Crusade by Robyn Young

I can be a really lazy slog at times and those who're close to me will know that by heart :-P
Case in point is the review of this superbly written book entitled Crusade by Robyn Young.
It doesn't matter that I’ve finished reading the book MONTHS ago... but the point is that I’ve finished reading the book back-to-back from the prequel book entitled Brethren.

In this Templar’s sequel, we’re brought face-to-face with Will Campbell and his band of friends yet again. In the first book, Will is still an adolescent thrust into the countless webs of intrigue but managed to survive relatively unscathed. In this book however, Will has ran out of his string of good luck. His range of trouble is diverse as exemplified by the following summaries.

· From a group of greedy merchants wanting to restart the Holy War by plotting to steal the holy Muslim relic known as the Black Stone
· The return of his childhood friend, Garin de Lyons (under the employ of King Edward I) to extort more money from the clandestine organisation of Anima Templi
· Sultan Baybars closing in to identifying Will as the person who ordered the failed assassination attempt on his life
· Courting danger by contacting his fellow Anima Templi brethren in Egypt, the high ranking Kalawun in order to avert the all out Holy War
· To the final masterstroke in finding out that the child he thought he sired is actually fathered by Garin

This is only one side of the story because on Baybars and Kalawun’s side, the strings of counterplot are equally complicated due to the fact that his subjects are itching for an all out war themselves.
Both Baybars and Kalawun had to twist and chop (really chopped!) their way to quell the fire ignited by those who seek to overthrow and flush the remaining Franks from the Holy Land.
I will not divulge too much for the sake of brevity in my book review. But let it be known that this is indeed a good read.

As what I’ve mentioned in the prequel, this book can stand equally well on its own.
So, readers need not worry about the reading sequence (though it is advisable to do so :-)).
The sequel after Crusade (yes, there’s a sequel) is entitled Requiem (I haven’t bought this book yet :-P)

So to save the trouble of reading thru mismatched sequence, here is the lineup.

*drum rolls please*
BREATHREN followed by CRUSADE followed by REQUIEM (to be reviewed)

P/S: *wishful thinking*
I adore you Robyn Young!! (In case you stumbled upon my blog :-P), you’re a real star in putting so much effort in writing the trilogy.
10years (research, plot and etc) to write a book is a real big feat. Hats off to you :-)

http://www.robynyoung.com/index.html


Personal rating: 8 out of 10

Cons:
I seriously couldn’t find any fault with this book.
Though I get a bit worn out after reading too many books about war :-P my bad... not the author :-)

Pros:
I’m too lazy to write the pros of this book (brazenly stated in the first line of the first paragraph).
Read thru the review or better, buy the book and enjoy the multi-layered complots and maze of deceits; all deliciously written and packed in an equally tasteful trilogy (I’m thinking about food now... yummy yummy :-D)