Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93346 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Nameless Day, the first volume of Sarah Douglass's new 'Crucible' sequence, is set not in some faraway fantasy realm but in what both is and is not the Middle Ages of the Hundred Years War and the Black Death, a Middle Ages strangely truncated so that the Black Prince's conquest of France and Joan of Arc's attempt to save it are going on at the same time. Something demonic is going on -- a mysterious faction within the Church has failed to take the precautions that need to be taken and something has been unleashed: it is precisely because no-one trusts the warrior turned priest, Thomas Neville, that he finds himself lumbered with investigating what went wrong with the last journey of Brother Wynkyn thirty years before. Thomas thought his life was over having made the wrong choices, and gave up his old life to repent perpetually. But finding himself considered expendable by almost everybody and everything starts to change his mind.

This is an ingenious, passionate and more than slightly loopy fantasy, with vividly evoked landscapes of dangerous deadly beauty and ultimate disgust; the flawed self-hating Neville is as intriguing a character as Douglass has given us. -- Roz Kaveney

Synopsis
The Nameless Day is, according to the ancient pagan calendar of Europe, the one day of the year when the world of mankind and the enigmatic world of the spirits touch. Mid-century the forces of evil slide across the divide and invade Europe. The Church sends Thomas Neville, an English nobleman, on a secret mission through the shadowy forests and arcane religious orders of Europe to discover the extent of the danger. But not even Neville, a priest, is prepared when the horror of the Black Death sweeps across Europe. The forces of the Church and God rally against the infiltration of the Devil's minions. The battle has begun.

Customer Reviews

Hard to get through, but well worth the effort...
The Nameless Day has the unfortunate honour of being the first book of the series, of which characters and area must be developed. Having recieved this as a gift from my brother, I was in a way obliged to have a look. Having overcome my hatred for the way Thomas is portrayed, the themes that Sara explores coupled with the research that is evident in her writings, it ends on a cliff hanger of which the other books of the trilogy become a complusive read...

Confusing and Inconsistent Characters Spoil a Good Idea
As a fan of fantasy, things medieval and alternative history I was very attracted by this book, but maybe I was spoiled by coming to it from Mary Gentle's phenomenal "Ash". I found Douglass' work uninspired and downright confusing.

The main problem is the main character, Thomas Neville, who begins the novel as a monk on a mission to defeat the demonic forces in the world under the orders of the archangel Michael. The problem with the characterization is threefold: first, Neville is a thoroughly dislikeable character - judgemental, self-pitying and selfish. Now this wouldn't be a problem if this were a conscious literary choice, but it doesn't seem to be, since (and this is the second problem) Neville doesn't develop in any kind of consistent way. Starting the novel as a devout monk, he has casual sex with two different women with apparently no second thoughts or pangs of conscience, and then deserts his vows, similarly with no thought of the seriousness of his decision. Which connects to the third difficulty: Douglass appears to have little or no understanding of how the medieval religious mind worked - she knows the language, but clearly has no empathy with the religious views of the time, which makes it impossible to empathise with her main character or understand the internal conflict which drives him - Douglass is much more comfortable writing about politics and secular characters. This is a problem in a novel where religious and theological issues are at the heart of both plot and theme.

I liked the look of this but was very disappointed. Try Gentle's "Ash" instead.

Easily the worst book of this trilogy
Douglass was always going to have trouble moving on from her incredible Tencendor trilogy, let alone trying to match them. You can't come to this book with any expectations because it is so completely different. The story is set in the Dark ages in Europe, based around a monk, who is trying to stop darkness from covering Christiandom. Sound odd? it is. The monk, Thomas, seems to travel further and faster than the modern teenage back packer over Europe, and is a highly dislikeable character. I think every girl will close this book after the first 100 pages, feeling highly insulted.
The only thing that kept me turning pages was the fact that is was by Sara Douglass, so it just HAD to get better. Luckily it does get better. However, it doesn't get better until the next book in the trilogy ('wounded hawk'). Thats only a good 590 pages of appaling storyline to get through before the story gets going. Sound like hard work? it is.
The trilogy itself deserves a good 4 out of 5 stars. But this book really drags it down. Dull, complex and a nightmare to follow, but necessary before you can move onto the next book.