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Blind Man's Labyrinth
A Jewish civil war is tearing apart northern Israel. In the south, servants of the goddess Ashtaroth are abducting unwary refugees. Haim, an unwanted boy, escapes into this nightmarish landscape to find his way in a world gone mad.
92 BCE. A widow and an old scribe together raise Haim, a boy whose lineage cursed him from birth. When Haim is eleven years old, he runs away into a world populated by Samaritan bandits, a cultic pagan temple devoted to horror, and the white‑robed priests of Qumran.
Desperate and lonely, Haim searches for community, friendship, and belonging while being plagued by a hunger for meaning that he cannot satisfy.
Blind Man’s Labyrinth is a lyrical historical fiction novel set near the end of the Maccabean period. If you like stories that explore the conflict between survival and morality and ask questions about how outcasts fight against socially systemic cycles of fear and violence in their quest for friendship, kinship, and meaning, then you will love this masterful follow up to Daryl Potter’s deeply moving Keziah’s Song.
92 BCE. A widow and an old scribe together raise Haim, a boy whose lineage cursed him from birth. When Haim is eleven years old, he runs away into a world populated by Samaritan bandits, a cultic pagan temple devoted to horror, and the white‑robed priests of Qumran.
Desperate and lonely, Haim searches for community, friendship, and belonging while being plagued by a hunger for meaning that he cannot satisfy.
Blind Man’s Labyrinth is a lyrical historical fiction novel set near the end of the Maccabean period. If you like stories that explore the conflict between survival and morality and ask questions about how outcasts fight against socially systemic cycles of fear and violence in their quest for friendship, kinship, and meaning, then you will love this masterful follow up to Daryl Potter’s deeply moving Keziah’s Song.
12 pages, Audible Audio
Published September 22, 2021
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Daryl Potter
5 books2 followersDaryl Potter has been a cornet player, carpenter, nurse, emergency room assistant, chicken catcher, medical genetics lab technician, IT manager and banking product manager. He has explored Egypt's pyramids, Israel's deserts, and Turkey's archaeology. In addition to studying Alexandrian Greek and ancient Hebrew poetry, he has been bitten by a wolf in northern British Columbia and attacked by a western diamondback rattlesnake in California. He and his wife share their home outside Toronto, Ontario, with their two teenage children.
His first novel, Keziah’s Song, explores the tumultuous 135-101 BCE period, focused on the Seleucid Empire and Israel. Further novels in the series will explore the period 135 BCE to 135 CE with a reach that expands to include Egypt, Rome, Nabataea and the Parthian Empire. This is a period of history full of little-known stories that are as dramatic as anything found in most popular fantasy novels and whose effects continue to shape Western Civilization and three of the world’s major religions.
His first novel, Keziah’s Song, explores the tumultuous 135-101 BCE period, focused on the Seleucid Empire and Israel. Further novels in the series will explore the period 135 BCE to 135 CE with a reach that expands to include Egypt, Rome, Nabataea and the Parthian Empire. This is a period of history full of little-known stories that are as dramatic as anything found in most popular fantasy novels and whose effects continue to shape Western Civilization and three of the world’s major religions.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 21, 2021
''Blind Man's Labyrinth'' is an extraordinary piece of work. The readers' voyage on what will be a difficult and troubling journey would be greatly enhanced by a certain level of prior understanding of the times and the place of the book, but a person with little or no knowledge of the background will equally appreciate this rich and highly textured and intensely moving novel. Thereafter, a certain level of individual research into the period and place will bring the work into an even sharper focus; for ''Blind Man's Labyrinth'' is truly a book that should to be read and savoured not just the once.
Haim, the protagonist of the book, is the classic 'everyman', a solitary and intensely lonely figure in an alien and hostile landscape, constantly on the move, constantly searching for peace and an understanding of who he is and seeking to understand the chaos and madness that surrounds him. Indeed, he questions the degree to which he himself has played in creating the actual suffering and cruelty that surrounds him. The eventual awareness and understanding of his place and role in a hostile world is an immensely powerful aspect of the book. Throughout the narrative, Haim experiences a series of revelatory truths about himself and the world beyond. Haim, typically making no contribution to a conversation between a group of potters concerning their work and art, reflects: ''he was as deeply enmeshed in the art of ruin as these men in the particulars of making pots. Their tools were clay and kiln. His tools were sling, knife, fist and somehow finding and befriending poisonous people. The betrayal of innocents, a forest of crosses. Those were his tools, and the harvest was always rich.''
