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theasbookworld's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
josefinessen's review against another edition
2.0
Jag vill gilla dessa böcker men tyvärr är det lite för trögt för mig (och kanske lite för mycket historia).
angrywombat's review against another edition
1.0
Intro
(Not sure this counts for Fantasy Bingo... but since the main character Arn is practically a saint who learns everything faster than anyone.. he counts as a magical creature....)
OK, time to turn off the snark.
So this book is about a fictional hero - Arn - who was sentenced to serve for 20 years as a Templar for the crime of sleeping with his girlfriend Cecilia before they were married - and being seduced by her sister as well (Thats mainly from book 1, but it gets touched upon in this one too).
The book focused mainly on Arn and his time in the Holy Land as a ranking Templar Knight in the war against the Saracens, but there were the occassional bits which turned to the life of Cecilia Rosa who was stuck in a nunnery for 20 years (also punished for the crime of sleeping with Arn before they were married....)
Sorry to say, but this is the first book where I have seen BOTH a Mary Sue and Gary Stu character in full force... So many other characters were constantly expressing surprise at how holy, intelligent, kind, beautiful, skillful, educated, etc, etc, etc the two (Arn and Cecilia) were... And they are constantly more moral and righteous than everyone around them.
Characters
Arn Magnusson is the Templar Knight - Il Ghouti to the Saracens. He is the platonic ideal of the "paladin". Faithful, Loyal, supremely educated and skilful, kind & compassionate to all. We meet him as he "accidentally" saves Saladin (yes, that famous one) from bandits on the road. He then sits down to a meal with these "unfaithful" and makes a great impression and becomes friends with Saladin - and able to both speak fluent arabic and quote from the Koran....
He is consistently shown as the best swordsman and rider, feared by the Saracens, and able to pull of military miracles through his "clever" tactics. He is also practically the only man trying to find a peaceful solution to the war. During the book he is raised to the position of "Master of Jerusalem", the second most powerful Templar in the Holy Land... and is waiting out his 20 years of service until he can return home to his beloved.
Cecilia Rosa is the long suffering girlfriend of Arn, who is serving the same 20 year sentence, but as a lay-member of a cloister in Gotaland. She is beautiful, sings perfectly, able to bear all the abuse from a evil abbess without once becoming bitter/angry. She "rises" from a young innocent girl, introduces the idea of creating finely made clothing to sell so that the abbey can make more money, learns how to be an accountant and run the abbey better than anyone else, and makes friends with the future queen..
Cecilia Blanca is another "punished" girl who joins the abbey. She is the future wife of a clan-leader among the Goths. She is one of two members of the currently weaker clan (both the Celcilias) and everyone is against them. She is irreligious and a constant troublemaker, but becomes the best friend of Rosa. When her betrothed wins the clan-war and becomes King, she is rescued and becomes Queen and continues to help Rosa however she can.
There are a number of other characters... Ulfhildr (a clanless girl who becomes friends with the Cecilias), the Evil Abbess, a plethora of incompetent priests and warriors, Saladin, and a host of debauched, cruel, and plain idiotic christian Kings, Lords, and soldiers... Basically they all seem to exist to show how perfect Arn and Cecilia are...
Plot/Setting
The Abbey of Gudhem in Götaland - A cold place in scandinavia which slowly gains wealth thanks to the ideas of Cecilia to produce fine clothing... Also the war-torn lands around full of barbaric men and conniving women...
The Holy Lands, dry, desert, full of Bedoins, educated Muslims, ignorant and cruel christians, and debauched Frankish lords.
Pacing/tone
I think the author doesn't like christianity... Actually, the theme of "long suffering smart people vs the world of ignorant idiots in power" fills this book. Its not a bad theme, just the whole thing is as subtle as a bag of bricks to the head. There was literally only one character (the original Templar Grand Master) who was actually nice - every other leader, and most soldiers, were egotistical, debauched, conniving, ignorant evil bastards. It is as if GRR Martin made everyone like Joffrey except for Ned Stark...
