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Between Two Fires
£14.40
His extraordinary debut, Those Across the River, was hailed as “genre-bending Southern horror” (California Literary Review), “graceful [and] horrific” (Patricia Briggs). Now Christopher Buehlman invites readers into an even darker age—one of temptation and corruption, of war in heaven, and of hell on earth… And Lucifer said: “Let us rise against Him now in all our numbers, and pull the walls of heaven down…” The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm—that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict. Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission: to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned. As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.
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by J198623
This book gripped me from beginning to end. The characterisation is so good and the atmosphere really brings you back to a dark and dangerous time. Even so, it never feels depressing or too bleak, the author always brings out a glimmer of hope even in the darkness. Can not recommend this highly enough.
by Arynth
Found this through repeated Reddit recommendations and it’s a wonderful novel. I expected Horror and despite some scenes of Horror, it’s not what I would have called a Horror. I’d class it more in the lines of fantasy-quest. It’s refreshing to read a novel of its type set in the dark ages. It’s absolutely bursting with themes and tension and irony. The characters are revealed slowly and you form an attachment with them. Had several moments where it was ‘unputdownable’. It’s a very vivid novel. Suffers slightly from some cloying aspects.
by Ed Crocker
Ok. Before we talk about this book, let’s talk about another one.
The Blacktongue Thief, the 2021 debut fantasy by Christopher Buehlman, was a marvel. One of the best fantasy debuts I’ve ever read, it showcased Buehlman’s talents: astonishing wordbuilding making each page come alive with new information; a deeply disturbing sense of the grim and the horrific; a pitch-perfect sense of comedy that made it the funniest fantasy since Pratchett; a penchant for the poetic, the tragic and the soulful that was all the more powerful for its conjunction with the aforesaid humour; and a talent for linguistic playfulness that meant that each page was an etymological meal in itself, to be slowly devoured lest the book ends too quickly.
Now before this turns into a review of that (yeah yeah, I know, too late) I want you to understand how excited I was when I discovered that Buehlman’s writing roots are in horror, not fantasy (horror being my other favourite genre, my blood-soaked Watson to fantasy’s Holmes). The book I chose to introduce myself to his horror oeuvre was Between Two Fires, which on its front cover is described as an epic tale of medieval horror, leaving you in doubt as to his ambition and intent here.
Between Two Fires is set in 14th century France, currently being devastated by the plague. But behind the plague there are more sinister and unholy forces at work, and an odd trio of an orphaned young girl, a knight stripped of his lands and an alcoholic priest must traverse this country ripe with pestilence and monsters, both human and devilish, on a quest to save both themselves and, perhaps, the world.
The first thing to note is that any book with the bubonic plague in has an in-built advantage that this is one of the most fertile grounds for horror. The terror of a village waiting for the plague to hit, the random unfortunate events that bring said plague to its walls; the sheer despair as vast populations are wiped out: Buehlman mines all the potential of the Black Death to its upmost.
But this is a book of monsters as well as plague, and while it would be spoiling it to say much more on this, take it from me that there are some scenes in here that will fester in your very soul and linger there, grinning. Those of you who have read the Blacktongue Thief and enjoyed the very vivid scenes of goblins, Kraken and the like can be rest assured that the creature moments here are of a dark variety so unhinged and hellish that even a jaded horror veteran like myself had to take a moment to collect myself after certain sections.
Buehlman is not just a purveyor of the depraved though (though boy is he that too); he is a master of character, and relationships. The character of Thomas, the fallen knight with a tragic past, is a classic one: a man tempted to do bad desperately struggling to keep on the righteous path. His relationship with Delphine, the orphaned girl who becomes much more than that, is complicated but redemptive in all the best ways.
But perhaps the best moments of character come when we are introduced to minor characters who appear only briefly (often before being dispatched in various horrific ways). Buehlman has a talent for making these brief cameos seem very real, often heart-breaking so; his penchant for realistic dialogue of humour and soul immediately creates very real relationships with the most passing of people. In this respect, Buehlman can put himself up there with the true master of this, fantasy legend Robin Hobb.
We also need to talk about this book’s ambition. While the first half is very much a tour of depravity and faint hope across the plague-torn villages and towns of medieval France, the second half, or at least the last third, becomes… something else entirely. I won’t give anything away, but Buehlman has a masterplan here, a grand scheme, and things get very chaotic very quickly. It’s at this point that you will know for sure if this book is for you.
Those of you who like their epic novels a little more disciplined, or structured, may get lost at this point amid the chaos. But if, like me, this book already had its gore-stained hooks in you by this point, then you will see meaning and planning in the chaos, and it will sweep you along to the supremely ambitious finale, which Buehlman pulls of (just). And it’s at this point that you realise what this book has achieved; a masterful tale about the redemption and hope that can be found even amongst true horror that can rank among the greats covering this fertile narrative ground.
Do I like it as much The Blacktongue Thief? No. But that’s an unfair comparison, like criticising the Hobbit for not being the Lord of the Rings. But it left a mark on me, and broke my heart and warped my mind in so many places I was exhausted by the end in the best way, having completed a brimstone-scorched marathon with the scars to prove it.
So there we have it. Buehlman is a master of horror as well as fantasy.
Lucky bastard.
by Greg
If anyone is a fan of the Dark Souls series of video games this would be a good read for you
by Amazon Customer
Very well written book but perhaps not for the faint of heart
by Marc
This story left me wanting more, but in a good way. It’s not a huge read, I got through it fairly quickly. I enjoyed the main characters and their relationship to each other, the decisions they made and where that lead them felt right and true to them. The world they inhabit left me wanting to explore more. But it also felt abrupt in parts. Still, I can see me purchasing more from the author to find out whether this was a one hit wonder for me.
by Sam Brookes
I saw some buzz for this novel on Twitter and decided to check it out based on the eye catching cover and intriguing premise. The book seizes you by the throat and doesn’t let go until 400 pages later. If you’re a fan of horror like me who’s read all the classics and often finds modern novels a bit more miss than hit, give this a spin.
by Elliott
This book is a triumph. And relevant after the last few years it really struck a chord with me.
The characters of Delphine and Thomas are fully fleshed out and realised, you grow attached to them and what becomes of them throughout this novel.
The book is beautifully written. It’s gothic. It’s haunting. The atmosphere created by the author is both wonderful horrific and intense.
One of my favourite horrors I’ve ever read.