I did not always love the writing in this book (or, to be more precise, the editing) but goodness if it doesn't lay down a compellingly readable story. I mean, really: a formerly-dominant-world-religion, finding itself persecuted in a land where it is now a minority, has adherents who decide that terrorism-- specifically, destroying a major government building in an eye-catching ball of fire-- is the way to let the rest of the populace know that they are really serious about their demands. Of course, if you grew up celebrating Guy Fawkes' Day, none of that may be new to you; what
is new about this book is that Ms. Fraser does a creditable job of describing both the situation in general and the personalities of the persons involved in such a way that you kind of know why they did what they did. The leader of the terrorists (who was
not Guy Fawkes) was both charismatic and crazy; the one priest who was executed in connection to the affair had argued the
entire time against terrorism; he did so when one of the plotters confessed what they were planning to do (and thought, at the time, that he had convinced the fellow not to go through with it) and he did so again, from the scaffold, just before he was hanged. You wouldn't think this would make for cheerful reading, but it kind of does.
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