Between Two Fires

By: Christopher Buehlman

Narrated by: Steve West

And Lucifer said, “Let us rise against Him now in all our numbers, and pull the walls of heaven down…”

The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm - that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict.

Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission: to confront the evil that has devastated the earth and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.

As Hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels, demons, saints, and the risen dead - and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.

Christopher Buehlman is a writer and performer from St. Petersburg, Florida. The winner of the 2007 Bridport Prize for poetry, he is also the author of several plays and the acclaimed horror novel Those Across the River. He lives with his wife and his rescued dog, Duck.

©2012 Christopher Buehlman (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Having made a huge bloody splash with Those across the River, Buehlman returns with a book set in 1348 Europe…It’s intriguing that Buehlman has leapt so far from the mid-century Southern setting of his first novel, just as intriguing that he’s also an award-winning poet. Expect demand.” ( Library Journal)

The blurb will fool you, it's nothing like it.

If you like Joe Abercrombie, give this book a shot. I'm glad I decided to give this book a chance it ended up being one of the best reads in a while.

more people need to know this guy and this book

i dont know what to say... if you like LoTR, GoT, first law trilogy... if you wanted to love rothfuss or locke lamora but they never quite got to the level of the first group... if you love fantasy, knights tales, even the davinci code... you need to know this book. i dare say if abercrombie, martin or tolkien had written this, it would be hailed as a masterpiece and welcomed into the pantheon. every chapter is a mini-novel in and of itself. this thing starts hitting from word go and just keeps on paying off all the way home. steve west narrates masterfully. do yourself a favor. get this. and then get started on his other ones. thats what im doing... this guy is really something else.

"And God gave no answer".

Simple, tight prose. Brutal and beautiful. I'm used to "doorstop" fantasy where authors spend words carelessly. This is not that kind of book. The characters are grown (and sometimes reaped) with the care of a gardener tending his roses. The book proceeds by describing events that pass, and doesn't resort to inner monologues to tell the story.

Great narrator

Narrator does a great job on pacing and using different voices for different characters. Story is good at having exciting and slower scenes. Good story for me and has a good ending.

Steve West is amazing at his craft

This book started off with a good plot and held my interest easily until about halfway through. The story line takes a turn that becomes hard to follow, and hard to keep up with so many characters introduced. Eventually, I just listened to finish the book. I enjoy historical fiction and religious/fantasy fiction, but this one just wasn't my cup of tea. I was drawn to read this book because Steve West narrates exceptionally well and I've loved other books he's narrarated. Don't judge the book by my review, clearly the author put a lot of time and effort into writing it, he deserves an audience.

Great storyteller

Christopher Buehlman knows how to write. His intelligent storytelling reminds me of Madeline Miller. It’s sophisticated and engaging.

I thought Between Two Fires was a tad bit long - maybe a little repetitive. The main characters were likable and left me caring about the ending of this often gruesome, fantastical story.

I will seek out other books by Buehlman and more narrated by Steve West for sure.

was in a reading rut for years, this cured it

i’m not one for reviews so i’ll keep this brief. i have read my entire life but after the pandemic i got really bad at it. nothing interested me anymore. i write this a changed man, this truly is one of my favorite novels ever. an absolutely dynamite novel that makes you fall in love with the characters as surely as a bird loves millet. do not pass this book up

layers upon layers

Beautifully creepy and timely and hopeful and illuminating while warning of what could be because of perhaps was... and it allowed me to learn about myself and my heart...

Wonderful

A wonderful surprise from cover to cover. I am now a fan of Christopher Buehlman.

Very imaginative

At times it was a bit difficult for me to track how we had arrived at certain points so i would have to do some back tracking no big deal. When you’re listening you really need to be paying attention at every moment for this one. I thought the book started strong until about 3/4s through it felt like it lost some momentum in my opinion. However I like the way everything tied up at the end. Interesting book and definitely worth a listen or a read through. If that doesn’t sell you this book was available to download without spending a credit!! Prior to this book I listened to a book where I had to pay a credit and between two fires was far more entertaining!!