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An ingenious melding of espionage and the occult based in part on a true event in the secret history of the Battle of Britain during World War II. The year is 1940, and Great Britain's forces struggle against the invincible Nazi war machine. France has fallen easily to Adolf Hitler's army and England is next in his sights. A British secret agent pays the ultimate price to deliver early warning of the Führer's secret plan to harness the awesome power of the occult to conquer Great Britain by launching a supernatural assault that no defending military force could possibly deflect. British Intelligence operative Col. John "Gray" Graham of MI6 is not only a valuable player in the great game of wartime espionage, he is also a practitioner of the ancient occult arts. In this life--and other lives before--Gray's destiny has been firmly intertwined with that of his close friend Prince William of the British royal family. Now, with the future of Britain at stake, these two men, the spy and the royal, must rally the hidden adherents of the Old Religion, hoping to unite the British covens in defense of their endangered island homeland. But it will take more than combined Wiccan sorcery to repel the Reich's black magic on Lammas Night--and the sacrifice required might be greater than imagined and truly terrible to endure. Lammas Night is a spectacular feat of creative imagination from the author of the acclaimed Deryni fantasy series. Smart, affecting, and brilliantly conceived, it is an enthralling combination of historical fiction, war novel, and the occult that will appeal to fans of all fantastic literature. … (more)
User reviews
The book takes one of its major themes from Margaret Murray's The Divine King in England : "the principles of kingship in Britain were bound up with the murder of the sacred king demanded by the old religion of witchcraft," this quotation from this site. I suppose I'll have to find this book, because this theory is actually very interesting. Yikes! Another book to add to my stack! But if you are at all interested in this sort of thing, you will enjoy Lammas Night. Sometimes it gets a bit wordy, but all in all, a wonderful read.
recommended
The witches, occultists, and Druids of Britain must band together to counter Hitler's black magicians and avert an invasion. But the price may be higher than they are willing to pay. All of the characters are fictional, but the events may have some
Recommended.
Col. Sir John Graham, "Gray" to his friends and family, is a military intelligence officer--and also a high-ranking member of an occult group, practitioners of the Britain's traditional, ancient rites. This group, the Oakwood group, and other occult groups in Britain, are planning their own response to Hitler's invasion plans. This includes responding, more directly than conventional military forces can, to Hitler's own occult assault on Britain and Britain's military forces.
In addition to his occult colleagues, Graham has another dear friend--Prince William, Duke of Clarence, the (fictional) twin brother of King George V's youngest son, John, who died at age fourteen. This close friendship is going to lead to some serious complications as the Oakwood group works to organized a unified British occult response to Hitler.
Gray, with few trusted close friends outside of the Oakwood group, which is basically his family--son, father-in-law, nephew, niece, brother-in-law and sister-in-law--turns to his friend Prince William to talk about some of his stress over lack of success in recruiting other occult groups to work in coordination with the Oakwood group. This is the first time he's actually told William that his occult involvement goes beyond party tricks and trying to extract useful military information from Hitler's known occult activities, and he tries to keep that to a minimum. William, though, becomes seriously interested, especially after Gray tells him that he's cast both their astrological charts, and they may have known each other in a previous life.
Over the next weeks and months, William becomes more involved and aware, while Gray tries everything he can to build the cooperation Britain needs among its occultists. Gray's efforts include a memory regression to find out how Sir Francis Drake managed to bring the occult groups of England together in a Grand Coven to stop the Spanish Armada. Gray, we learn, was Drake, in one of his previous lives. We also get hints that William, in a former life, was also there.
There's a tangle of surprises and revelations as the story unfolds. Gray and William have been connected in many previous lives--and it's in those previous lives, and their connection, that they find the answer to what they need to do.
Along the way, we also meet the agent, a former member of the Oakwood group, who infiltrated one of the Nazi covens, one very close to Hitler. Dieter is a very skilled ceremonial magician, and German, and Gray and others are, with reason, no longer sure they can trust him.
Yet they may not be able to do what they need to do without trusting him.
This is an extremely well done alternate, or perhaps hidden, historical novel. The characters are all very well done. Kurtz also treats all the faiths represented here with respect, not feeling the need some see to disdain some to respect the others.
It's been many years since I first read this, and I was hesitant to pick it up again after so long. Many fondly remembered books turn out not to quite so excellent as one remembers them. This one, though, I find u have rather more appreciation for it than I did when I first read it.
Highly recommended.
I bought this book.
At the heart of the story is the deep friendship between an English prince and the military intelligence agent who
The author weaves a suspenseful, moving story that combines espionage, magic, and a variety of human relationships. Even a person who doesn't credit the idea of magic or the king sacrifice (which is a popular legend, but has no basis in provable history) can enjoy this story.