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kwheeles's review against another edition
4.0
Crowley’s books have a compelling narrative that read like a novel. Breezy enjoyable read.
emilybryk's review
slow-paced
3.0
Fascinating and uneven.
The first part of the book is a pretty whirlwind overview of the Crusades in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and is worth reading for the absolute terror of the Seventh Crusade alone. (Mansurah! Fariskur! People doing horrible things to each other in the name of religion isn't new (hell, this is a book about the Crusades in the high Middle Ages it is inherently not-new!), but this particularly horrified me -- the flooding, the mud, the barge disasters.)
The transition from the first part to the second -- and from the breakneck speed to the hour-by-hour siege timeline -- was jarring and felt like a separate book. A good book! But a separate one.
The first part of the book is a pretty whirlwind overview of the Crusades in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and is worth reading for the absolute terror of the Seventh Crusade alone. (Mansurah! Fariskur! People doing horrible things to each other in the name of religion isn't new (hell, this is a book about the Crusades in the high Middle Ages it is inherently not-new!), but this particularly horrified me -- the flooding, the mud, the barge disasters.)
The transition from the first part to the second -- and from the breakneck speed to the hour-by-hour siege timeline -- was jarring and felt like a separate book. A good book! But a separate one.
joabroda's review
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
4.0
I first became interested in The Crusades when I read author Sharon Kay Penman's books about Richard The Lionheart. Her books about Richard obviously told the story from the European viewpoint. In the last book she wrote, before her death, The Land Beyond the Sea Penman stays in the Middle East with the story. After reading that last year, I started looking for and picking up nonfiction books on the subject, this is one of them.
The Europeans, from the First Crusade, captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in 1099. That war for the Holy Land lasted nearly 200 years. This is the story of the last crusade and the last battle fought for Acre, a strategically placed harbor city that both sides coveted.
The author Roger Crowley certainly does his research and he is a good writer for the arm chair historian. His telling of the tale, for the most part, is easy reading and not too technical. With the exception of the long description and explanations of how the medieval war machines worked, I was easily able to follow and enjoy the story. Studying the drawings of the machines and trying to figure them out, well it gave me a headache more then once.
This was a "new me to author" and I will give him another try if the opportunity arises. 3 stars for the work and research, 1 star for making it a readable account of history.
The Europeans, from the First Crusade, captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in 1099. That war for the Holy Land lasted nearly 200 years. This is the story of the last crusade and the last battle fought for Acre, a strategically placed harbor city that both sides coveted.
The author Roger Crowley certainly does his research and he is a good writer for the arm chair historian. His telling of the tale, for the most part, is easy reading and not too technical. With the exception of the long description and explanations of how the medieval war machines worked, I was easily able to follow and enjoy the story. Studying the drawings of the machines and trying to figure them out, well it gave me a headache more then once.
This was a "new me to author" and I will give him another try if the opportunity arises. 3 stars for the work and research, 1 star for making it a readable account of history.
teddybeer's review
4.0
Interesting read about the last crusader holdouts in the holy land. Intense and well researched
cody240fc's review
3.0
The familiar Crowley formula is there, but this one felt rushed. Crowley covers the hundred years leading up to the fall of Acre in about 120 pages. That's a lot of time covered in very few pages. The battle itself is well done- as you would expect from Crowley- but this one should have been 400-500 pages rather than the 200+ we get. Not Crowley's best work, but still pretty good. I highly recommend reading 'Conquerors' and 'Empires of the Sea' before this one.
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