Writing Style
OK, here I need to calm down. As this is a translation I need to give a little break. The story of Cecilia was actually interesting when it appeared. The life of 10th century nuns actually was interesting (somehow). The telling of events of Götaland actually kept me enthralled. Such a pity there were so few of them. This felt like a "game of thrones"-lite following along with the story of Sansa: Cecilia stuck as almost a pawn in other peoples' political plans.
But the story of Arn was, for the most part, just terribly written. It seemed like the author was determined to "Tell, not Show". There were hundred of pages of "Lord X went and gather his army for a raid on City Y. Then over the next years he ruled it with an iron fist. His wife was sleeping with the Bishop and they then assassinated Lord X and became Kings." - that level of detail (or lack of) for hundreds of pages...
I literally cried in frustration.
You'd like this if : umm... no. Can't think of a reason to actually like this book. If you want to read something about the crusades you may as well go look up wikipedia - it has a better narrative...
OK, if you want to read about politics in a nunnery you might get a kick out of Cecilia's story... but the "Mary Sue"-ish plot does get a little on the nose at times.
Other Thoughts
I am really upset at this book. The first book - The Road to Jerusalem was actually pretty good, but that concentrated on the inter-clan rivalry in Götaland, the love story between Arn and Cecilia, and the conflict of religion and politics.
Nearly all of that was thrown away to give what amounted to a long wiki-article on the crusades, with a few set pieces of Arn behaving better than everyone and surrounded by idiot christians and educated Saracens.. (seriously.. not a single crude saracen soldier, or one bent on revenge, anything?)
There is no chance that I will read anything else by this author... sorry.
(Not sure this counts for Fantasy Bingo... but since the main character Arn is practically a saint who learns everything faster than anyone.. he counts as a magical creature....)
OK, time to turn off the snark.
So this book is about a fictional hero - Arn - who was sentenced to serve for 20 years as a Templar for the crime of sleeping with his girlfriend Cecilia before they were married - and being seduced by her sister as well (Thats mainly from book 1, but it gets touched upon in this one too).
The book focused mainly on Arn and his time in the Holy Land as a ranking Templar Knight in the war against the Saracens, but there were the occassional bits which turned to the life of Cecilia Rosa who was stuck in a nunnery for 20 years (also punished for the crime of sleeping with Arn before they were married....)
Sorry to say, but this is the first book where I have seen BOTH a Mary Sue and Gary Stu character in full force... So many other characters were constantly expressing surprise at how holy, intelligent, kind, beautiful, skillful, educated, etc, etc, etc the two (Arn and Cecilia) were... And they are constantly more moral and righteous than everyone around them.
Characters
Arn Magnusson is the Templar Knight - Il Ghouti to the Saracens. He is the platonic ideal of the "paladin". Faithful, Loyal, supremely educated and skilful, kind & compassionate to all. We meet him as he "accidentally" saves Saladin (yes, that famous one) from bandits on the road. He then sits down to a meal with these "unfaithful" and makes a great impression and becomes friends with Saladin - and able to both speak fluent arabic and quote from the Koran....
He is consistently shown as the best swordsman and rider, feared by the Saracens, and able to pull of military miracles through his "clever" tactics. He is also practically the only man trying to find a peaceful solution to the war. During the book he is raised to the position of "Master of Jerusalem", the second most powerful Templar in the Holy Land... and is waiting out his 20 years of service until he can return home to his beloved.
Cecilia Rosa is the long suffering girlfriend of Arn, who is serving the same 20 year sentence, but as a lay-member of a cloister in Gotaland. She is beautiful, sings perfectly, able to bear all the abuse from a evil abbess without once becoming bitter/angry. She "rises" from a young innocent girl, introduces the idea of creating finely made clothing to sell so that the abbey can make more money, learns how to be an accountant and run the abbey better than anyone else, and makes friends with the future queen..
