Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
Currently, Christopher Buehlman welcomes readers into a time that is even eviler—a time of temptation and corruption, battle in heaven, and hell on earth. “Let us rise against Him now in all our numbers and tear the walls of heaven down,” cried Lucifer. It is the year 1348. A young girl was discovered alone in a deserted Norman town by Thomas, a disgraced knight. She tells Thomas that the plague is only a small portion of a larger cataclysm, that fallen angels led by Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the human race has been pushed back behind the lines of battle. She is an orphan of the Black Death and presents an almost unsettling image of innocence.
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
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Is it faith, or is it delirium? She thinks she has seen divine angels. She thinks that the virtuous dead communicate with her in nightmares. She has now persuaded the dishonest Thomas to guide her across a terrible countryside to Avignon. She tells Thomas that it is there that she will carry out her duty, which entails battling the evil that has ravaged the planet and bringing this ruthless, betrayed knight back to his noblest and last remaining hope of salvation. Thomas will find himself on a macabre battlefield of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the middle of a terrible war for nothing less than the soul of the man as hell unleashes its wrath and as the actual nature of the girl is exposed.
It’s an action-packed journey through a horrifying post-plague landscape, a hopeful look at flawed characters trying to do the right thing while casting a critical eye on the ease of man’s corruption, and it’s also a meditation on the randomness of life and the strength of faith in others, both human and divine. It’s also ultimately a tale of good vs evil set in the highly Christian France of 1347, through that labyrinth of potential catastrophes. Mr Buehlman skillfully uses paradoxes throughout “Between Two Fires,” making us aware of our own complex nature while narrating a compelling and nuanced story.
1347 in France. The fallen angels take advantage of God’s absence to attack his greatest creation—humanity—because no one knows where he is. A fallen knight offers protection to a mysterious peasant girl who has been touched by angels in the middle of the Black Death. In order to get to Avignon, where the devil occupies the papal throne, the three of them meet a young, promiscuous priest and travel through Hell on Earth on an unknown quest. Oily rivers are home to monsters, saintly statues made of granite come to life at night to scare the people, damned spirits play games at midnight, and the rising dead crush vines make tainted wine. Never before have the “Dismal Ages” been so dark.
