Byzantium by Stephen R. Lawhead

This is Book 19 started, book 17 finished

Byzantium by Stephen R. Lawhead
Published by Harper Voyager, 1997

To a degree, writing a review about this book will only show that I’m somewhat biased in my opinion of it.  This was my 4th time reading it since it came out 17 years ago.  Once every 4-ish years isn't too obsessive.  But, I adore this book.  It’s massive in scope and it could have been a tragic failure of overreach but instead is just a beautiful accounting of life in 10th Century Europe and the Middle East.

The book opens with an almost magic relationship between Aidan, a Célé Dé monk and priest, the world around him and his God.  It’s a more mystic relationship than most are painted as and very well done.  As he begins a pilgrimage to Constantinople with his fellow monks and subsequently set upon by Vikings, his religion falters as he’s taken as a slave.  Throughout the novel, one of the recurring themes is Aidan’s relationship to his God as his fortunes fall, rise again only to fall lower and rise even higher.

He is taken to Skania and from there eventually to Constantinople via Russia.  He is a slave.  He is a spy.  He is an advisor to an Abbasid Emir.  Eventually, he becomes something few attain, he becomes a free man.

The book itself is a great adventure and the themes are of loss and pain and failure and redemption.  I’m not a particularly religious person at all but I liked the religious threads running throughout.  They are appropriate for a tale of a monk and for a tale set in Medieval Europe.

There is a lot I want to say about this book but I don’t want to give away any major plot elements.  It’s a wonderfully done book.  There are some gruesome parts and there are some beautiful parts and at 900 some pages or 12000 locations, it’s a major read but it’s definitely worth the effort.

5 Stars.