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A review by penguin_emperor_of_the_north
The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
5.0
I love this book so much. It's just so much fun to read. Just the concept of a band of medieval Englishmen counterattacking against an alien empire, it appeals to my sense of humor.
The narrator is a pious Franciscan friar and so everything gets filtered through that lens. The sense of humor in here is definitely not wacky or over the top. The humor more comes from the dissonance between Brother Parvus's medieval Catholic point of view and the science fiction war going on around them. And, even more so, the dissonance between Brother Parvus' pessimism and Sir Roger's bravado.
One of my favorite quotes, kind of summarizes the theme:
The narrator is a pious Franciscan friar and so everything gets filtered through that lens. The sense of humor in here is definitely not wacky or over the top. The humor more comes from the dissonance between Brother Parvus's medieval Catholic point of view and the science fiction war going on around them. And, even more so, the dissonance between Brother Parvus' pessimism and Sir Roger's bravado.
One of my favorite quotes, kind of summarizes the theme:
Hearken Brother Parvus, I'm weary of this whining about our own ignorance and feebleness. We're not ignorant of the true Faith, are we? Somewhat more to the point, maybe, while the engines of war may change through the centuries, rivalry and intrigue look no subtler out here than at home. Just because we use a different sort of weapons, we aren't savages. (p115)