Customer Reviews

On Crusade: More Tales of the Knights Templar

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The Knights Templar have proven to be a durable subject of historic fascination and literary speculation for more than 700 years since their alleged end. These elite warrior-priests, answerable only to the Pope, amassed wealth, knowledge and power through their Crusades in the Holy Lands.

ON CRUSADE tells eleven new tales, mostly fantasy, based on the exploits and actions of the Knights Templar. It continues the explorations began in TALES OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, and shows both the humanity, and inhumanity of soldiers who straddled the hyposcrisy of being warriors for Christianity. The individual tales are wonderful dips into the waters of literary talents both new and old. Highly Recommended

A collection of very good writing styles. Believable. Exciting. Excellent escapist work, lets you get away from the daily grind and live in the adventure of the Middle Ages.

_The author's _On Crusade_ is my favorite single volume on the subject of the Knights Templar- and this volume is a worthy successor. Like the original it combines both fact and myth in an a blend that comes across exactly right. The introduction,as well as, the "interludes" between stories, are an excellent, readable history of the order, while the stories themselves cover the mythology and legend from many differing perspectives- from the founding of the order, to the present day, to the far future.

_You get an good overall sense of what the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (later, the Knights of the Temple) were really all about. These were men from all over Christiandom (and perhaps beyond) who were pledged to protect pilgrims and holy places with their lives and honor. The took a vow of absolute poverty- individual knights owned nothing. Any wealth the order amassed was put to the purpose of the protection of pilgrims- and later, all of the Christiandom. A measure of their success at fulfilling their original purpose lies in the fact that, from humble pilgrims to kings, all knew that they could trust their lives, as well as, their last penny to the Templars. Even the infidels knew that Templars were honorable men, for they neither asked for, nor accepted ransom, nor would they retreat in battle (unless out-numbered by at least three-to-one, and even then only under direct orders.) It is said that even the famed Assassins feared and payed tribute to the Templars.

_Are the Templars still among us?