare say this is the best non-fantasy yet high-romance semi-historical story I have encountered in print, quite on par with, and probably well exceeding, Ridley Scott's film Kingdom of Heaven, and quite unlike the author's earlier and far better known The Illuminatus! Trilogy collaboration with Robert Anton Wilson, whose influence here seems notably absent.
Central themes are the tensions between love and duty, the practical and the romantic, spirit and flesh, religion and spirituality, rulership and tyranny, and of course orthodoxy and heresy. If you're into stuff like that, with knights and love polygons and daring do and flawed, distinctly human (if not always perfectly believable) characters, this should be right up your jousting list. (Yes, there is also jousting.) In fact, I dare say this is the best non-fantasy yet high-romance semi-historical story I have encountered in print, quite on par with, and probably well exceeding, Ridley Scott's film Kingdom of Heaven, and quite unlike the author's earlier and far better known The Illuminatus! Trilogy collaboration with Robert Anton Wilson, whose influence here seems notably absent.
February 22, 2013
The love story is a bit over-the-top but the main character IS a troubadour in the time of courtly love and heraldry, so it's supposed to be so.
Great historic background on the persecution of the Cathars by the Inquisition and formation of the Knights Templar during the Crusades.
Some day I hope to find copies of volumes 1 & 3 of the trilogy.
Great historic background on the persecution of the Cathars by the Inquisition and formation of the Knights Templar during the Crusades.
Some day I hope to find copies of volumes 1 & 3 of the trilogy.
May 18, 2013
So many good things to say about this book. History woven with intrigue, drama, secret societies, knights in armour hope and despair in Europe and the Middle East. I found the love story side of things a bit over the top at times but that is a minor criticism. It is hard to put down you will have some late nights until you finish this one.
October 9, 2013
Robert Shea demuestra de nuevo que es un maestro de la novela histórica. Como ya hiciera con Shike y El Sarraceno, vuelve a componer una historia completa con personajes apasionantes esta vez centrados en la Séptima Cruzada. Ansioso por leer Shaman ambientada en el lejano Oeste
June 9, 2010
I am always looking for a good factually based historical novel with an interesting fictional story weaved into the history.
August 18, 2011
I read this in college and then made my boyfriend, now husband, read it too. Sexy, suspenseful.
January 12, 2016
Read more than 20 years ago...enjoyed it and I should put it on my re-read list...
September 8, 2023
A mix of history and fiction set around the Albigensian crusade and the Seventh Crusade. Really enjoyable read with a good plot, pacing and plenty of action.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews