The Blood Red Crescent

 The Blood Red Crescent, by Henry Garnett.  Manchester, New Hampshire: Sophia Institute Press, 2007.  176 pages, Softcover, $14.95

Growing up, I always loved adventure stories about young people in turbulent historical times, embarking on all sorts of escapades, ranging from locating hidden treasure to saving the world. Mind you, I never had any patience with poorly written or lowbrow novels, which only served to mar the memory of those who lived in the past by portraying their lives as frothy, pointless mixtures of pap and soap opera. Happily, Henry Garnett’s work respects his audience. The Blood Red Crescent is a fine example of the “adventurous youth helps save the world” genre, focusing on one young man’s growth towards maturity and his participation in the battle of Lepanto.

The Blood Red Crescent takes its name from a threat that the Ottoman Sultan made during his invasions of Europe. The Sultan declared that his Islamic forces would conquer all of Europe, and that he would place a gigantic pennant above the dome of St. Peter’s, marked with a crimson moon painted with Christian blood. The central character is the teenaged Guido Callatta, who in 1570 is shaken from his world of comfortable Venetian privilege as the Turkish forces threaten his life and the lives of those he loves. Guido and his family are forced to flee, and Guido gains military experience and life advice from an eclectic assortment of individuals, both real and fictional, culminating in his participation in helping Don John of Austria triumph against the Ottomans.

Blood Red Crescent is written at a level suitable for intelligent teenage children, although certain violent scenes might require parental discussion. This is not a novel that should be read simply on its own. It needs to be put in historical context, with the far-reaching repercussions of the victory– which cannot be integrated into the context of the novel– made clear, illustrating in specific ways just how critical the victory truly was. The novel is an excellent introduction to learning more about the history of Lepanto. Read in tandem with Chesterton’s Lepanto (perhaps in the recently published edition that includes historical background), it is an entertaining and richly informative way to learn more about a critical historical event that is largely overlooked today. 

The general plot of the book focuses on Guido’s training to become a soldier and how he gains training from a variety of different sources, ranging from sailors to soldiers to cranks to the clergy. In an atmosphere where members of religious orders are commonly depicted as base caricatures, it is rather refreshing to find a book where the clergy are shown to possess perception, wisdom, and honor. It is disturbingly commonplace to see a highly Christianized Europe regarded dismissively as a repressive, backwards place. In Garnett’s novel, Christian culture is liberating, ennobling, and joyous, a society that deserves defending. 

An interesting aspect of Guido’s training is the fact that while he is being trained as a deadly archer, he is constantly coached to maintain his sense of honor and decency. He is trained to be a skillful soldier, but his mentors urge him to take no pleasure in destruction, and to always treat his enemy fairly, never forgetting his opponent’s humanity. Furthermore, Guido is also coached to consider what kind of life he should seek after the warfare ends, since after he puts away his weapons he will need to live a life that benefits his society and serves God.

The main reason why I cannot rave wholeheartedly about Garnett’s book is not because of any inherent flaws in the work, but because the good aspects of the book could conceivably have been a great deal better. In a book that caters to a youthful audience, it is important to keep the tension high and to frequently pepper the novel with humor or horror, preferably both.  Unfortunately, several stretches of the book contain precious little action, and real laughs and genuine cringes are hard to find. More time ought to have been spent describing the actual battle of Lepanto. Such a dramatic culmination to the book deserves the biggest payoff possible.

Despite the shortcomings, The Blood Red Crescent is well worth reading, especially as a book that parents and their older children can explore together. Ultimately, this book is not about a physical adventure as it is about a spiritualadventure. The battle scenes, daring rescue attempts, and tension-packed chases only provide a limited amount of the novel’s true action. The real action lies within young Guido’s mind and soul as he learns what it means to be a good, Christian man and a defender of his world.

–Chris Chan 

This review first appeared in Gilbert!