Brethren Trilogy: Brethren - Robyn Young

Stories that feature knights and crusades are variable in their accuracy and quality. A Knight's Tale, staring Heath Ledger was an anachronistic yet amusing look at jousting; City of God, staring Orlando Bloom was a more accurate, but fragmented and disappointing look at the crusades; the recent compelling computer game, Assassin, uses the crusades as its backdrop. Even Ivanhoe, mixes historical figures with legendary ones to create a swashbuckling yarn. 'Brethren' is the first novel in Robyn Young's trilogy of the same name, set 'in the ninth and last crusade' (Wikipedia). Given the current global situation, the story about a war between the Christian and ...  Read the complete review

If ever there was a topic in danger of overkill it’s the story of the Holy Grail and all of the romantic association that goes with it. Having suffered at the hands of the movie version of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” and faired better with Kate Mosse’s book “Labyrinth”, this wasn’t a genre I’d planned to revisit so soon. With Monty Python’s Holy Grail movie still my first thought when cornered by the notion of King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table and a rather rude, French guard at the top of a tower turret, it was with some reticence that I embarked on the book “Brethren” albeit the synopsis and Sunday Times recommendation did swing it for me in terms of ...  Read the complete review