Cecilia Blanca is another "punished" girl who joins the abbey. She is the future wife of a clan-leader among the Goths. She is one of two members of the currently weaker clan (both the Celcilias) and everyone is against them. She is irreligious and a constant troublemaker, but becomes the best friend of Rosa. When her betrothed wins the clan-war and becomes King, she is rescued and becomes Queen and continues to help Rosa however she can.
There are a number of other characters... Ulfhildr (a clanless girl who becomes friends with the Cecilias), the Evil Abbess, a plethora of incompetent priests and warriors, Saladin, and a host of debauched, cruel, and plain idiotic christian Kings, Lords, and soldiers... Basically they all seem to exist to show how perfect Arn and Cecilia are...
Plot/Setting
The Abbey of Gudhem in Götaland - A cold place in scandinavia which slowly gains wealth thanks to the ideas of Cecilia to produce fine clothing... Also the war-torn lands around full of barbaric men and conniving women...
The Holy Lands, dry, desert, full of Bedoins, educated Muslims, ignorant and cruel christians, and debauched Frankish lords.
Pacing/tone
I think the author doesn't like christianity... Actually, the theme of "long suffering smart people vs the world of ignorant idiots in power" fills this book. Its not a bad theme, just the whole thing is as subtle as a bag of bricks to the head. There was literally only one character (the original Templar Grand Master) who was actually nice - every other leader, and most soldiers, were egotistical, debauched, conniving, ignorant evil bastards. It is as if GRR Martin made everyone like Joffrey except for Ned Stark...
Writing Style
OK, here I need to calm down. As this is a translation I need to give a little break. The story of Cecilia was actually interesting when it appeared. The life of 10th century nuns actually was interesting (somehow). The telling of events of Götaland actually kept me enthralled. Such a pity there were so few of them. This felt like a "game of thrones"-lite following along with the story of Sansa: Cecilia stuck as almost a pawn in other peoples' political plans.
But the story of Arn was, for the most part, just terribly written. It seemed like the author was determined to "Tell, not Show". There were hundred of pages of "Lord X went and gather his army for a raid on City Y. Then over the next years he ruled it with an iron fist. His wife was sleeping with the Bishop and they then assassinated Lord X and became Kings." - that level of detail (or lack of) for hundreds of pages...
I literally cried in frustration.
You'd like this if : umm... no. Can't think of a reason to actually like this book. If you want to read something about the crusades you may as well go look up wikipedia - it has a better narrative...
OK, if you want to read about politics in a nunnery you might get a kick out of Cecilia's story... but the "Mary Sue"-ish plot does get a little on the nose at times.
Other Thoughts
I am really upset at this book. The first book - The Road to Jerusalem was actually pretty good, but that concentrated on the inter-clan rivalry in Götaland, the love story between Arn and Cecilia, and the conflict of religion and politics.
Nearly all of that was thrown away to give what amounted to a long wiki-article on the crusades, with a few set pieces of Arn behaving better than everyone and surrounded by idiot christians and educated Saracens.. (seriously.. not a single crude saracen soldier, or one bent on revenge, anything?)
There is no chance that I will read anything else by this author... sorry.
theodor's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
janlc's review against another edition
3.0
Jeg er stadig ikke helt solgt på Arn. Personerne har fået lidt mere tyngde, men det er stadig tyndt. En god historie bærer bogen oppe. Der er helt sikkert brugt tid på, at undersøge forholdende i korstogenes tid. De gode er stadig lidt for gode og de onde lidt for ensidigt onde. Og efter tyve år fornemmer jeg ikke nogen synderlig udvikling i deres karakterer
emmaxbx's review against another edition
4.0
I den här boken så ser vi verkligen en förändring i arn och hur han verkligen växter till sig. Vis er hur hans världssyn ändras och blir påverkad. Man följer även christina som bor i kloster och man ser en kamp som hon har mot övermakten i kyrkan. Det ger inte en speciellt positiv bild på klostret och kyrkan.
kathrine_jeppesen's review against another edition
adventurous
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
shanijeanius's review against another edition
4.0
I am really enjoying this series. I wish the third book was already available on Kindle, but it is not.
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