This book ended up surprising me in a really good way. The premise alone is fascinating a modern man suddenly thrown into a world that feels centuries removed from his own, stripped of everything familiar and forced to rebuild an identity from nothing. The story follows John, or Dhion, after he’s rescued by island fishermen and slowly integrated into this isolated Celtic society. What I liked most was how immersive the world felt. The culture, spirituality, daily life, and community dynamics all feel deeply lived in, and the book really commits to exploring what it would actually mean to survive in a place so completely disconnected from modern life.
At times, the pacing is definitely slower and more focused on cultural details than action or character drama, which I know won’t work for everyone. There are long stretches dedicated to explaining traditions, social structures, religion, and everyday life on the island, and sometimes it did pull focus away from the emotional arcs. But honestly, I found a lot of that interesting because the worldbuilding felt thoughtful rather than just decorative. The fish-out-of-water aspect was especially compelling to me. watching John slowly lose his old identity while adapting to this harsher but more meaningful existence gave the story a reflective, almost meditative feeling.
What’s stayed with me most is the way the book contrasts modern life with the simplicity and connectedness of this older world. It’s not romanticized exactly — life on the island is difficult and often brutal, but there’s still this lingering sense that Dhion finds something emotionally grounding there that modern life couldn’t offer him. The writing occasionally gets weighed down by exposition, and I do think a glossary would’ve helped with some of the terminology early on, but overall I found this thoughtful, immersive, and surprisingly moving. Definitely one I kept thinking about after I finished.

If you awoke one day to find yourself part of a remote island community, centuries in the past, and you had the knowledge at your disposal to change their ancient world for what you perceived to be for the better, would you? Or might you point them in an entirely different direction? This is an intriguing yet crucial question that arises for John Finlay, ‘The Seaborne’, as he undergoes the gradual transformation from a modern-day city-dweller and business man, to ‘Dhion’: fellow Islander and humble apprentice craftsman.
Dhion’s adventure is cleverly woven from several stories. Set in a world in which the tradition of story-telling is of the utmost importance, this beautifully crafted narrative transports the reader into the mystical medieval world of Celtic spirituality. The author’s love and intimate knowledge of the Scottish landscape infuses the text. He makes apparent the importance of the hills and mountains, water, the sun and the moon to the everyday lives of his characters as one reads how individually or collectively the community fear, honour, and actively engage in the energies and consciousness of the natural world that shape both the boundaries, and the thresholds of their wild, western-isles existence. Biblical parallels and symbolism abound in this tale, which give it its power to move, to enthral, and potentially challenge and change the inner world of its reader.
Buy this book! But be forewarned: choose carefully a time to read it lest you find yourself compulsively absorbed, reading it into the early hours of the morning, utterly incapable of putting it down.

I read an earlier edition of this book just before the coronavirus outbreak of 2020. A character in the story says, “The need of the time calls forth help.” And I felt that this story was one such help at that time of such sorrowful dilemmas and rich possibilities. The story of John or Dhion is told deftly and with depth and beauty; scenes, landscapes and characters are described with economy and an engaging, unusual turn of phrase that often surprised and delighted me. I felt it coaxes us to turn to a simpler, more community-based way of living where there are no or fewer planes in the sky and our lives are forced into simplicity, personal creativity, greater stillness, listening and natural rhythm, and a connectedness with each other and the Sacredness of all. The story explores the drawbacks in the past of a diminished role of women for example, and, through the compassion and wisdom of the central characters, invites us I felt to explore for ourselves how we might take the best of the past and the best of our modern civilisation and forge a new, sustainable future. I highly recommend this book.