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castiellucis's review against another edition
3.0
Rating 3.8
' I have forsaken the idea that there is any God in this universe, let alone a Christian one, or one conceived by the Muslims. There is nothing godly in the bloodshed and cruelty that we have both witnessed .'
' I have forsaken the idea that there is any God in this universe, let alone a Christian one, or one conceived by the Muslims. There is nothing godly in the bloodshed and cruelty that we have both witnessed .'
velocitygirl14's review
1.0
I was lent this book by someone who loves the author and his stuff. I can say that it's not for me. I get the feeling that this is the male version of harlequin romances. I tried to like it, since I love historical novels. This left me quite annoyed and exasperated in how I could predict the plot twists and how little I could care about the cardboard cutouts that were supposed to be the characters. I really tried, but yeah, this was not a book meant for me.
darwin8u's review
3.0
"We are all the prisoners of our history."
- Simon Scarrow, Sword and Scimitar
Typically, whenever I travel to a country I've never been before I try to read both historical and fictional books related to my destination. This summer I took my wife and kids to Malta. This book seemed to fit the bill for a good airplane read. Not too deep or nuanced, but good historical perspective on the Siege of Malta.
The problem was it was just a bit light. It reminded me of a lazy Ken Follett. And I'm not a big Follett fan. It didn't even begin to approach great historical fiction (Patrick O'Brian, Robert Graves, Hilary Mantel). It wasn't literary and when it tried to be literary the voice ended up sounding like a 20th century agnostic and not a 15th century skeptic. But still, it did provide a good basic understanding of the siege and wasn't overly melodramatic (oh, it did have its melodrama for sure...). Anyway, it didn't inspire me to stop reading nor inspire me to hunt out more Simon Scarrow books.
- Simon Scarrow, Sword and Scimitar
Typically, whenever I travel to a country I've never been before I try to read both historical and fictional books related to my destination. This summer I took my wife and kids to Malta. This book seemed to fit the bill for a good airplane read. Not too deep or nuanced, but good historical perspective on the Siege of Malta.
The problem was it was just a bit light. It reminded me of a lazy Ken Follett. And I'm not a big Follett fan. It didn't even begin to approach great historical fiction (Patrick O'Brian, Robert Graves, Hilary Mantel). It wasn't literary and when it tried to be literary the voice ended up sounding like a 20th century agnostic and not a 15th century skeptic. But still, it did provide a good basic understanding of the siege and wasn't overly melodramatic (oh, it did have its melodrama for sure...). Anyway, it didn't inspire me to stop reading nor inspire me to hunt out more Simon Scarrow books.