Ken Gire

A centurion present at Jesus' crucifixion gets faith in Jesus but through his life fighting in different parts of the Empire, loses it but finds it again. He falls in love with Mary Magdalene: a chaste love from afar; as his faith weakens, hers grows stronger. When he sees the strong faith of Christians being frozen to death on a frozen lake north of Rome, he regains his faith and joins them. Ending did seem a bit rushed and we weren't given his rich emotional life which filled most of the novel.

Written well, almost cinematographically, with scenes switching from Lucius the centurion to Mary and the early Christians back and forth. Maybe I'm too pedantic, but these things bothered me: Germans and other barbarians called Huns, the pejorative WWI term. And also the Danube and surrounding area located in Germania unless I'm mistaken and this was just another of Lucius' postings. The "romance" seemed unbelievable but I can see the purpose of its being used as contrast of how Jesus affected different people. I did like the author's basing the ending on the 40 martyrs of Sebaste, 40 Roman soldiers who died such a horrible death. I did like the long section on source material.… (mer)