Knight Errant [Hardcover]

R. Garcia y Robertson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 2001

R. Garcia y Robertson is the author of a numerous of books and stories, many of them published in the SF genre. In addition, he has written two highly praised novels outside that genre, American Woman, and The Spiral Dance ("A remarkably realistic historical fantasy."--Ellen Kushner, host of Song and Spirit, NPR). Now Garcia y Robertson returns with a powerful time-travel romance that reaches new imaginative heights.

Robyn Stafford, a young American woman executive, has flown from Hollywood to England to surprise her lover on his birthday, only to find that he's married and his wife's giving the party. So she takes a few days off to recover from her outrage and dismay, traveling and hiking in England near the Welsh border. There she encounters a young man on horseback, wearing a sword, chain mail, and a surcoat, who identifies himself as Edward Plantagenet, Earl of March, and asks directions to a nearby abbey. He thinks it is the year 1459, is amazed by her working cell phone, and invites her to ride along, although at first he thought her a young boy wearing pants! Then his pursuers show up, and Edward and Robyn ride madly across the hills until he drops her off and gallops back to face his enemies. After he fights them off, he returns and invites her to come with him and be his lady. Then he rides away, into the distant past, to the age of the War of the Roses.

And so Robyn Stafford must find a way to leave the world of today for the fifteenth century, where she will fall in love with a young knight, a prince who will be king. This is the first of three books in a sweeping historical romance.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robyn Stafford, a thoroughly modern heroine, finds herself transported to 15th-century England in this novel of time travel, romance, witchcraft, and political intrigue, set in one of England's most turbulent historical periods. Robyn's search for a way back to her own time is complicated by her growing love for Edward Mortimer, Earl of March, a key figure in an escalating struggle for the English throne. As Robyn is drawn into the conflict, it becomes clear that she has her part to play in events--and she plays it with courage, dash, and intelligence.

R. Garcia y Robertson brings to this novel his usual skill at creating setting through the details of culture, custom, and beliefs so that the reader is able to share Robyn's experience fully. A strong cast of characters and a healthy dose of adventure, along with love, magic, and humor, make Knight Errant an engrossing and entertaining read. --Roz Genessee

From Publishers Weekly

Without swooning over an ancient portrait or using any of the devices associated with time-travel romances, heroine Robyn Stafford goes back (and forth and back again) six centuries to medieval England to find and keep her man. Hers is, for the most part, an exciting romp: Robyn becomes a witch, is jailed by villains, charms mad King Henry VI and meets 15th-century counterparts of 21st-century people she had known. She fervently wishes to return, but once back, she willingly forgoes Hollywood, her job and the pleasures of her own time. All this she does in favor of the discomfort, dangers and lack of amenities of a ruder age and, especially, Edward Plantagenet, Earl of March, dashing, imperturbable and in love with her from the moment they meet. As for the time travel, it is engineered by a witch, whom Robyn encounters in each era she visits. Spunky and inventive, Robyn makes her own way, even using her credit card to unlock a door bolt. Robertson's (The Spiral Dance and American Woman) detailed knowledge of the era and the terrain usually complement his story, but at times it just gets in the way. It is unnecessary to know, for example, that Sir John Falstaff, rudely characterized by Shakespeare, was actually a hard-working knight, nor do readers need to be told the derivation of "Cheapside." The prose can be downright hokey ("Built like a college quarterback, the boy was a way better dresser"), but the unexpected and often delightful turns will keep romance fans happy.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (November 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312869967
• ISBN-13: 978-0312869960
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,000,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Long Journey!, January 16, 2004

By 

Diana Rubino "Historical and Paranormal Author" (Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Knight Errant (Mass Market Paperback)

