The Religion, Tim Willocks
The Religion, Tim Willocks
1 Rating(s)
List: $44.99 | Sale: $31.50
Club: $22.49

The Religion
A Novel

Author: Tim Willocks

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 25 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/15/2007


Synopsis

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 first page of this 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 readers 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.

About Simon Vance

Simon Vance is the critically acclaimed narrator of approximately 400 audiobooks, winner of 27 AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a 12-time Audie Award-winner. He won an Audie in 2006 in the category of Science Fiction and was named the 2011 Best Voice in Biography and History and in 2010 Best Voice in Fiction by AudioFile magazine.   Vance has been a narrator for the past 25 years, and also worked for many years as a BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London.  Some of his best-selling and most praised audiobook performances include Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies (an Audie award-winner), Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series (all 21 titles), the new productions of Frank Herbert’s original Dune series, and Rob Gifford’s China Road (an AudioFile 2007 Book of the Year). Vance lives near San Francisco with his wife and two sons.

About Tim Willocks

Tim Willocks is a novelist and filmmaker. He is the author of the novels Bad City Blues, Blood-Stained Kings, and Green River Rising, which has been translated into fifteen languages. Willocks holds a degree in surgery and practiced psychiatry and addiction medicine until 2003. He also spent ten years writing screenplays and producing films in Hollywood. He completed The Religion in a cabin in the backwoods of upstate New York and now lives in County Kerry, Ireland.


Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Anonymous on 2009-08-05 13:00:31

Great story, great lead character. One of the best historical fictions I have ever read. Can't wait for the next book in the trilogy.

Goodreads review by Fabiano on February 22, 2022

Senza alcun dubbio questo è uno dei migliori libri che abbia mai letto.......more

Goodreads review by Raffaello on November 20, 2021

Senza dubbio è stato il romanzo più coinvolgente del mio anno di letture.......more

Goodreads review by John on November 24, 2015

I came to this novel from the author's outstanding work Green River Rising, which is one of the most memorable books I've ever read. Haunting hardly captures the effect it had on me. So when I read that this was a book about the Knights of St John defending Malta by the same author who wrote such a......more

Goodreads review by Adam on June 24, 2017

Book Recs: Extended action scenes, battle scenes, meaningful depictions of large scale violence, can be hard to depict in prose. I don't tend to enjoy reading them; maybe the screen is a better medium in this area. But there are some masterly literary practitioners of combat on a large scale (Abercr......more

Goodreads review by eric on January 03, 2008

I was really disappointed with this book. It's essentially a Harlequin romance with a heavy dose of graphic violence. Willocks is clearly a very bright man, but his writing is schmaltzy, to say the least. Try this on for size: >>>> [Tannhauser compliments Carla] Carla felt her cheeks burn. She felt ina......more


Quotes

“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)


Awards

  • Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards: Best in Category