The book is set in the location of Israel in the years 92 BCE to 84 BCE. It is a period of violent civil war. In the north, the forces of the Seleucid Empire battle constantly with forces loyal to King Jannaeus and the Temple at Jerusalem. The Sadducees and the Pharisees are in bitter religious conflict and all of Galilee and Samaria is a wasteland plagued with murderous bandits. In the south, the fanatics of the cult Temple of the Goddess Ashtaroth in the city of Ashkelon have their own brand of particular horror. Into this cauldron an eleven year old boy is set loose completely alone. Haim, a boy of tainted blood, half Jewish, hated by his own mother, seeks to make his own way in the world. This is an endless and painful Odyssey. The young boy is rootless and aimless. He drifts throughout the land with a single companion he has rescued, a girl younger than he, Chaya, the sole survivor of a village massacred by bandits. They travel together aimlessly for a period before falling in with a band of Samaritan robbers and bandits. With them, Haim learns to kill and commits the first of many murders. After years on the road still he is seeking a sense of identity and of purpose, for himself and for the twisted world that surrounds him. He is seeking companionship and peace. He is, he knows, lost and alone. ''Regardless of what road he chose, he would always be the same Haim, blown wherever the wind blew, part of no fellowship........'' to be finished with life seemed the only path left to him, but he was not yet ready to die. He was only twenty six years old and he wanted to know why he was alive....'' Ultimately the band is tracked down, executed and dispersed by soldiers. The survivors, Chaya with them still, disappear. In return for his life and his freedom Haim betrays a village that had previously offered him and Chaya refuge and security of sorts, for Chaya at least. It is destroyed by the forces of Jerusalem. The menfolk and the Pharisees living among them are crucified in a horrifying mass execution and the memory of this and of his betrayal will haunt him for the rest of his difficult days.
Haim journeys south and along the coast and to the city of Askalon. [In tracing Haim's convoluted journeys the map provided by Daryl Potter is invaluable] and falls victim to a vicious and dangerous cult there. He is the victim of their practices, driven mad by privation and poisons. Freeing himself finally, and now truly murderous and unstable, he becomes a mercenary and an expert with the slingshot, feared and shunned by all in the long civil war still raging and the fighting between Jerusalem and the Seleucids and the suppression of rebels and dissidents. He is also following his own extremely strict and austere dietary regime, thus alienating him still further. He leads this existence for a further six years before deserting and wandering alone once more, wracked with a constant guilt. He next falls in with a group of extreme aesthetics devoted to purity and truth, the Essenes and the settlement of 'Qumran'. He becomes a novice in their order, two further years of extreme privation and learning before he can hope for full initiation into the Order. Perhaps he will find peace and acceptance among them: ''Everywhere I've gone, I've travelled for twenty six years. I want to know to be clean of everything that is.'' Alas, after a tragic fatality, Haim feels he has been betrayed, even by this pious and chaste community and he is loose and adrift once more, despite their ultimate promise of righteousness. Ultimately, he rediscovers his childhood home near the city of Dora. The place is a crumbling ruin and he sets to restore it and settle there. The wheel has come full circle and perhaps finally he can find peace.
''Doomed encounters rarely come with a warning - danger unwraps itself in mystery and evil unfolds so slowly and with such charm that by the time a victim understands what is occurring, it is too late.'' This is an extremely unsettling book to wander, like Haim, through. It is, throughout, a completely compelling read and is full of lyrically expressed truths and moments of pure wisdom and philosophy. Heart wrenching and tragic, ''Blind Man's Labyrinth' is a book to be savoured and treasured.
*****
“Blind Man’s Labyrinth” by Daryl Potter receives five stars and the “Highly Recommended” award from The Historical Fiction Company.
Haim, the protagonist of the book, is the classic 'everyman', a solitary and intensely lonely figure in an alien and hostile landscape, constantly on the move, constantly searching for peace and an understanding of who he is and seeking to understand the chaos and madness that surrounds him. Indeed, he questions the degree to which he himself has played in creating the actual suffering and cruelty that surrounds him. The eventual awareness and understanding of his place and role in a hostile world is an immensely powerful aspect of the book. Throughout the narrative, Haim experiences a series of revelatory truths about himself and the world beyond. Haim, typically making no contribution to a conversation between a group of potters concerning their work and art, reflects: ''he was as deeply enmeshed in the art of ruin as these men in the particulars of making pots. Their tools were clay and kiln. His tools were sling, knife, fist and somehow finding and befriending poisonous people. The betrayal of innocents, a forest of crosses. Those were his tools, and the harvest was always rich.''
