Byzantium again

[aidan]

Thanks for the welcome, and sorry for taking so long to respond. I'm glad my perspective was helpful! Hope to get to talk to you all more.

[Iestyn]

I just finished Byzantium and I thought I'd add my thoughts to the mass.

First, like a lot of you, Byzantium had some "scratch your head moments" for me (Aidan's sudden change of heart concerning God, for one). But there weren't any flaws that made it unenjoyable.

It started sort of slow for me too, but once vikings started showing up I was sold. I'm a sucker for vikings.
I thought it was stange how perceptions of the particular ones in the book change as the story goes on...At first they are nothing more than bloodthirsty pagans; attacking and murdering without thought or remorse. But, as the story goes on, you see them as humans; quite childlike, actually.
They even become comic relief, providing lots of laugh out loud moments, such as when Aidan has to explain to the Jarl's men that just because they had been baptised doesn't mean they will be invincible in battle.
Gunnar also provides the main spiritual point of the book; the point that opens Aidan's eyes to his folly.

One of my favorite things about this book is how it spans countrys, continents, peoples, cultures, and races; pulling together all these farspread peoples into one purpose.

I wouldn't say it can compare with the Song of Albion series, but ti's definitely a favorite, and most definitely going on the shelf of my bookcase where I keep books I'm apt to re-read.

[Joshua]

I soooo love this book. Patrick was my first SL book and was followed by Byzantium. I'm now reading it a second time but this time it's being read aloud together with my wife.

[Dred]

Sounds like fun. I don't typically read my books aloud for anyone.

I'll probably go back and reread this again soon.

[CynanMachae]

dred said:

Sounds like fun. I don't typically read my books aloud for anyone.

Oh, that'll change as your daughter grows up.

It's fun! When I was in my early teens - a long time ago, I know - I read almost all of Brian Jacques' Redwall books out loud to my dad. It doesn't get much better than that.

[Dred]

lol

She can read them to me and I don't doubt I'll be reading books to her but I wasn't planning on my books. She'll be old enough to read them herself by the time she's ready to actually delve into this stuff.

I already read kids/baby books to her now. She's so cute with them.

[ellery]

I just started Byzantium for the first time. I'm on chapter 30, and will share more of my experience when I finish it. It's good, but so far it isn't even close to Merlin or the Paradise War.

I wish I knew more about Byzantine history and Viking history. I read a comment on amazon.com complaining how Aidan never goes to mass throughout the book, especially how he doesn't at the end when he has the opportunity. As a priest, so the reviewer said, that would have been one of his foremost desires. I also wish I knew which characters are real historical figures and which are not.

Aidan's repetitive religious commentary gets annoying at the beginning, but then again, it was a very religious time. Not that I disagree with his attitude, but sometimes religious and political writers push an agenda too hard. I've read enough other Lawhead books to know him better than that, so I am attributing Aidan's overly zealous narrative to his profession and time period.

As far as character development, it's been 'meh' thus far, but it sounds like that might change. Aidan just hasn't had enough chance to develop relationships before something happens that separates him from them. Also, he starts out as a fairly mature character, which limits his growth. He is a bit naive though, and I am looking forward to that changing. What the book lacks (thus far) in character development, it makes up for in descriptions of cultures. The occasional ancient word, the descriptions of food and manners, the accurate place names, and good dialogue seem to be Lawhead specialties.

I found a site that has maps and short descriptions of the area, which has been useful so far. Stumbling upon Harald and Miklagard at that site was a nice surprise. I'm wondering, is there a thread perhaps that has links to good maps for Lawhead's fiction? I remember wanting a map of Celtic England during the SoA trilogy as well.

Sorry, I tend to think out loud. =P

[dinadan]

So far as I know, there aren't any maps specifically made for Byzantium.

However, maps of the Kievan Rus (and the viking trade routes between western Europe and Constantinople) are readily available. Look for maps of the Byzantine Empire on google.

If you are interested in learning more about the great Christian Empire, there are many, many books that have become available in the last few years. The Oxford History of Byzantium is nice, as is Blackwell's huge tome on "Late Antiquity."

Maybe I'll host a Sunday chat sometime soon (sorry, btw, about letting those fall by the wayside again!) about Byzantine History.

Hope you enjoy it. Byzantium is one of my favorite of Lawhead's books.

[ellery]

Thanks Dinadan for the feedback. I might eventually get some dvds on Byzantium linked in the other Byz topic. I have a stack of Viking and Celtic books that have been on my shelf for a few years too.

I finished the book - and I liked it. It's not my favorite, but it made me more aware of the medieval world. Reading history, psychology, and linguistics books along with my fiction and classics is a joy for me. Byzantium really expanded my nonfiction reading. Unfortunately, I have more books than I can handle even now so it will be a while before I get around to Byzantine subjects hehe.

One thing that differentiates Lawhead from other writers is how he uses spirituality. We're all on a spiritual journey, but it seems that lots of writers focus on political issues or anything at all rather than religion. I identified with Aidan when he lost his religion more than I did at the beginning, or even end when he regained it.

I can't say that God doesn't care or has stolen my hope like Aidan did, but maybe I would if I was honest. Maybe. I have a problem - I don't see any other religion or source of hope that provides answers to the difficult questions of good and evil. As far as I can see, the Bible doesn't leave us any other logical options with which to fill our souls than waiting upon the Lord. I've been pretty disappointed with Christians and even more so with myself. I get impatient all the time.

But I am more patient than Aidan. I know that each life is a journey with or against God, and the journeys just keep going. You could say that I wait on the Lord, on his return, and on his invisible presence even now. I also identified with the book's question, "What did you expect?" I don't expect much from the world, but I appreciate every little bit of joy that it does give. I just wish that the work of the Lord wasn't so hidden, or maybe if I had better eyes with which to see it.

[dinadan]

I sympathize. The kind of frustration you're talking about is pretty common to modern Christians, and actually, some of those were the reasons I ditched Christianity many years ago. It took a long time for me to come back to it, primarily because I became convinced of its truth as a literal historical reality, as well as a spiritual one. The liberalization of theology in the West over the last 500-1000 years is really the cause of this; it's lost sight of the goal. That's why I started looking at the Christian East, reading the works of the eastern Church Fathers, the spiritual life of ancient Christianity, the theology behind asceticism and beauty in the Church, the emphasis on the union of God and man through the person of Jesus...all of which eventually led me to seek out the Orthodox Church, and enter it.

SRL doesn't do such a good job of depicting the Orthodox in Byzantium, although he makes it clear that the Celtic Christians were hoping to use the Constantinopolitan patriarchate to counter the Roman one. This is probably not far from the truth, but as SRL does show, the contacts between Ireland and Byzantium were tenuous by the end of the middle ages...so the orthodox Celts got abandoned to Rome, and eventually were subsumed (especially when the Normans came in 1066, and they captured the Papacy thereabouts as well).