One of the worst books I have ever read. It was just plain boring.

I wish I could give it 10 stars.

I had started reading this book 8 years ago, and never finished. The story stuck in my mind, though, and it was always there luring me in to reread it - so I did. This time I pushed through the lull in the middle to finish, and I'm glad I did. This was a great story - sweeping in the geographic scope, and really interesting with the play of different religions and cultures.

In a lot of ways, this was just a heartbreaking read.

Historically, I find this to be an incredibly fascinating period. The vikings relationship with the Byzantines is something I find particularly interesting. In fact, fiction novels about the Varangian Guard are hard to come by, so I was hoping Byzantium would offer a glimpse into that, while using the young priests pilgrimage as the spine of the story. I was hoping for something with a bit of historical honesty. Instead this read like a giant religious anecdote. Any historical aspect of this novel is a bit sullied by clearly biased religious overtones.

The ending really put the nail in the coffin for this one. To sum it up "everyone converted to Christianity and lived happily ever after." Well, if you look into it, you'll see that all too frequently pagans were converted by violent and horrific means, and the ones that converted by their own free will often didn't have a clear understanding of the religion (believing Christ was a warrior who would help them in battle etc...)

If someone re-wrote this with less religious bias, I'm sure it would have been a phenomenal book. Unfortunately, this was just fluffy and dishonest.

Excellent read. Full of adventure, drama, mystery, and intrigue. Set in the 10th-century Byzantine era, an Irish monk goes on a journey where he will wrestle with his faith and come to terms with it however messy it is. In my opinion, one of the best historical fictions I have ever read. The only thing lacking is more development in its setting. Other than that, a fantastic read.

Read this one a long time ago. I remember it being good,but somewhat esoteric. Avowedly Christian fiction sometimes turns out to be not as good as a book written just to be a good book.