The book is set in the location of Israel in the years 92 BCE to 84 BCE. It is a period of violent civil war. In the north, the forces of the Seleucid Empire battle constantly with forces loyal to King Jannaeus and the Temple at Jerusalem. The Sadducees and the Pharisees are in bitter religious conflict and all of Galilee and Samaria is a wasteland plagued with murderous bandits. In the south, the fanatics of the cult Temple of the Goddess Ashtaroth in the city of Ashkelon have their own brand of particular horror. Into this cauldron an eleven year old boy is set loose completely alone. Haim, a boy of tainted blood, half Jewish, hated by his own mother, seeks to make his own way in the world. This is an endless and painful Odyssey. The young boy is rootless and aimless. He drifts throughout the land with a single companion he has rescued, a girl younger than he, Chaya, the sole survivor of a village massacred by bandits. They travel together aimlessly for a period before falling in with a band of Samaritan robbers and bandits. With them, Haim learns to kill and commits the first of many murders. After years on the road still he is seeking a sense of identity and of purpose, for himself and for the twisted world that surrounds him. He is seeking companionship and peace. He is, he knows, lost and alone. ''Regardless of what road he chose, he would always be the same Haim, blown wherever the wind blew, part of no fellowship........'' to be finished with life seemed the only path left to him, but he was not yet ready to die. He was only twenty six years old and he wanted to know why he was alive....'' Ultimately the band is tracked down, executed and dispersed by soldiers. The survivors, Chaya with them still, disappear. In return for his life and his freedom Haim betrays a village that had previously offered him and Chaya refuge and security of sorts, for Chaya at least. It is destroyed by the forces of Jerusalem. The menfolk and the Pharisees living among them are crucified in a horrifying mass execution and the memory of this and of his betrayal will haunt him for the rest of his difficult days.
Haim journeys south and along the coast and to the city of Askalon. [In tracing Haim's convoluted journeys the map provided by Daryl Potter is invaluable] and falls victim to a vicious and dangerous cult there. He is the victim of their practices, driven mad by privation and poisons. Freeing himself finally, and now truly murderous and unstable, he becomes a mercenary and an expert with the slingshot, feared and shunned by all in the long civil war still raging and the fighting between Jerusalem and the Seleucids and the suppression of rebels and dissidents. He is also following his own extremely strict and austere dietary regime, thus alienating him still further. He leads this existence for a further six years before deserting and wandering alone once more, wracked with a constant guilt. He next falls in with a group of extreme aesthetics devoted to purity and truth, the Essenes and the settlement of 'Qumran'. He becomes a novice in their order, two further years of extreme privation and learning before he can hope for full initiation into the Order. Perhaps he will find peace and acceptance among them: ''Everywhere I've gone, I've travelled for twenty six years. I want to know to be clean of everything that is.'' Alas, after a tragic fatality, Haim feels he has been betrayed, even by this pious and chaste community and he is loose and adrift once more, despite their ultimate promise of righteousness. Ultimately, he rediscovers his childhood home near the city of Dora. The place is a crumbling ruin and he sets to restore it and settle there. The wheel has come full circle and perhaps finally he can find peace.
''Doomed encounters rarely come with a warning - danger unwraps itself in mystery and evil unfolds so slowly and with such charm that by the time a victim understands what is occurring, it is too late.'' This is an extremely unsettling book to wander, like Haim, through. It is, throughout, a completely compelling read and is full of lyrically expressed truths and moments of pure wisdom and philosophy. Heart wrenching and tragic, ''Blind Man's Labyrinth' is a book to be savoured and treasured.
*****
“Blind Man’s Labyrinth” by Daryl Potter receives five stars and the “Highly Recommended” award from The Historical Fiction Company.
January 26, 2022
What is “goodness” when everyone around you is “evil”?
With a tone, a message, and a story, that feels remarkably authentic - heartbreaking, bloody, terrifying and poignant - set in an ancient and barbaric time of history, when war, conflict, hate, violence and religious tyranny reign supreme, is there is really any other story to be told?
Are we destined to grow into violence, re-live the worlds of our fathers, and what we see around us? Or is something more, something deeper, something uniquely ours, out there (or in here?) for the finding?
Wonderfully researched and completely immersive, this book is set beginning in the year 92 BCE, in Israel, in a period of history this reader had little familiarity with prior to reading this incredible work.
Here we are introduced to a boy we will know as Haim (Hebrew for “Life”), eleven years old, and one of the most affecting characters you are likely to meet between the pages. A child born out of a violent act by a tyrannical despot destined to be his father, Hain himself is little but a sentient shell - unloved, untouched, despised by the mother forced to bear and raise him - he has learned to navigate life blindly, with no emotional compass, or self-awareness, and little understanding of the world he lives in.
Without giving the plot away (no spoilers here) Hain finds himself alone and desperate, (a trademark lifestyle that will come back to plague his life, repeatedly) as he struggles to survive in a land besieged by bloody civil war, mercenary soldiers, mass crucifixions, battling religious sects, poisonous sacrificial priestesses, white-robed bloodless ascetics, and sadistic bandits (and that’s all just internal strife, as the besieged Judeans are also surrounded on all sides by enemy states they frequently will find themselves at war with).
