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Title: Jerusalem by Cecelia Holland ISBN: 0-8125-5397-7 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 15 February, 1997 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (13 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Jerusalem
Comment: This is one of the only historical fiction novels about Crusaders I've read that's any good. It's spare and brutal. Battle scenes are powerful, though the edgy, spiky, fierce characters and their interrelations are the real point here. As ever, Holland captures period mentalities well. The theme of same-sex relations is historically relevant to the Templars and is presented well here, without stereotyping. Only readers addicted to happy endings should avoid this wonderful book.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Grim Side of the Crusades
Comment: Rannulf Fitzwilliam is a Templar Knight who is in the Holy Land to serve the Holy Cross during the latter part of the Crusades. Rannulf used to live a wild, sinful life, and in order to repent from it, he has made vows to abstain from women, and to never harm another Christian. Struggling to contain his wild nature, he confronts relationships and situations with a hard, grim, stoicism. He is not particularly friendly or charming, and many of the other characters don't like him, either because he seems gruff and unknightly, or they are intimidated by his strength that threatens to usurp their important positions.
The character of Rannulf permeates the entire book; the story seems to drag at times, bogged down in a tense grimness. Yet, because of that, the reader feels the reality of the times. The people of the Holy Land, facing attack and death by Saladin's army, must have lived such a life, solemn and dark in the face of their destruction.
There are other interesting characters that contrast with Rannulf. The young Christian king of Jerusalem is rotting away with leprosy, yet he admirably endures this suffering to the end in order defend his city. His beautiful sister Sybilla is a forceful, independent woman, scheming to take her rightful place as queen when he dies, yet also desiring to serve and to save Jerusalem. She is Rannulf's greatest temptation to break his vows. Stephen, the red-haired knight has a secret and sinful affair with Ali, the nephew of Saladin.
The story ends with a heart-wrenching battle scene at the Battle of Hattin, in which, as history tells us, the Christians were disastrously defeated. The ending is grim, but powerful, and the reader realizes that this is a realistic immersion into a solemn period of history. The story is carried off with a subdued elegance of style.
Rating: 5
Summary: Holland's Best Work
Comment: This is probably Cecela Holland finest work of historical fiction with a riveting cast of characters. Her central figure, the Templar Ranulf Fitzwilliam is a compelling character who will linger in your mind after you finish the book. Her protrayal of the Templars is reasonable accurate, and certainly the involvement of her main character in the central events of the time is not unbelievable. After all the Templars were the central figures of the time. Her tale of events leading to the fateful Battle of Hattin is execellent and I think she has placed the blame for the defeat there where it belongs -- squarely on the head of the Grand Master. The homosexuality among the Templars was no unknown and deserves to be mentioned. I believe her portrait of Saladin squares with the views of the those who fought him. After all this is a book whose viewpoint is that of the Templars, not the Arabs.
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Title: The Angel And The Sword by Cecelia Holland ISBN: 0312868898 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 06 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: A Booke of Days: A Novel of the Crusades by Stephen J. Rivele ISBN: 0786704624 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Kings in Winter by Cecelia Holland ISBN: 031286888X Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 05 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Pillar of the Sky: A Novel of Stonehenge by Cecelia Holland ISBN: 0312868871 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 07 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Great Maria (The Hera Series) by Cecelia Holland ISBN: 0939149842 Publisher: Soho Press, Inc. Pub. Date: May, 1993 List Price(USD): $20.25 |
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