Shadows of Ecstasy, Charles Williams
Shadows of Ecstasy, Charles Williams
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Shadows of Ecstasy

Author: Charles Williams

Narrator: David Pickering

Unabridged: 8 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/21/2022

Synopsis

An occultist invades Europe at the head of an African army. His goal--the conquest of death itself.No one knows quite what to make of Nigel Considine. He calls himself "the High Executive", and he has inspired the entire continent of Africa to revolt and make war upon Europe. Is Considine a magician, a charismatic politician, a divinely annointed prophet, or the antichrist? A small circle of London friends all seem to disagree, even as Considine's influence is tearing England apart....Shadows of Ecstasy is Charles Williams' most confounding novel--chilling, intriguing, ambiguous, and exciting. Along with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, Williams was a member of the Inklings, a society of writers in Oxford, England, who changed the world with their mythopoetic vision.

About Charles Williams

Charles Williams (1909–1975) was one of the preeminent authors of American crime fiction. At the end of World War II, Williams began writing fiction while living in San Francisco. The success of his backwoods noir Hill Girl (1951) allowed him to quit his job and write full time. Although originally published by pulp fiction houses, his work won great critical acclaim. Many of his novels were adapted for the screen, such as Dead Calm (published in 1963) and Don’t Just Stand There! (published in 1966), for which Williams wrote the screenplay. Williams died in California in 1975.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dan

I like Williams but this wasn't as good as The Place of the Lion. Still, I enjoyed it. People have asked me what Williams' novels are like. It's pretty hard to describe but they're a bit like C.S. Lewis's last of the space trilogy, That Hideous Strength, only if it had been written by Algernon Black......more

Goodreads review by Julian

Let me start this review with the punch-line: this by far the weakest of Williams' novels. The set-up for what could have been a promising theological thriller in his usual mode is squandered and energy and interest dissipate until the novel doesn't so much end as simply drift off into the bathos of......more

Goodreads review by Dave

The theological musings are classic Charles Williams, albeit somewhat more comprehensible. However, the details of the Africa plot are entirely ridiculous and mildly, unintentionally(?) racist. I find it interesting that the way Considine's personality is described presages the way many people descri......more

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