A Song in Stone by Walter H. Hunt
Wizards of the Coast Discoveries, $21.95, 392pp, hc, 9780786950676.
The publisher calls it fiction. It might be science fiction, it might be fantasy, it might be historical, or religious, or something else. Whatever it is, Walter Hunt offers a time-traveling, fantastical, magical, religious mystery fitting of Dr. Henry Jones (Indiana’s father). Knowing very little of the religion that is the frame of this story (or, for that matter, the specific history in which the protagonist finds himself), I’m torn between thinking Hunt knows absolutely everything about his subject matter, and thinking Hunt has used just enough reality to lend his fabulations the verisimilitude necessary to pull it off. But either way, it doesn’t matter. The point is the story, and that story is fairly engrossing.
In modern-day Scotland, unemployed television personality Ian Graham gets a job offer, to host a special on the mysteries of Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn is a historical church that might have been part of a larger structure, but which has a very odd, and oddly compelling, design: square projections of stone throughout that tantalize the imagination into thinking there’s a meaning, a code, to them, which no one can read. Good host that Ian is, he reads some of the history available on Rosslyn, to familiarize himself with the topic before he gets the script.
Then, through a poorly explained mechanism (although, to be fair, Ian has no idea what it was, and it isn’t really germaine to the story), he finds himself in the early 1300s, an initiate Templar undertaking a pilgrimmage through Portugal, Spain, and France. He is accompanied by two men he knows from the 21st century, except they have no idea he (or they) are anyone other than who they appear to be: former soldiers now part of a religious order on a quest for religious enlightenment. Ian’s guide, a Templar who’s led a dozen previous pilgrimmages, always seems to be hiding something, and even though it’s only foreknowledge of what ought to be happening on this pilgrimmage, Ian feels something more pulling at him.
The pilgrimmage is mapped onto certain shrines, oracles, representing the known celestial spheres. It’s also got something to do with the religions that came before Christianity, those which recognized the lines of force inherent in the world (earth, water, air, and smoke). At each stop on their journey, Ian is granted some form of enlightenment, some additional knowledge to point him in the direction he ought to be going. And that direction isn’t quite what Rob, the guide, knows. Ian is the chosen one: he can hear the mystical music of Rosslyn. Music written in another time and place, represented (apparently) in the stones of that Scottish chapel (which, in the early 1300s, won’t even be built for centuries), and apparently the key to “healing the world.”
As they walk the path, Ian’s visions are vivid (and sometimes, completely real). He can hear the music, he is the chosen one, and he is slowly (oh, so slowly) being given the keys to unlock the mystery. Along the way, he also discovers his earlier self: the Ian who really was born in the late 1200s, did serve as a mercenary, and joined the Knights Templar. Not only will the revealed knowledge be Ian’s key to getting home (and before Friday the 13th), but the merging of his 14th and 21st century selves will be a key point to enabling him to survive.
The journey is interesting, the mysteries engrossing, the political intrigue interesting, and the setting very believable. In fact, I liked almost everything about the story. Where I felt it was lacking are the mechanism of Ian’s travel back and forward, and how the others were able to follow him when it was his ability to hear the magic that activated everything. There were a few lines of misdirection: seemingly very important events which just faded away as set-dressing. Ian’s perfect knowledge of and comfort with the languages he speaks in 1307 are a little jarring, especially when he thinks 21st century thoughts he’d like to express, but for which he can’t find the words. And the actual MacGuffin is lacking: what it is Ian is seeking and how it can do what it’s claimed to be able to do.
Whether Hunt’s description of the settings (mostly churches and buildings) is accurate or not (giving his background as a Mason, I would tend to think he knows what he’s talking about), they certainly seem real and fascinating. And we do get the feel that Ian is living in 1307, the life of a poor, wandering religious initiate. It’s an interesting take on a long-ago time.