Customer Reviews

Nameless Day (The Crucible)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am astonished at the anger portrayed by several reviewers regarding Douglass' corrupt church in these books. The truth of the matter is that the church WAS corrupt in the fourtheeth century. There WERE three different popes and friars and priests and nuns took their vows of chastiy none to seriously. If you don't believe me go read Chaucer or Boccaccio or Dante. These writers satyrize the very corrupt church and share this disillusionment with most of the western world. This was a time of crisis for Europe in many ways, not just religious. Douglass goes a long way in portraying that. Before the plague people were content with the way the world was ordered out. God had a plan for everyone and as you were born you lived. You could not move out of your class and that was that. But the plague changed that. Sinners and saints died alike with no rhyme or reason and people began to see that perhaps this order wasn't god blessed.

The church couldn't save them and the common idea the one must suffer in life in order to reach heaven in death began to wane. In the fourteenth century that's what the church was. Everyone was born a sinner and so must suffer to repent. These books delve deep into the medieval mind and give a modern reader a glimps into the past.

The line between evil and good is not so easliy defined as people like to think. That's what I love about this book and the following book. Douglass makes you wonder and I've switched my alliances several times. She also did an amazing amout of research to recreate the medieval world very accuratly (except torture wasn't widely used until the spanish inquisition, exile was the most common form of punishment but she has literary license). Read these books with an open mind and you will find that they are amazing. A little slow to start but once you get into the heart of them you find that they have snared you.

Sara Douglass has the dubious honor of writing two books that make it into the very slender list of books I'll probably never finish. I couldn't finish this, and I couldn't finish Hades' Daughter.

In both cases the subject material looked fascinating, and I was enthusiastic after reading the dustjacket. In both cases I just couldn't make progress through the book. For the record I've read Threshold and Wayfarer redemption.

I made it a good chunk of the way into this book, and I heartily approve of the history - from my limited knowledge of the period, I'm quite impressed with Ms Douglass' scholarship. The themes appeal to me. Man's inability to tell virtue from vice, the mystery of divinity, the question of why good happens to evil, how to choose between various virtues. There is even the promise of a quite wonderful dilemma for our protagonist.

Alas, there's the rub. The protagonist. Another in the literary tradition of warrior turned monk. He is tormented by visions from angels and demons. A well intentioned sort of fellow who desires to do good, but I have the creepy feeling that his advisors aren't always as "good" as they claim to be. Wonderful setup. If I didn't hate the fellow.

In what I must presume is an attempt to be true to history, he is an obnoxious prick. He has no sympathy or compassion for his fellow man. Even his former friends and fellow friars find him a pain. I can't find evidence that a single other character in the book likes him - which reinforces my suspicion that the "Angels" who are chatting with him are in fact fallen angels.

There's a great deal to be said for starting with such a character - it gives him room to grow in directions that buidl reader sympathy. It is good history. But I have to care more about him sooner, or I'll put down the book.

The Nameless Day is a difficult book to review as there was so much I didn't like about it. To begin with, the main character is extremely unlikable, which isn't an automatic mark against a book, but when the character stays so consistently unlikable for such a long time, it does get a bit wearying. We see some slight glimpses of a better man here and there more towards the end, but following Thomas Neville through several hundred pages can seem a bit of a chore. Worse for me were the many inconsistencies within the book of plot and character. Just to give one example, at one point Thomas is berated and mocked by a small group for having traipsed around much of Europe due to some visions from St. Michael. Then only a few pages later, the same group listens as Thomas tells them of demons and his visions and they all believe him wholeheartedly because according to the author, they had been trained from birth to do so. The two seem pretty mutually exclusive to me and I still can't reconcile the disparate actions beyond the author's need to have the plot go in certain directions so she has characters act any way necessary. One more example--once this group does wholeheartedly believe in the demons and Thomas' vision, they seem surprisingly passive with regard to them. This sort of inconsistency runs throughout the book and is infuriating in places.

Yet somehow, once I got past the first 100 pages, during which I several times considered just stopping, the book did get hold of me somehow, even though I kept marking its flaws. Part of it was an interest in whether Thomas would grow in character. Another was an interest in the God/Angels vs. Demons and which was good which was bad plot. And to be honest, much, if not even most, was when characters I've always been interested in such as Prince Hal and Hotspur and Richard etc. started to make regular appearance. I can't say if those not in the English teacher-Shakespeare reader mold that I come from would find the book as interesting.

The strengths of the book, besides picking some interesting historical/dramatic characters, are its historical setting/detail and its ability to keep the reader guessing a bit with regard to character motivations, with a lot of unclear or shifting alliances and desires. The weaknesses are the aforementioned inconsistencies, the almost unrelenting negativity of the main character, and some hard to swallow plot points/premises.

I'll read the second book, as it continues to move into a period of history I enjoy, but I hope it's better constructed. As for this one, recommended but barely, with a lot of misgiving.

Contrary to many other reviewers, I enjoyed this book. It started a little slow, thus the 4 stars, but after Thomas met up with the Black Prince and Henry Bolingbroke in France, it picked up. I love reading historical fiction, and I need the characters to be believable. Other reviewers complained about the misogyny, but I think they are missing the fact that Thomas is a priest, and has been trained for many years to believe that women are whores or saints. Women were believed to be lesser beings at this time, and it would ruin it for me if there had been a PC whitewash to the story. Thomas has used narrowmindedness and hatred to cover up his deep wounds, and it will take alot to chip away at his shell. This is the first part in a trilogy, so of course everything is not going to be spelled out in the first book. I didn't like Thomas' character for most of the book, but it was interesting to see the cracks in his shell. I just finished reading the second in the series, The Wounded Hawk, and I think it is even better. I cannot wait for the third book to be released in the US.

