Three months into 2025 and I’ve certainly failed miserably on writing book reviews for the books that I’ve finished reading. So it had to take a special book to break this terrible habit, and that book is El jinete de luz: Clavijo, la batalla prohibida de la reconquista (“The Rider of the Light: Clavijo, The Forbidden Battle of the Reconquest”). While, I wish his history works are better sourced, José Javier Esparza historical fictional novels in contrast are simply one of the best that I’ve read. I was extremely exited to see that this author had published a new novel based on this series Los pioneros de La Reconquista (“The Pioneers of the Reconquest”).

This novel starts at the end of Los demonios del mar: De cuando los vikingos attacaron por primera vez las costas de España (“Daemons of the Sea: Of When the Vikings Attacked the Coasts of Spain for the First Time”), a book review for this novel is still pending, but I digress. So it was such a joy revisiting back the array of awesome characters that have been part of this literary world.

As the title suggests, the main plot of the story is the mythical Battle of Clavijo, which tradition says that St. James came from heaven to help the Christians default the Muslims in mid 9th Century, coming into existing the figure of Santiago Matamoros “moor slayer”, which is deeply engraved in Hispanic culture. While it’s impossible to prove that such event ever happened, this book does an amazing job describing the different set of events that lead to the legendary Battle of Clavijo and it’s profound impact subsequently.

When I first learned about The Battle of Clavijo years ago, I immediately noticed how similar it was to the Battle of the Hornburg (Helm’s Deep) in the Lord of the Rings. While it’s impossible to ever prove that the Battle of Clavijo ever happened, nor can we prove that it was a source of inspiration in the Lord of the Rings. However such a beautiful tale where good defeats evil, will always be inspiring regarding of its source.