Review: Historical Fantasy worth reading!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2012
I downloaded "Devil's Lair" for free onto my Kindle with the thought that I would read a bit just to see if it lived up to it's ratings.  Imagine my surprise when I was -- literally -- hooked by the first sentence!  William of Ockham walking barefoot through carnage?  What?  That was enough to keep me reading almost through to the end in one day, and to have me pick it up again the next day in order to finish it as soon as I could.I love the fantasy genre, especially historical fantasy.  I have to say:  I really, really liked this book.  I "4.5 star" liked this book, but since that isn't a rating option, and after an overly long inner debate, I finally decided to round up to 5 stars instead of down to 4.  This decision was due to the overall writing displayed by David Wisehart.  I found his prose to flow smoothly with vivid descriptions and engrossing dialogue.  The novel's parallel to Dante's Inferno (DW's knowledge of this literary work shines through), it's historical accuracy (likewise, DW's obvious love and knowledge of the Middle Ages enhances the story greatly), and the introduction and subsequent development of main characters that are likable and to whom one can easily relate, in my opinion, made this book a winner.William is a friar, Giovanni a poet, Nadje a visionary, and Marco is a Knight Templar who all come together in order to travel through the layers of hell (a la Dante's Inferno) in order to find the Holy Grail and save mankind. But there is much more to this story, as we are introduced in detail to the characters and see their noble assets as well as their fatal flaws.  No one is allowed to escape their humanity or their fears in the face of needing to do the right thing.  I thought that the brief encounters with the famous and unknown alike throughout their journey to and through hell held insightful clues and lessons, and that the trials and triumphs of these four spoke to what can be accomplished with a unified good v evil front.There have been some flaws of "Devil's Lair" mentioned in other reviews with which I agree: the untranslated Latin phrases were a bit of a stumbling block, there were a couple of modern-sounding phrases that didn't seem to fit into the story's time frame well, and there was one particularly brutal scene that seemed to come out of nowhere and then disappear just as quickly.  To me, in light of the generally above-average editing, these things did not take away from my enjoyment of the story.I highly recommend "Devil's Lair" to others.