A review by brents
The Road to Jerusalem by Jan Guillou

informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

1.5

I dnfed this book on page 255. It really has two things I can't get past. First is that it is incredibly slow. This is supposed to be a trilogy about the Crusades but the book starts with the main character not even born yet and instead of anyone joining a Crusade at any point of this book it instead concerns itself with medieval Scandinavian politics which is not interesting to me. Second the author's chose style us just personally something I don't like. It feels like 90 percent "tell not show" as facts and plot points are relayed to the reader like a history book about a fake person. It feels very disconnected, and even though I wanted to get invested in Arn and his story I couldn't because we aren't actually in his head very much. I know book 2 actually takes place in the Holy Land so maybe it's more interesting, but I'm guessing the style is the same. Just not for me.