The Paradise War

The Paradise War

Cover
Author	Stephen Lawhead
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Song of Albion
Genre	Fantasy
Publisher	Zondervan
Publication date	1991 [1]
Media type	Print
Pages	416
ISBN	978-0732404932
Followed by	The Silver Hand

The Paradise War: Song of Albion, Book One (also simply known as The Paradise War) (1991) is a fantasy novel published by Zondervan, the first book in the Song of Albion trilogy series by Stephen Lawhead.^[2] Revolving around a pair of university graduate students who accidentally stumble upon a magical land named Albion,^[3] it was first released on May 1, 1993.

Plot

The book begins with Simon Rawnson, a British native and his American friend, Lewis Gillies, both graduate students at Oxford, embarking on a journey to a farm in Scotland where a legendary Ice Age creature known as an aurochs has been supposedly recovered. While expecting it to be a hoax, Lewis is startled to find that not only is the aurochs real but that Simon disappears after entering a cairn nearby. After enduring weeks of uncertainly and doubt, Lewis encounters the eccentric Professor Nettles who helps him understand what has happened: Simon had travelled into the world of the faery folk known as Tuatha de Danann. Although skeptical of this, Lewis eventually comes to believe it, and returns to the cairn with Nettles where he himself stumbles into Tuatha de Danann (otherwise known as Albion). In Albion he encounters Simon again, who saves his life and helps him to be accepted into the court of King Meldryn. Llew is sent to the island school of Ynys Sci to be trained as a warrior and is gradually assimilated into the culture and people of Albion. Llew travels with Tegid to a gathering of the bards, where the great evil of Albion's world realm, Cythrawl is released. With the help of the dying bard Ollathir, the Cythrawl is bound and banished. Furious at having been defeated, the Cythrawl unleashes Lord Nudd, an evil king's son from ages past to destroy Albion and its peoples. Having gained leadership over the evil monsters of the underworld he has begun leading this Demon Horde in a campaign of destruction. Simon (now Siawn Hy) has worked his way into Prince Meldron's service, leading the feared Wolf Pack, Meldron's personal guard. Eventually it is revealed that Simon was manipulating the king's arrogant son into pursuing a kingship by heritage, rather than the established and true rite of selection by the Chief Bard, Tegid.

After Lord Nudd has surrounded the king's northern stronghold, Lewis (now Llyd) undertakes a desperate bid to locate the Song of Albion, the only hope of stopping Nudd, beneath the palace. He succeeds with Tegid in finding it, only to discover that the Sleeping Bard who sings the Song has been murdered. It is discovered that the Bard instilled the Song into the stones used to crush him to death, and Llew and Tegid are able to use these stones to release the Song so that Nudd and his army are decimated by its power. Following this, Llew is made the new champion to King Meldryn, but Meldryn is murdered immediately afterward by Paladyr. In the wake of this Llew tries to force Simon to return to their own world so as to prevent him from causing more trouble, but Simon escapes, and Lewis encounters Nettles once more with a set of researchers bent on discovering Albion for themselves. The book ends with Lewis returning to Albion to seek Simon out and bring him back.

References