4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
At last Alfred Duggan is back in Print, January 16, 2006
Alfred Duggan is my favourite historical novelist and whilst Count Bohemond is to my mind not his best, that award goes to Elephants and Castles, which is sadly not in print, it was the first novel of his which I read. Having read it, I then read every thing of his I could get my hands on. What Duggan does better than any other historical novelist is make the people in his novels recognisable as real people whilst still setting them firmly in their own times, be that ancient Rome, Saxon England or the crusades.
True to the real history of the times, Count Bohemond is the story of one of the commanders of the first crusade, a Norman warlord from Southern Italy who was frankly was out to carve for himself a Kingdom out of the lands taken from the Muslim rulers of the Middle East. Serving God coming a long way behind his ruthless ambition.
Duggan's discription of battles, particularly when those battles go wrong and they often do, is second to none. Although I think Founding Fathers, Elephants and Castles and Lady for Ramsom are better than Count Bohemond, all of Duggan's books are worth reading and Count Bohemond will not let you down.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of Alfred Duggan, December 31, 2009
Set in the First Crusade this book brings to life the Early Middle Ages and the adventure of the First Crusade. Bohemond as a Norman from Italy already has a strong distrust of the Byzantines. His interesting portrayal of the event from a participants point of view gives us a glimpse of other motivations for the crusaders, other than religious.
The desperate struggle around Antioch when the crusaders are heavily outnumbered and without food or hope is brilliant and gives us insight into just how close run the whole crusade was. The description of the sieges and battles are fantastic. I have enjoyed many of Alfred Duggan's books, but to me this is the best!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Love the Historical Feel, August 14, 2010
First, the beginning was great. As long as Bohemond was in Europe, I loved it. The battles were short, swift and very believable. It began to drag, however, once Bohemond reached the Eastern Roman capital. To be honest, I didn't finish the book. What I loved that Duggan did right was give you the feel that the characters thought as people did back then. That's why I gave it four stars. His people feel historic, and that's a tough thing to do well.
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