The Religion

A Novel

By: Tim Willocks

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 25 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

May 1565. Suleiman the Magnificent, emperor of the Ottomans, has declared a jihad against the Knights of Saint John the Baptist. The largest armada of all time approaches the Knights' Christian stronghold on the island of Malta. The Turks know the Knights as the "The Hounds of Hell." The Knights call themselves "The Religion."

In Messina, Sicily, a French countess, Carla la Penautier, seeks a passage to Malta in a quest to find the son taken from her at his birth twelve years ago. The only man with the expertise and daring to help her is a Rabelaisian soldier of fortune, arms dealer, former janissary, and strapping Saxon adventurer by the name of Mattias Tannhauser. He agrees to accompany the lady to Malta, where, amidst the most spectacular siege in military history, they must try to find the boy— whose name they do not know and whose face they have never seen—and pluck him from the jaws of Holy War.

The Religion is Book One of The Tannhauser Triology, and from the start of epic account of the last great medieval conflict between East and West, it is clear we are in the hands of a master. Not since James Clavell has a novelist so powerfully and assuredly plunged listeners headlong into another place and time. Anne Rice transformed the vampire novel. Stephen King reinvented horror. Now, in a spectacular tale of heroism, tragedy, and passion, Tim Willocks revivifies historical fiction.

©2006 Tim Willocks (P)2006 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Critic reviews

“The ideal man to do justice to the conflict...gripping...a classic of its kind.” —The Mail on Sunday

"A novel of high adventure, blood, guts and romantic love...as master craftsman, [Willocks] tells his story with extraordinary pace.” —Literary Review

“An epic in which we can see the seeds of our all our modern woes.” —The Times (of London)

This captured me

From the very start of this story, I was drawn into it so completely, I didn't want to stop. The history and horror of the time is vivid and passionate. If you enjoy Historical Novels and Simon Vance reads beautifully, you will enjoy this piece. I hope there will be a follow up on this novel.

Excellent narator but needs an editor

If you could sum up The Religion in three words, what would they be?

Too much excrement!

What did you like best about this story?

This is a decent story in a fascinating setting. The historical details are interesting and characters appealing. However, the authors endless fascination with excrement, bowels and soiling oneself in battle detracts from the story - almost to the point that I was going to stop listening. The narrators performance was excellent, however and kept me going.

One of my favorite books of all time!

I first read The Religion in hardback when it was released. I got it on CDs for my husband to listen to when he was on the road. He loved it too. The we both read/listened to it again as we were going on a cruise with one of the ports being Valletta. We saw and experienced things that we had read about in the book. Not only was it a great read, but seeing places that we had read about and knowing the history made Malta one of our best stops. I have read it several times since that trip, and it still remains one of my favorite books.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves history and the thrill of experiencing an excellent retelling of incredible bravery.
Hurray for Tim Willocks!!

I loved this book The narrator was perfect

I loved this book
The narrator was perfect
it's even better the 2nd time!!

Brilliant narration

Tim Willocks has the unique ability to write in a language consistent with period of his tale. Of course Vance’s narration adds his brilliance that makes the tale such a delight to listen to. There are only two downsides. The book is just too long and after a while the battle scenes are overly focused on the gory details. By the way, I like a happy ending and would have preferred the last stray dog to have survived.

goat

First found this book when I was in highchool, after all these yearsit still holds up as one of my all time historical adventure faves.

gripping but shallow & too graphic

First, this is a "page turner." It is a very gripping book and the narration is excellent. That said, the book has two flaws which make it something of a one time read rather than a book that I will return to again.
1)My first criticism is a little superficial: This is without exception, the most graphic book I have ever read. I am not by any stretch of the imagination either a prude or squeamish (I am a eight year veteran of the Army and have seen my fair share of blood and have never thought of myself as the least bit puritanical) however the incredibly evocative descriptions of wounds, torture (much of it done by the protagonists), murder, rape, violence of all stripes, and battle border upon the sick and the amount of very explicit sexual descriptions passed the merely titillating and verge on the pornographic. What made this particularly notable is that it is repeated to the point of tedium. An occasional graphic scene is not a problem, the problem here was that it was repeated over and over and over. Again, this is from a person who has never had a negative reaction in his life to a graphic bit of writing. This is however, a relatively superficial criticism, if you can get past the massive overdose of explicit sex and violence.
2) More damning are the inconsistencies in the plot and the rather weak to non-existent character development. Oddly enough, whenever there is any character development it is so abrupt or so out of character as too be annoying. Unfortunately, I cannot explain this in more detail without giving away points of the plot.
In sum, this book is gripping and a great fun read but its quality was severely reduced by shoddy character development and a dozens of frankly overly graphic scenes.
FYI I strongly advise the book Empires of the Sea on Audible which covers (non-fiction) the siege of Malta very well.

Too long

The ingredients are here for a first class read or listen.

The author knows how to use words, he has an interesting cast of characters, and an epic setting for his action. Simon Vance does a good job in presenting the book. Still, having listened to two of the three parts, I find I must subtract one star for lack of character development and one for verbosity.

Too much of the book fails to gel. The characters are interesting, but they never quite become people. The action and gore are certainly there, but the purpose seems to get lost. The background action rarely rises above two sets of fanatics bashing each other, although the author is capable of depicting each side in its absolute belief that it is the true champion of all that is right.

I think the author is a good writer, with a good grasp of the period, but he is not yet a good storyteller. A pity.

One hell of a bloody yarn!

If you're looking for an intriguing 20+ hours of audiobook entertainment, then you can't go wrong with this beast. As others have said, it's bloody beyond compare. There were times during this audiobook when I actually started to giggle at the unparalleled gruesomeness of the confrontations and battles. Not because it was funny by any means but more the result of some built-in self-defense mechanism on my part. While I was taken aback at first by the level of violence, I began to realize that swords, axes, and countless other weapons of antiquity did exactly what's described in this story. Namely, well... you'll "see" for yourself. Good for Willocks to not hold back, in my opinion.

I really enjoy good historical fiction, and this definitely is. The amount of research that must have gone into the writing of this book is impressive. I was so intrigued by the historical details and references in this story that I did a little research of my own, just enough to appreciate it more on the second listen. One hell of a good story, not to mention the always wonderful narration by Simon Vance. Can't go wrong with a credit on this one, it's a pure rip snorter.

An Epic Adventure and Outstanding Performance

This was recommended to me by a friend. At first I was reluctant, but I do like historical fiction and so when it came up on my "Wish List" I got it.

I was not disappointed.

This is an astoundingly good book. It has all tension, plausibility, good time line fit, well developed and interesting characters whose backstory fits perfectly like a puzzle piece into story at large, action, romance, historical accuracy, a page turning ending, a well developed protagonist as well as a despicable antagonist.

I think what I really enjoyed most was the psychological interplay between the leaders of the attacking army and the leaders defending against the attack. The book depicts how the people on both sides are methodically persuaded to forfeit their lives. Ultimately it portrays the futility of religion and how it is was used to incite war for political and material gain.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I've read some comments about the bloodiness. I do not think it is overdone at all. The gore is always done for the sake of the story, not the gore itself. FACT: When you strike someone with a sword or shoot them with a cross bow, there will be blood.

If you like historical novels it would be a mistake to avoid this book.
If you DON'T like historical novels, you should get this anyway.

You'll opinion will likely change. This is an amazing story.