Hey, guess what.
This site is not dead!
Not that I am no longer bound by finals and loose unfinished projects, I can write something for all the folks who have not abandoned this site to the dust.
What was I doing before?
Reading, of course! Mostly fan-fiction and Per Astra’s The Governor’s Queen (you all should read it, btw), but more importantly, thanks to the magic of E-book Hunter, I managed to download a book which was in my radar for some months now, but couldn’t find because of its age… The High Crusade!
I heard of this novel through a video talking about cool christian representation in media, and in one of the examples this novel was mentioned as an example for medieval christianity. What did made me want to read the book was the following prompt:
What would happen if medieval crusaders took to outer space and defeated an atheist alien empire?
Sold on it yet? Good :)
The plot summary
The High Crusade takes the format of a 1000-year-old chronicle written by a certain Brother Parvus, having been discovered by an unnamed space captain, who lived in the british town of Ansby, in Lincolnshire, ruled by the then baron Sir Roger de Tourneville. The small town was used as the spot to raise an army for the Hundred Year War in 1345. Everything would have gone as normal human war does until a spaceship appeard on the sky and landed near the town.
This ship is a scout from the Wersgorix Empire, in charge of investigating the local fauna and flora from many planets, taking samples, and getting out of there before they returned to their empire and sent the results of their expedition. Except they made the mistake of landing in the territories of one of the most ambitious men in history. Sir Roger then rallies his troops to take over the ship with the intent of using it for and I quote:
“So we’ll take her across the Channel and end the French war inside a month, d’you see? Then we go on and liberate the Holy Land, and get back here in time for hay harvest!” Sir Roger de Tourneville, chapter II
Spoiler alert: They did not make it back for hay harvest.
After killing the majority of the populace in charge of the ship, minus a Wersgorian named Branithar who Sir Roger and company intented to use him as navigator to take the entire town to do crusader stuff, instead pressed the emergency button to the planet of Tharixan (Big mistake, if you ask me). The crusader crew end up capturing one of three fortresses on the planet using their own ship as a ram and hand-to-hand combat.
As it turns out, using your own spaceship as a ram ends up destroying the navigation system which contained the coordinates to planet Earth. Oops.
So it is now up for everyone to survive and find a way home, right? For now the objective is to defeat the local Wersgiorian to so the English aren’t kiled on first sight.
As it turns out, Sir Roger’s little mannouver shocked the chief of the planet, Huruga, that they established a short-lived truce with the English crusaders, when many battles happened, some highlights include:
- The aforementioned “ram the fortress” battle
- Sneaking through forests using wooden machinery to avoid metal detecters
- Accidently launching an atomic bomb with a threbuchet
- Use of calvaries and trenches to defeat tanks
- Siege warfare
- Using the ancient tecnique of “Oops you have too many mouths to feed” to take the main fortress
After successfully capturing the planet, Sir Roger places his wife, Lady Catherine, in charge of Tharixan, while he took up the task of conquering the entire Wregxorian Empire. Not much is known about this venture, other than the Crusaders allying with three subjugated races, since Brother Parvus wasn’t present during the conquest.
There was also a small inquisition to return the town to Earth, lead by a certain Sir Owain Montbelle, but that got shot down (literally) by Lady Catherine shooring the knight AND the papers with the path to Earth.
Thoughts
Well… It’s complicated.
First, I really enjoyed (most) of the story, actually! I knew from the start that Medieval Crusaders x Outer Space would lead to an interesing plot, but I didn’t expect it to be so fun every chapter! I especially enjoyed the highlighting of some HFY moments, like for example:
- Plasma shields weren’t intended for psysical damage, and an empire built on said tecnology would have forgotten melee combat
- They would have also forgotten siege warfare
- And deceipt
- And “primal” tecniques like cavalry charges, trebuchets and overall art of war
Take that, with the added ingridient of the crusader army salvaging whatever they can to their advantage, and you get exciting moments all throught the book.
Then, there’s Sir Roger himself. He is the main driver of the plot and you get the sense that he is not exactly looking to defend his homeland. No. Sir Roger is looking FOR GLORY!!! I don’t know what to make of him, mainly because his motivation is selfish and he doesn’t look out that much for his people until Lady Catherine points it out after taking over the first fortress. But since he is also the main driver of the action, and thanks to Poul Anderson’s great writing, it also fun to follow him around and see him interact with the narrator, Brother Parvus.
You see, I would describe their dynamic as “goblin and straight man”, since Parvus learnt the wregsiorian language and he takes the role of translator and diplomat during meetings, the intentions of Sir Roger have to be translated by Parvus, who is not too keen on lying as the good boy christian he is.
And finally, there’s my main issue with the book.
The third act breakdown
I did not like Sir Orwain’s insurrection. It felt as if Poul needed a way to end the story, and while it did adress the issue of the crusaders not going back to Earth, the fact this arc was developed in the last three chapters of the book did make it seem rushed.
And honestly, in what way could you end a spacial crusade story? I have no idea. Maybe this arc could have been extended, or hinted at more during the other arcs of the book, or maybe include during some of the conquests of other planets that Brother Parvus described.
I also acknowledge that The High Crusade was written in an episodic format (thanks Wikipedia), so it is likely that Poul’s hand was forced by time constraints. Who knows.
I certainly don’t.
And I’m too bothered by it to investigate futher.
Because I still got what I wanted out of the book.
CRUSADERS IN OUTER SPACE!!!
Rating
Drumroll please… 🥁🥁🥁
3 / 5 It was fun until Sir Orwain ruined everything.
I’ll see you on June 26th
:)