1099 Books

The Second Crusade was the only crusade in which i couldnt find that much information until i found this book.The book is informative and i especially like when the authors describe the sequence of events that led to the second crusade.Their explanations of the Crusade of Portugal and North Europe were partucularly interesting.However the book lacks that "narrative kick"( sorry i just invented that phrase) that makes the story of the Crusade so interesting.The account is a little dry and at times is a little dragging.Also the book lacked pictures.In my opinion pictures add a visual aid that makes the narrative more interesting.

I put this item on my wish list, purchased it in another book store, and finally got to read it. Only to be thoroughly disappointed with it. I was expecting something along the lines of a knight telling of his own experiences in the Crusades. Unfortunately, the author attempted to novelize the entire era without giving the reader a character to center his/her attention. I got extremely bored and had to quit reading it.I Set Before You This Day makes better recreational reading.

This book is very entertaining. It took me about four tries to get through it, but I kept coming back for more. Since characters come and go over the more than a century and a half sweep of this narrative and there is no simple overarching plot, it doesn't suffer much from such sporadic reading, particularly if you have some prior knowledge of the history it covers.
Deus Lo Volt doesn't whitewash or demonize the history of the Crusades. It shows fools, villians, and flawed characters, but it also shows heroic and pious characters (such as the saintly King Louis IX). The brilliant device of using a 13th century crusader (with unexplained access to everything written about previous crusades by Christian or Mohammedan chroniclers) as the narrator adds a ring of authenticity and allows it to take, at least on the surface, a frankly and unawkwardly pro-Christian tone. What the real author's historical judgement is, whether he sympathizes with or means to mock the narrator's perspective of Faith and desire for Christianity to survive in the Holy Land, thus becomes irrelevant. Spared the prospects of either heavy-handed modernist moralizing and revisionist history or apologetics and romanticizing, we can just enjoy a rollicking good ride through an exciting period of history filled with colorful characters, gritty details, and amazing anecdotes. I only wish Ridley Scott had allowed us to have this much unpoliticized fun at the movies.
Incidentally, I've read a couple of history books on the Crusades and recognized many of the events related in this book. So, although Connell doesn't give sources or make any strong claims, I can believe Deus lo Volt!, at least in all of its main features, is basically history collected and presented in the form of an entertaining, novel-like chronical, rather than being historical fiction. If many of the asides and exotic anecdotes are fabricated, they sure are imaginative and enjoyable.

I liked it, and it kept my interest throughout. I was on a Crusades reading binge, and found this one of the more interesting books on that important two centuries of turmoil. If you like historical fiction, this is worth the read. Connell, I read somewhere, said that virtually the whole book is excerpts from translated accounts of crusaders and others of the period, so that he does not himself regard it as a volume of fiction; but it reads that way, and is quite enjoyable.

This book is great. I think of it as being the "Anabasis of the Crusaders".

The older style of english in this book is really simple to read, and its great how well all of the history is tied together in this narrative without ever getting sidetracked.

If you need a very good book to show you this history of the crusades as they were, this is the book.

Any movie based off of the Crusades should be built from this book.

The barbarism of the Christian Jihad in this book is far worse than I ever imagined. People can whine and cry about this book all that they want, and say that the author has certain biased views.

It doesnt matter, the book is objective and it tells the truth.

This is the best written historical book that Ive ever read, and it reminds me of the Anabasis of Xenophon, or the one by Arrian.

I thought it interesting how during the first crusade as the pilgrims were besieging the walls of Jerusalem, the Saracens inside were walking around with banners with Muhammad on them =)

This book relies on the traditional view of the Crusades. Too bad. The novel Defenders of the Holy Grail (with its great songs) relates more to current research and ties Jesus' family to the Crusader effort. Connell write well, but his "facts" are suspect. remember the Pope back then was whoever was strongest in Rome, and Godfrey's own uncle had been one of the Popes!! Get this, but get a copy of Defenders also.

The basic take-off point of the tale seems to be the machinations and ambitions of Anna Comnenus, the Byzantine princess who celebrated her father, the Emperor Alexius, in her well-known text, The Alexiad, itself a rather dry though intriguing document of the political twists & turns and military escapades undertaken by the Byzantine Greeks of that time. The promise of it all was great. But not so, the execution. There are elements of intrigue and fantasy and adventure here but they are not well meshed. Some of the characters were promising and I did like the attempt to depict the life of the Byzantines on their wharfs and in their palaces. But the mixing of pagan deities with the real world of religious Byzantium just didn't work for me. Although I like this kind of stuff, I put this one down about half way through -- though I tried mightily to see it through to the end. But I failed. And so, regrettably, did this book. -- SWM

There are a lot better books out there on the Crusades. i wouldn't recommed it. Compares poorly to other books I've read on the crusades and doesn't even mention the knights templar.

I ordered this book hoping that it would help me easily create a perennial garden. Plant by numbers implies: follow the directions and you get the intended result. I found the planting guides to be very vague at best. There was very little instruction on plant spacing or number of plants required for the pictured gardens. I am a novice gardener, and found that the "common" plant names weren't quite so common. I do think that this is a beautiful book, but I was hoping for more guidance. I have been able to use this book in cross reference with other books that I have ordered, but on it's own, it was little help for me. Overall, I think that the title of this book is misleading.

This play was written as an entry into the Scene Award Series, which highlights up and coming playwrights. This play was more like out and going. The writing leaves something to be desired in it's wording and characters. The author tells you up front he has mangled the history surrounding the story. he wasn't kidding.

The characters with the exceptions of Baldwin and Saladin resemble a bad teen movie. We have Agnes: Baldwin's mother who is a scheming murderous Lady Macbeth type. Heracliis: a member of the court who is often drunk and an ex-lover on Agnes. Humphry: the King's first minister and teacher. Sybylla an idiot valley girl and spends most of the time whining. Guy de Courtney: new husband of Sybylla who basically thinks only of sex and is an idiot. And Raymond: who comes in at the end as the next king. And yes that is how the author wrote the names I kid you not.

The only thing worth reading was the scene between Saladin and Baldwin, which, while written crudely gets the respect of the characters to each other across.

If you simply must read this play then borrow it from somewhere, it's not worth buying.