"Fantastic historical fantasy"
Thomas Neville was born into one of the most powerful
families in England during the reign of King Edward III.
He spends his time fighting, drinking and wenching until
his actions kill his mistress, her children and their
unborn child. Remorseful and penitent, he turns his back
on the secular world and joins the Dominican order of the
Catholic Church. He goes to Rome to study, a pious and
obsessed priest who is visited by the archangel Michael. He is chosen to be the Select, the only priest who can
throw the demons that walk the Earth into the Cleft, the
entranceway to Hell. When he journeys to Nuremburg where
the entranceway is located, demonic magic plants his seed
in a woman name Megie and gets her pregnant. When he
learns that a book of incarnations that will send the
demons back into the pit is in England, he joins the Black
Prince and other English nobles he once called friend.
With them is the woman who is carrying his child, a person
he refuses to acknowledge for fear she carries a demon
taint. The demons show themselves to England's nobles so
that when Thomas tells them his story, they believe him.
Thomas doesn't know who to trust because the demons can
shapeshift into the image of anyone. The final
confrontation is coming with Thomas's soul as the
battleground. THE NAMELESS DAY is a fantastic historical fantasy that
takes place on an Earth almost similar to our own in the
middle ages. The protagonist is a man possessed by the
need to atone for his sin, a man torn between the
religious and the secular world. Sara Douglass makes the
reader believe that the events in this book took place,
and the audience will wait breathlessly for the next book
in The Crucible series as Thomas continues to search for
the book of spells. This haunting and memorable work is a
definite keeper; a novel that will appeal to lovers of
horror, fantasy romance and history. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted June 9, 2004
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The Black Plague. The Pestilence. Disease and death haunt
every town and village across 14th century Europe and none
are immune from its evil. Some see the devastation of their
world as a sign from God for Man's wickedness. But Brother Thomas Neville sees this swath of death as
something much more. Neville is a man beset by demons. Or
is it angels? He has had a visitation from none other than
the Archangel Michael, who commands Thomas to a mission.
This mission will take Neville across the length and breath
of the continent in a desperate bid to find the means to
stop the minions of Satan who have found a doorway out of
Hell and are preparing to venture forth, to try and seize
this world in preparation for an assault on Heaven itself. As Thomas Neville encounters angels and demons, saints and
witches, he comes to realize that the armies of God and
Satan are arraying themselves for the final battle...and
that his soul is to be the battleground. The question is, has Neville picked the truly good side?
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