Between Two Fires

Between Two Fires is a stark and horrifying novel of faith against the apocalypse. Thomas is a knight turned bandit. And why wouldn’t you be a bandit, because the world is clearly ending? The Battle of Crecy shattered the French aristocracy. Plague stalks the land, emptying entire towns. Comets trail one another in the sky, a sign of something gone wrong in the order of the world. The supernatural is close at hand, as fallen angels wage war against heaven, demons and undead stalk the land, and God is absent.

Thomas’ slide to a meaningless death is interrupted when his band encounters a girl on the cusp of womanhood, and he chooses not to do the obvious and horrifying thing. The girl, Delphine, is ordained to go to Paris and then Avignon, though whether at the behest of divinity or witchcraft it is impossible to say. Along with Matthieu, a priest who struggles with alcoholism and homosexuality, they travel through a cursed country, encountering many desperate men, a number of horrifying supernatural entities (“a fucking hand” for those who know), and a few decent people.

This is just a great book, as violent, coarse, profane, and holy as its main characters. Buehlman makes the mythos of the Christian apocalypse come vividly alive. This truly is the end of days, and somehow people keep going through it. The tension and pacing are perfect, a true “just one more chapter” book.