KNIGHT ERRANT by R. Garcia y Robertson, Tor Books, 2001, 539 pp.
Robyn Stafford, a Hollywood producer, is in England to surprise her lover Collin for his birthday, but soon finds out he's otherwise spoken for. Hiking alone on the Anglo-Welsh border, she's stunned to see a knight in shining armor appear before her. Believing he's an escapee from a Renaissance fair, they strike up a conversation during which he believes she's a 'lad' from her attire and short hair. So begins her journey through six centuries and her relationship with the knight who turns out to be 17-year-old Edward Plantagenet, Earl of March. Robyn's journey takes her through England and France during the Wars of the Roses, and she encounters her now-ex, Collin, his new wife, and friends from her own time who are different people in the 15th century into which she's been thrust, but whom she recognizes. She also makes the acquaintance of Jacquetta Woodville, who is a witch in both times, referred to as 'Weirdville' --fittingly, to those of us who know Jacque's background. Robyn survives several misadventures, is taken prisoner by Yorkist enemies and thrown in a Tower dungeon, meets feeble King Henry VI, engages in witchcraft rituals, journeys to France and Flanders, and is reunited with Edward several times on this journey, during which she's fallen in love with him. In order to save her imprisoned friends Jo and Joy, whom she'd also known in modern times, she's given a potion which allows her a brief return to the present in order to gain access to the Tower and attempt to free them. Her swift landing on a busy shoulder of the M1, on which she's forced to hitchhike in her medieval garb, is more amusing than her disconcerting 15th century sojourn. The witchery element allows her to understand medieval English and French dialect--a question that always arises in time travel, but is seldom explained, as unbelievable as this would be to a reader. The ending, as in all romances, is a happy one in which she and Edward pledge their everlasting love and begin a life together, remaining in the 15th century, which Robyn seems not to mind, as long as she's with her beloved. While the story is rich with historical details and accurate descriptions of life in the pre-penicillin and personal hygiene days of yore, the pacing is a bit slow at times, and the reader may rush ahead to see what happens next. I personally found her love for Edward to be a bit implausible, as to why a grown woman would be so taken with a 17-year-old. Edward's character, for those of us who know him as the womanizing, partying hedonist that he was, seemed molded to fit the story. Even Richard as hero would have been more believable, as this fictional Edward is just too faithful and Beta male to be true. Also, historical sticklers will lose their suspension of disbelief, knowing that Edward never married any Robyn Stafford, but perhaps suspension will be restored upon reading the sequel, LADY ROBYN. --Diana Rubino
Diana Rubino is the author of 10 historical novels, several of which are set during Ricardian times. Visit WWW.DIANARUBINO.COM.

WWW.DIANARUBINO.COM

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You know what they say about judging a book by its cover..., March 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Knight Errant (Mass Market Paperback)

I have to admit that I bought this book because I really liked the cover art and the description on the back. So I suppose I shouldn't have been disappointed by what's between the covers.

As other reviewers have noted, the book has a promising beginning. The heroine is at least mildly funny, although she seems awfully young to already be a successful Hollywood producer. But the story falls apart almost immediately when she decides with very little persuasion from new acquaintances that she absolutely MUST find a guy in a knight suit who promised to make her his "lady" and then disappeared. Despite being such a busy and important executive, she decides to postpone her return to the U.S. so that she can participate in a pagan rite to find him, and she gets sent back in time, which will make her REALLY late for work on Monday.

Once she's back in time, she doesn't seem to care whether she finds him or not, but instead devotes her time to making herself beloved among the common folk (despite such eccentricities as having toast and herbal tea for breakfast). When the mother/daughter pair who have risked their lives for her are captured, instead of immediately trying to find them (as a truly heroic heroine would do) she goes tripping off around the country with their brother/uncle (an early version of her sort-of-ex-boyfriend from the future) and seems to be more upset that he's in love with someone else than that her friends are probably in a prison being tortured.

Besides Robyn's shallow and erratic character, the other characters, particularly the incidental ones, are wooden and serve very little function other than to show off the author's research into everyday life in 15th century Britain. The author seems to be making up a lot of it as he goes along. Robyn can understand all the languages she hears? Why, that must be part of the spell that sent her back in time! Robyn needs to be able to ride a horse well? Oh, wait--she was a champion barrel-racer when she was young! Imagine that!...I quit reading it fairly close to the end because I just didn't care what happened.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Enjoyable Medieval Romp, April 28, 2007

By 

Alianore (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knight Errant (Mass Market Paperback)

I didn't expect to enjoy Knight Errant at all. Much to my surprise, I did - enormously. I agree with other reviewers who commented that it drags in the middle, there's too much setting, the character of Edward doesn't seem at all like his real historical self, the witchcraft is all a little bit too convenient, etc etc. But somehow I found myself unable to put it down.

I found Robyn and Edward very sympathetic and likeable characters - it's a real shame that Edward is off-stage for much of the novel. He's only 17 - very young, but older in the Middle Ages than it is today! The American tourist/time traveller Robyn's age is never given, but seems to be early thirties or thereabouts. I suppose it is pretty implausible that a 17-year-old, the most eligible bachelor in England, would fall instantly and irreversibly in love with a woman so much older, who's a complete misfit in his society. But what the heck, it's a fantasy! Edward is everything a medieval hero should be, brave, chivalrous, courteous, romantic, loving, caring, and of course very handsome.

There are arguably far too many descriptions of places, not really needed in the story, but I'm from England and I liked seeing my country described in so much detail. :) I've been to many of the places Robertson describes, and he's extremely accurate.

All in all, I found Knight Errant rather silly, when looked at dispassionately, but wildly entertaining. It's the kind of novel where you really have to suspend your disbelief and ignore all the crazy implausibilities. Just go with the flow, and you might end up enjoying it as much as I did!