Scan barcode
A review by loyaultemelie
The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Kay Penman
5.0
It’s 00:48 so I’ll spare a long review.
This book was phenomenal, I loved it very dearly. After all how could one cry for half an hour over a book they didn’t love?
That being said it wasn’t perfect, nor was it my favorite Sharon Kay Penman novel, though I daresay it must be one of them for it stole my heart in 8 pages, even if I had to put the book down for three days my heart cried for it. There is of course the normalization of Jerusalem as a Christian land, though that sentiment was lessened for me by the feeling of all the narrators as unreliable, at least those who weren’t Muslim. The battle scenes felt a bit like a lull period, although that might’ve been due to the utter dread I felt, I didn’t want to read forward. The book also ended quite abruptly, and though I cannot fault Sharon Kay Penman, it was still quite odd to turn that last page and say “it’s over?!” It made me glad that I’d read Lionheart.
Speaking of Lionheart, even if I knew some of the outcomes I still felt enthralled, and unknowing truly of what was to come, I still knew little of the story of Outremer.
One thing I’m grateful for is Sharon Kay Penman being one of those authors who, to put it bluntly, isn’t racist. I dislike the crusades and the history surrounding it, for how often it’s used as a racist dogwhistle. Though we’re meant to sympathize with those from Jerusalem the chapters with Al-Adīl’s perspective were welcome in humanizing Saladin and those around him as men who felt they had just as strong a claim to Al Quds (Jerusalem) as did Christians. The fact that there were quite a few Christians who were irredeemable rat bastards didn’t hurt. I’m neither Muslim, nor Kurdish, nor from the Middle East though so my opinion on this ought to be treated with a grain of salt, and as always I think one should defer to the opinions of those who belong to those groups when passing judgement on their portrayal, especially in a time as the crusades, which, again, are a gold mine for racists and white supremacists.
In the end though I planned on giving it four stars I had to push it up to five. This book is a truly wonderful one and I would recommend it to all those who enjoy historical fiction.
This book was phenomenal, I loved it very dearly. After all how could one cry for half an hour over a book they didn’t love?
That being said it wasn’t perfect, nor was it my favorite Sharon Kay Penman novel, though I daresay it must be one of them for it stole my heart in 8 pages, even if I had to put the book down for three days my heart cried for it. There is of course the normalization of Jerusalem as a Christian land, though that sentiment was lessened for me by the feeling of all the narrators as unreliable, at least those who weren’t Muslim. The battle scenes felt a bit like a lull period, although that might’ve been due to the utter dread I felt, I didn’t want to read forward. The book also ended quite abruptly, and though I cannot fault Sharon Kay Penman, it was still quite odd to turn that last page and say “it’s over?!” It made me glad that I’d read Lionheart.
Speaking of Lionheart, even if I knew some of the outcomes I still felt enthralled, and unknowing truly of what was to come, I still knew little of the story of Outremer.
One thing I’m grateful for is Sharon Kay Penman being one of those authors who, to put it bluntly, isn’t racist. I dislike the crusades and the history surrounding it, for how often it’s used as a racist dogwhistle. Though we’re meant to sympathize with those from Jerusalem the chapters with Al-Adīl’s perspective were welcome in humanizing Saladin and those around him as men who felt they had just as strong a claim to Al Quds (Jerusalem) as did Christians. The fact that there were quite a few Christians who were irredeemable rat bastards didn’t hurt. I’m neither Muslim, nor Kurdish, nor from the Middle East though so my opinion on this ought to be treated with a grain of salt, and as always I think one should defer to the opinions of those who belong to those groups when passing judgement on their portrayal, especially in a time as the crusades, which, again, are a gold mine for racists and white supremacists.
In the end though I planned on giving it four stars I had to push it up to five. This book is a truly wonderful one and I would recommend it to all those who enjoy historical fiction.