I generally avoid fantasy novels, though I do like some dark fantasy in the vein of Tanith Lee. But I cringe at the appearance of a unicorn, a dwarf, or a wizard in a starry robe and conical hat. 

I had never read any Sara Douglass novels before, primarily because I was turned off by her book covers. A shallow reason but the cover is often an indicator of the grade of book that lies within, and her covers seemed contrived to appeal to a certain strata of fantasy readers of which I am not a part.

I also tend to avoid books, especially fantasy novels, that are part of a series. If I read the first one, I always feel committed to read the rest, and with some series, thats just torture. I’m thinking Xanth here.  

But the Crucible series by Sarah Douglass caught my attention from the first paragraph. 

Set against the backdrop of the Hundred Years War, this series is the story of Thomas Neville, a former warrior and English noble who, following a tragedy that leaves him grief-stricken and filled with guilt, becomes a monk. Upon his arrival in Rome, he has a vision of St Michael the Archangel, who charges him with the quest of finding the book of Wynken de Worde - a monk who died of the plague 3 decades before. Wynken de Worde was the keeper of certain rituals that could bind demons and cast them into the portal of hell, but his death left the portal of hell unsealed, and now these demons roam the earth in the guise of humans. It is up to Brother Thomas to deliver the demons into hell, and reseal the portal. 

It sounds kind lame, I know.  

But it isn’t. Ms Douglass’ research on the Hundred Years War is impeccable, and though she squeezes the timeline a bit, she manages to breath real life into her portrayal of this tumultuous period of history. The secret gnostic cosmology hanging over the tale as it unfolds adds depth… and difference. It blurs the line between good and evil and the endows the characters with a complexity seldom seen in your standard good-vs-evil plots. 

Book One of the series,  The Nameless Day , though interesting enough, merely sets the scene for the final two books. Brother Thomas is neither very likable nor complex at this point, and his travels through Germany and France become tedious on occasion. Few of the characters seem well developed in Book One, and it was the underlying hint of a gnostic cosmology that kept me reading the series. 

Book Two,  The Wounded Hawk, sees a lot more development of the gnostic themes, and further development of the characters. Thomas, once he leaves the religious order and finds himself back in his milieu of England’s nobility, truly shines as a character. His relationship with the demon Margaret is bedevilled (pun intended) by uncertainty, and his divided loyalties deepen the reader’s sympathy for his plight. Even the vilest characters manage to be offensive in a complex manner without lapsing into a characature of villainy. 

But its the third book,  The Crippled Angel, that is the jewel of the series. The angels that lurk in the background finally come to the foreground with a fascinating and appalling intensity, and when Christ gets down off the cross to walk the earth once more, all hell breaks loose (another pun.. sorry). Book Three was, quite simply, a blast. I enjoyed the hell out of it, though a couple of the minor characters had a tendency to steal the show. Hal of Bolingbroke is larger than life, and dwarfed anycharacter with whom he shared the page, including the main characters. The character of his wife, Mary Bohun, manages to be strong and saintly without ever succumbing to the taint of fluffy sentimentality. 

The series did, on occasion, lapse into a bit of silliness. It is a fantasy after all. But the rich portrayal of historical events combined with good characterisation and a supernatural theme manages to overcome what few shortcomings plague this series.