I am so late to this party that I’ve strayed beyond the realms of it being considered “fashionable” and am instead, just tardy. That being said, I’m happy to add my voice to the choir of praises being sung for Christopher Buehlman’s dark, medieval horror novel Between Two Fires.
Cards on the table, the thing that finally pushed me to give this book a go was its cover. Alongside being an author myself, I’m also a designer (with 15+ years’ experience working in this capacity) and so when I saw the gothic art, white-and-black-on-red with a chunky blackletter typeface, my interest was immediately piqued.
The review
I am a notoriously picky reader, and it’s rare for me to stray away from my preferred fantasy genres and sub-genres, but the set-up for this book was also too irresistible: a former knight-turned-brigand finds himself as the reluctant protector for a strange young child who claims to be on a mission set by angels. A bitter, sweary, blasphemous man has to look after an innocent, odd, remonstrative little girl…all while the fallen angels wreak havoc across 14th Century France, most notably through their introduction of the plague.
When I saw the gothic art, white-and-black-on-red with a chunky blackletter typeface, my interest was immediately piqued.
Thomas (our reluctant once-knight) and Delphine (our strange, talks-to-angels child) are forced into a perilous journey across ravaged French countryside, through villages and cities that have been decimated by the black death and are being mercilessly toyed with by demons both great and small. The cast of characters is fairly lean, as Thomas and Delphine are joined by a wine-swilling priest with secrets of his own, but it doesn’t need to be big to get a sense of the scale of destruction and devastation being felt all across the world that Buehlman describes. The writing is vivid and visceral, and you get so close to the effects of the plague that it will make you squirm as you read.
Not only that, but the various tests and trials (laid out by the fallen angels seeking to claim Earth as part of Hell) are both gruesome and poignant, with both Thomas and Delphine having their faith tested on more than one occasion. One particular river-dwelling beast and a host of terrifying statues left impressions on me that won’t be fading any time soon.
And as well as all the action, this book treats you to some brilliant dialogue—albeit I feel it could’ve used just a few more tags to keep things from becoming confused at times—that really starts making you root for our main characters. By the time the book reaches its finale, you will be gripping it so hard your fingers will ache. You’ll be desperate for the story to reach its conclusion, and for the light to conquer the darkness.
I don’t typically read horror (although I do love most Stephen King novels) but this book has made me reconsider how high I set those barriers, as there are clearly more books out there that will work for me. Between Two Fires expertly walks the lines between gory, terrifying horror, character-led storytelling and plot-driven action sequences.
All in all, a hell of a read.
📚✌🏻SP
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Steve Pannett is an author and designer based in Yorkshire, UK.
He writes primarily in the fantasy genre, combining character-led storytelling with epic, gritty world-building to create dark tales with plenty of action and lots of twists along the way.
He has self-published multiple books and is active online.