I have read the first 3 books of the Wayfarer series, waiting impatiently for them to come out, and then my husband finds this at the library for me. It is somewhat frustrating how slowly Douglass' books come to the US.

I found this book hard to put down, with so much going on that at the end I was looking for the other books! If she can pull this together as she did the Wayfarer, this series will make a fascinating and obviously contraversial story. Though she points out that this is fact mixed with fiction, it inspired me to read a little more into this time period and get a taste for the "real" characters.

There are some parts in the book which I did not like, but they were few.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed previous Douglass books or enjoys Lackeys books as well. They are both excellent writers!

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

The Nameless Day, by Sara Douglass, takes place in 14th century Europe. The Church is increasingly more corrupt, and it seems that all Hell is about to break loose. War is eminent between England and France, pestilence ravages across the continent, and the old man who throws the Earth's demons into Hell on "the Nameless Day" every year dies. The man, Brother Wynkyn de Worde, has a casket with his spellbook, but the casket is nowhere to be found after he dies. His successor, a young stubborn man named Brother Thomas Neville, is guided by an archangel's words. However, Thomas was previously an English lord with all of life's luxuries, and he was only driven to priesthood through guilt after he inadvertently causes the deaths of his mistress Alice and her children.

Douglass introduces many characters of nobility, which makes it a little confusing as to who is related to whom. There is, thankfully, a glossary in the back should the reader forget. I did not encounter any dull characters in this book at all, from the widowed Lady Margaret Rivers who entices both Thomas and his Uncle Raby; Jeannette (Joan) of Arc who supposedly will save the French; and of course the many demons that plague Thomas and the nobles.

Yes, Thomas is a jerk. Why? He so stubbornly adheres to how glorious the Church and the social order are (which probably has some readers crying foul), he seems to succumb to his lust all the time but berates women who do so, and he thinks EVERYONE is a demon or a witch while he is so holy, which is the most aggravating part! An unlikeable protagonist should not stop readers from finishing the book, though. All his bad characteristics push the intriguing plot along and make him explore new areas, even though (as some readers have pointed out) there are some very hard-to-believe moments in the plot. Don't worry, he may end up likeable just yet because The Nameless Day is only book one of the Crucible series.

I love the European history infused in the story and I love how even Chaucer himself has a minor role in this book! Even though Thomas and other characters may not be that lovable, their views and actions are characteristic of the time period in history: the Church is corrupt, but the Social Order is still the only thing they have. However, individuals are slowly realizing that maybe this Social Order is not fair, but Thomas ALWAYS excuses these individuals as heretics. Aggravating as it may be, this situation was characteristic of this time in history.

There are some problems with the plot. People seem to change their minds VERY (and unbelievably) quickly in this book. Important characters like Joan of Arc are often absent when I am wondering when Douglass will refer back to them again. I thought the war between the French and the English was about to happen, especially after pages of negotiations, but Douglass instead inserts many pages on alliances between nobles... Perhaps my questions will be answered in the next books in the series.

Despite complaints about the prickly protagonist and questionable plot details, I could not put down The Nameless Day once I started reading! There are some parts that are slow and/or disjointed, but as a whole, Douglass created a great fantasy novel. I am looking forward to the other books in the series!

I have yet to finish this book mainly because I find myself struggling to continue. I've made a third of the way through the book and I'm still not interested. The mainly character is hihgly unlikeable. Some say this is just like Hades Daughter but I found that I loved that book and that series.

If you're looking for an exciting, enjoyable read then don't choose this book. If you want to complete your read of all of Sara Douglass works then pick this up.

I think previous reviewers of this book are missing the point of the novel. The protagonist Neville is NOT supposed to be likeable, at least not in this first installment. The author has made Neville's beliefs and behaviours reprehensible to make a point. The author is trying to get us to think. Who are the "religious good guys", anyway? Maybe they are not who you think. Are "angel" and "demon" interchangeable terms?

That being said, if you are used to Douglass' style in her other books, you will surely be disappointed here. Frankly, none of her other books are this provocative or thoughtful. Douglass is taking a risk by writing about people who really existed and about situations that actually occurred, and then creating a "what if" scenario that tosses our ingrained religious priciples askew. I have no problem with that, but I admit there are other major writers who have done a better job of it. What lacks in this book is the same thing that lacks in her other novels: believable characters who act consistently and develop at a believable rate.

Don't overlook this book or the Crucible series; it's an interesting read. But don't expect what you're used to from Sara Douglass.

I won't go into to much detail, because the some of the other reviews are fairly detailed so here is a sum up -

I have always enjoyed Sara Douglass's books, and this one is no exception. One of the challenges here is to stay involved with the story even though the main character is extremely unlikable. You are pulled through the story by the plot, to see what happens, not because you actually care about what happens to the main guy. He's quite nasty and unlikable, as opposed to her other books in which you care about the travels and interactions of the main characters.

The history aspect is interesting, and if you find medieval Europe tweaks your interest, it'll add to the lure of this book.

So -- hooking plot, interesting history lessons, unlikeable main character, and a good story overall.