Product Description

Malta, in May 1565 - From the shores of the Golden Horn, Suleiman the Magnificent, Emperor of the Ottomans, has sent the greatest armada since antiquity to wipe out Islam's most implacable foe, the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, in their stronghold on the island of Malta. To the Turks the knights are known as 'The Hounds of Hell'. The knights call themselves 'The Religion'. Meanwhile, in Sicily, a disgraced and exiled Maltese noblewoman, Carla La Penautier, has been trying to return to the doomed island in an attempt to find the bastard son who was taken from her at his birth. The Religion have refused her every plea and a tormented Roman Inquisitor, Ludovico Ludovici, seeks to imprison her. But Carla recruits a notorious adventurer and arms merchant - Mattias Tannhauser - to help her evade the Inquisition and to escape on the last galley to run the Turkish blockade. As the ensuing apocalyptic conflict between Islam and Christianity becomes the most brutal and harrowing siege in military history, Tannhauser and Carla must survive the bloody inferno and track down a twelve-year-old boy whose face they have never seen and whose name they do not know. And neither of them reckon on the return of the avenging Inquisitor, Ludovico Ludovici..."The Religion" is an epic and exuberant tale of love and war, of intrigue and obsession, of politics and faith and high adventure. Against a rich and meticulously detailed historical backcloth, it tells of a small band of intrepid men and women who defy the madness of Holy War to realize their own vision of God and Eternity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22762 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

Brian Martin in Literary Review
‘a novel of high adventure, blood, guts and romantic love…as master craftsman, [Willocks] tells his story with extraordinary pace.’

Times Literary Supplement
'a griping story with reliable factual underpinnings.' - Jane Jakerman

John Williams, Mail on Sunday
"the ideal man to do justice to the conflict...gripping...a classic of its kind"

Customer Reviews

An Epic Struggle
Tim Willocks' 'The Religion' is a tale of love and betrayal set against the violent and bloody backdrop of the 1565's Siege of Malta.

I was surprised on coming to write this review, that with 34 reviews already written, there hadn't been a single dissenter. Surprised, because I would have thought that, there would have been some people turned off by the heavy and elaborate prose, a few disturbed by the novel's extreme violence and some dismayed merely by the book's length. Finally, I had to wonder what I'd missed, because I found the book lacked anything to make it exceptional

There are a lots of positives in this novel and sections of 'The Religion' are second to none. Clearly Willocks has carried out extensive research, and the details of the siege and its two opposing armies ooze authenticity. The author also has an impressive command of the English language and there are paragraphs filled with delightful prose and sumptuous metaphors, which make for an enjoyable read. The battle scenes are particularly rich in description; I had never realised how many different ways there are of describing blood, gore and gristle.

For me though the novel in its entirety was disappointing. I found reading 'The Religion' like eating chocolate pudding; each individual battle scene is rich and enjoyable, but being forced to consume them one after another, rapidly diminished my enjoyment, until I felt sick, bloated and wished, never to read a fight scene again. The battles may be brilliantly described and lavishly orchestrated but there are just too many of them.

My second gripe is that the characters, although well described are somewhat derivative. We have the bold adventurer, quick with the sword, faster with his wit and seemingly without scruple, yet more honourable than everybody else in the novel. Next, the companion; a huge, strong and ferocious fighter, who eats a lot. An evil and corrupt priest and a cloistered noblewoman, who discovers her inner strength, make up a quartet of characters that could grace any number of fantasy novels that have far fewer literary pretensions.

Finally, a relatively small complaint. The book jacket implies that this book resonates with our times, presumably because it details a conflict between Islam and Christianity. Frankly, The Religion only pays lip service to the idea that religious conflict is futile and its assertion that power corrupts, is hardly earth-shattering.

Despite the characterisation not being entirely original, Willocks does make the reader care for his creations, and as the final days of the siege played out, I read gripped, wanting to know how each of the main protagonists would fair. After wading through mountains of blood and gristle to get there, the ending is both moving and compelling, if not ground-breaking. There is one truly gruesome twist at the end, which is possibly the biggest shock I have ever encountered in a novel, and that alone makes 'The Religion' worth reading. So overall, I would recommend 'The Religion', although not to the faint of heart or the short of time.

Fan-bloody-tastic
Not much to add to the below - suffice to say if you're an intelligent person, love history, love story telling, but also take a guilty pleasure in adventure, sex, and fantastic hand-to-hand fighting, then this is the book for you.

I enjoyed it as much as I did Green River Rising, and that's saying something

Superb, miss it at your peril
Fantastic read, must admit I found it had great similarities to Blood Rock (James Jackson), and the Sword & the Scimitar (David Ball), I found the whole book just as enthralling and struggled to put it down.

The strength and character of the Knights of St John and the Maltese people are vividly brought to life in this tale and the book places you right back in the blood, guts, violence and intensity of the period, a time of kill or be killed.