SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion

I'm cheating with this one and reading my paper copy. I read it the first time some years ago and I think this is my third time through it. I really enjoy the way the first 2/3 are pretty much historical fiction and the fantasy part doesn't come into play until later.

The Narrator's story around the Brotherhood I've never quite understood though. It's written well but I never really felt it adds all that much to the novel or to the overall series. But, as 19th century secret societies go, its well done ....

As for Murdo and his story, I want to slap some sense into him quite a bit - but then I was a dumb as rocks 16yo boy once too ....

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It's been some years since I read any Lawhead, and I was majorly disappointed with Grail, the final volume of his Pendragon cycle. So I came to The Iron Lance with a certain amount of scepticism.

However — once I'd waded through the initial 19th century bit (which, I agree with you, Geoffrey, doesn't add much to the book), I quickly got hooked and couldn’t put it down. In fact (referring to your comment, Derrick), I didn't miss magic in the least. I appreciated the book on its own merits as a historical novel with mystic overtones.

The most poignant part of the story, for me, was what Lawhead calls 'the rape of Jerusalem'. Murdo's spontaneous, horrified reaction to the senseless slaughter of Arabs, Jews and Christians alike flows completely naturally out of the foregoing story, and is totally convincing.

I shall certainly be reading the other two volumes in this series.