Brethren

For someone who at the beginning claims to be presenting a balanced view of the crusades this account is remarkably one sided. The Muslim characters are all very one-dimensional beings having no purpose outside of furthering the plot, whereas the Western characters being not so wholly plot driven are allowed the luxury of falling in love, being jealous and even angry. The plot itself is rather weak, it revolves around a secret book (prepare for major anti-climax regarding books purpose), a book so powerful it is said to have the effect of destroying one of the old orders. There is a rather implausible secret society at the heart of the book, and despite the author’s protestations of consulting over a hundred sources the history is wrong, though given this is a work of fiction I suppose that can be overlooked. The book does have some redeeming features, namely the interesting time period it is set in and other details scattered throughout the book such as the use of assassins by the Franks against the Muslims. All in all however, even without my historical pedantics, the book is rather poorly written, many of the characters are flat, the story line uncaptivating and were it not for the fact I was stick in some dreary village with this as my only reading material I would have discarded the book.