Lawhead, Steve. The Silver Hand. Nashville, Tenn: WestBow Press, 2006.
Lawhead, Steve. The Endless Knot. Nashville, Tenn: WestBow Press, 2006.
A wonderful fantasy tale (in 3 parts) immersed in Celtic mythology, these books were a welcome respite from my normally serious reading. I've read this author before, but not since high school. Then, I read his version of the Authurian legend, The Pendragon Cycle. I must admit that I prefer those other books, but The Song of Albion is still quite good.
The story is about two men, Oxford graduate students, who step into the Celtic Otherworld and live there for some time. Lewis is the hero; Simon quickly becomes the arch-villain. Simon is the epitome of wealth and privilege in the manifest world and soon pollutes the Otherworld with his selfishness and conceit, nearly destroying it. However, Lewis, a simple exchange student from humble beginnings, grows into the Aird Righ (high king) of Albion as he develops great virtue and deep character. Lewis eventually defeats Simon, but only through his own death. True heroism is heroic to the utter end.
Lawhead, an avowed Christian, only has his faith slip in at the end, where a strong link is made between what Lewis has done for Albion and what Christ has done for us all. His other books generally had a stronger note of Christianity, but never overpowering or unnatural to the plot.
We must sometimes be heroic ourselves. When those times come, it is helpful to already be familiar with how a hero behaves. Fiction, often looked down upon by many, is a great teacher that we should not ignore.
