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Heresia (2010)

by S.J. Parris(Favorite Author)

3.63 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Arqueiro

series

Giordano Bruno

review 1: Not for the faint hearted.One tends to forget, in celebrating the richness and glories of Elizabeth 1st reign, that hideous state ordered torture and death continued under Elizabeth's spymaster in chief Sir Francis Walsingham presumably with Royal sanction. Heresy, the first book in Parris' Giordano Bruno series, looks this truth straight in the face and challenges the reader to try and understand the religious and political climate that fuelled this. The reader is not spared any gory details of the kind of death heretics were forced to endure. Our hero, Bruno, is reluctantly recruited by Walsingham, and thus we are introduced to the feared and powerful man behind Elizabeth's throne. Having been steeped in reformation history, as a lifelong Anglican who has been keen to u... morenderstand the roots of Anglicanism, the religious arguments and debates read easily enough to me. But I think that for readers coming to the book with less background knowledge, Bruno, a former Italian monk who has fled the Inquisition, is an inspired choice of character to weave these debates around. Parris, whose love and knowledge of Elizabethan history shines through throughout, succeeds in making a good, if somewhat bizarre and contrived murder mystery around Bruno's visit to Oxford, where he hopes to find a lost and forbidden book. I felt that the story resonated with the sights and sounds of Elizabethan times though there were one or two slightly jarring anachronisms. (I do not believe that an Elizabethan would, for example, have used the word "paranoid" to describe someone.) I loved the way certain characters were challenged and threatened by Copernicus's ideas about the solar system for example. It is hard to imagine how difficult those ideas must have seemed and how the natural response of many would have been to reject them as nonsense and to cry heretic. For me the story definitely merited a 5 for all the above reasons and more, but it certainly cannot be classed as an easy read. Some reviewers compare Parris unfavourably to Sansom's Tudor mysteries. Personally I think it is unfair to compare the two. Sansom certainly requires less mental processing of complex ideas by his readers and the plot fairly races along. Parris, on the other hand has arguably written a more intellectually challenging tale but this perhaps reflects the historical fact that Elizabethan times were in fact more politically and religiously complex than those of Henry. It was incumbent on even the most ordinary man and woman on the street in Elizabethan times to be clear about their beliefs and how these chimed with the expectations of the day. Their very lives could depend on this. We see this reflected in Shakespeare where argument and counter argument are used by even the lowliest characters. The fanaticism of some characters in the story has of course many present day parallels. We find ourselves, in the 21st century, suddenly having to engage and explore fanatical religious beliefs in a society that has spent decades disaffecting its citizens from organised religion and in so doing effectively disenfranchising them from the ability to engage with and understand the issues and feelings underpinning terrorism fuelled by religious fanaticism. We are de-skilled and cut off from the very history and heritage that could aid us. In that sense then "Heresy" could be seen as not just a good story but an important tool in helping us to reconnect.
review 2: I have to say, this was one of the most entertaining books I have read this year, so I have mixed feelings about giving it 2 stars. But the sense of the ludicrous wins over. This book is clunkily written in the first person. The first person being none other than Giordano Bruno who then begins to style himself as some kind of Poirot/Columbo figure in a convenient series of murders at Oxford University during the reign of Elizabeth 1st. Even once you get past the fact that Giordano Bruno speaks perfect English in his mind whilst being unable to when opening his mouth (apparently), there are many other points that made me laugh out loud for the wrong reasons, for example his self descriptions, and awkward pointing out of historical features throughout the story. There was a pervasive sense of anachronism throughout. But it was pretty page-turn-y, so if you're not looking for high literature, and maybe want to laugh at how entertaining awkward writing can get, I do recommend. (sorry, that is a rather snooty review. At the end of the day, I did enjoy it) less

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