Hain’s journey, as told over the next sixteen years, is totally absorbing - horrifying in parts, and difficult to read, but un-putdown-able throughout. Caught in a maelstrom of enforced bloodshed, kill or be killed, and pillage at every turn, how can Hain, an outcast with few skills, hope to find a way out of the dark and fractured corners of his mind, (his heart), and build a life of morality, and meaning - let alone find community, love or even the most rudimentary social acceptance?
“He was hungry for something more than food, something he could not name”.
“He wanted a her to be his, and him to be hers”.
Who, if anyone, can he count on for guidance, support and is there a way he can even make his own choices - choices that allow him to govern his own life and “be clean of everything that is” in his past, his present, his pre-destined future?
I loved this book. As tragic as it is compelling, this is a story layered in questions, disturbing as they are, that may or may not have answers (for Hain, as well as for those who live, or can imagine life, in a world not so very unlike his). But they are questions that decidedly need asking.
A great big thank you to the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
With a tone, a message, and a story, that feels remarkably authentic - heartbreaking, bloody, terrifying and poignant - set in an ancient and barbaric time of history, when war, conflict, hate, violence and religious tyranny reign supreme, is there is really any other story to be told?
Are we destined to grow into violence, re-live the worlds of our fathers, and what we see around us? Or is something more, something deeper, something uniquely ours, out there (or in here?) for the finding?
Wonderfully researched and completely immersive, this book is set beginning in the year 92 BCE, in Israel, in a period of history this reader had little familiarity with prior to reading this incredible work.
Here we are introduced to a boy we will know as Haim (Hebrew for “Life”), eleven years old, and one of the most affecting characters you are likely to meet between the pages. A child born out of a violent act by a tyrannical despot destined to be his father, Hain himself is little but a sentient shell - unloved, untouched, despised by the mother forced to bear and raise him - he has learned to navigate life blindly, with no emotional compass, or self-awareness, and little understanding of the world he lives in.
Without giving the plot away (no spoilers here) Hain finds himself alone and desperate, (a trademark lifestyle that will come back to plague his life, repeatedly) as he struggles to survive in a land besieged by bloody civil war, mercenary soldiers, mass crucifixions, battling religious sects, poisonous sacrificial priestesses, white-robed bloodless ascetics, and sadistic bandits (and that’s all just internal strife, as the besieged Judeans are also surrounded on all sides by enemy states they frequently will find themselves at war with).
Hain’s journey, as told over the next sixteen years, is totally absorbing - horrifying in parts, and difficult to read, but un-putdown-able throughout. Caught in a maelstrom of enforced bloodshed, kill or be killed, and pillage at every turn, how can Hain, an outcast with few skills, hope to find a way out of the dark and fractured corners of his mind, (his heart), and build a life of morality, and meaning - let alone find community, love or even the most rudimentary social acceptance?
“He was hungry for something more than food, something he could not name”.
“He wanted a her to be his, and him to be hers”.
Who, if anyone, can he count on for guidance, support and is there a way he can even make his own choices - choices that allow him to govern his own life and “be clean of everything that is” in his past, his present, his pre-destined future?
I loved this book. As tragic as it is compelling, this is a story layered in questions, disturbing as they are, that may or may not have answers (for Hain, as well as for those who live, or can imagine life, in a world not so very unlike his). But they are questions that decidedly need asking.
A great big thank you to the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.
November 5, 2021
An excellent book that I will not easily forget. Having copied multiple quotes to my journal, I continue to contemplate the many insights conveyed so uniquely in "Blind Man's Labyrinth," a story of a young boy becoming a man. This young man confronts prevailing prejudices against him established before his birth with self-inspection and withstands horrific historical realities that might shock readers. Nameless and despised in the opening chapters, this survivor’s connection to "Keziah’s Song" is established and the backdrop is set for his being given the name Haim. His name means life, which creates an intimate connection to every reader. Haim’s wanderings are driven by the burning desire to know himself and the world around him, and to determine his particular place of belonging. Acknowledging the failings of our human understanding and nature, readers will eventually contemplate how one can achieve rest from a hunger for meaning and purpose. This stand-alone book, yet second in a series, is a powerful catalyst for change as readers contemplate the depths of companionship, fellowship, belonging, and faith while simultaneously recognizing the depths of accompanying pain and self-reflection.
October 25, 2021
I listened to this novel as a free ARC auidobook. This was an exceptional novel from start to finish. I really enjoyed the story. I was able to see gowth in the characters found myself wanting to yell advice and encouragement to the characters. I honestly feel that this is a story for anyone and everyone, young and old. I was impressed by the author knowing geography and it was obvious that Mr. Potter did his homework. Kristi Alsip did a fantastic job reading the novel. She was very professional and her efforts added to the story. At the end of the day this novel is worth your time and money.
November 10, 2021
I loved the use of historical and horror elements in this book, the characters were what I wanted from this type of book and I enjoyed the world in this book. I look forward to more from the author.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews