This book read like a cross between historical fiction and fantasy. There is enough Celtic history to make a case for a historical novel, but historical fiction purists would turn their noses up at the fantasy elements. I found the blend fascinating.It read a bit like an author's time travel fantasy into a historical period that the writer loved enough to thoroughly research, yet the Mabinogion brand Celticism incorporated enough of an Otherworld blend to allow the author to merge fantasy withou...

Book 1 of the Song of Albion series first published 1991.There was a time back in the seventies and eighties when I read nothing but fantasy to the point, I think, that I over dosed on it. Of all the fantasy authors I have read over the years Stephen R. Lawhead was not one of them. So when these series of books came into my possession I rubbed my hands together in anticipation of losing my self in the world of make believe once again. But it didn’t take long before a sense of familiarity overtoo...

Solid 4 stars, great read! Can't wait to pick up the next one!

I really liked the first 150 pages or so and thought the last 300 pages were pretty boring. Basically I didn't like the actual portal fantasy section. I think I would enjoy it if Stephen Lawhead wrote a contemporary novel, like a psychological thriller or literary fiction or something along those lines, but this wasn't for me.

So what is The Paradise War?Epic then, epic now, it is one of the first things I remember my mother reading to me when I was young, allowing me to visualize the might and magic of this well-woven portal into Celtic adventure and Otherwordly feats. Beleaguered by the shift from Oxford academia and the more intellectual-style of prose such dictates, Stephen R. Lawhead's first book in The Song of Albion Trilogy finds its legs firmly rooted in grit and gore and snow and song, reminding me that anyon...

The first in a trilogy, The Paradise War follows the amazing and fantastic adventure of a young college student by the name of Lewis Gillies. When he follows his friend on an sudden and unlikely urge to explore the strange appearance of a long extinct beast in Scotland, he is shocked when his friend disappears inside a cairn and does not return. It is only when he attempts to follow Simon that he understands why.Albion is where he finds himself. It is the Otherworld, and he is thrust into it so ...

Although I truly admire the language and prose Stephen Lawhead uses in his novel, the book totally lacked all elements of a good story. There was no plausible plotline or storyline of events that I could follow. All the events were seamlessly unrelated, random and discordant. There was no greater plot, no quest or manner in which the characters followed. There was no goal, no objective, hardly a conflict or an antagonist to defeat. Lord Nudd who I suppose was supposed to be the "villain" of the ...

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.As an avid fantasy reader, I was reluctant to try this trilogy because Lawhead is not one of the best known fantasy writers. My husband bought me the book because Lawhead is a Christian and he thought I should try it.I was very pleasantly surprised! The writing is excellent. The story is interesting, meaningful, and epic in scope while still progressing rapidly enough to finish in three books.It contains all of the elements I look for in a fantasy: vivid d...

This is the first book of a trilogy; and like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books (which he originally didn't want to separate into three volumes --that was the publisher's idea), the Song of Albion books basically form a unit that should be read and considered together. An evangelical, Lawhead displays the influence of C. S. Lewis in places in his writing; the Christian symbolism in the last volume, The Endless Knot, is particularly clear. But his fantasy vision is his own, heavily influenced as ...

Well. I must admit I did return this to the library without finishing it. I kept reading and reading, almost to halfway through it just hoping for something to pick up and excite me. But it didn't... even when I got to the Otherworld. Steven Lawhead just did so much better with Hood. With Hood I was enraptured and in love with all the characters and events and could not read fast enough to get what was coming next. But perhaps it is because Hood was from last year (2006) where The Paradise War i...