Customer Reviews

Knight Errant

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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

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.

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!

Robertson's series is rich with history, intrique, romance and time travel.
This is a fabulous series with lovable time traveler Robyn at the center of it all along with her prince charming, Edward. Robyn meets Edward in a field as he's being chased down by the bad guys. Not thinking he is truly not of this time, she plays along with what she thinks is an intricate delusion of a very handsome young man.
Robyn travels back in time to meet the young Edward and they fall in love immediately. She works her way through this era making friends and even more enemies. She is rightfully accused of being a witch and her escapades in the tower of London are so frightfully realistic you can almost smell the stinky dungeon she's occupying.
The entire series is amazing and I miss Robyn and Edward.
I am anxiously awaiting another book in this series.

The plot fell flat for me. There was no spark or chemistry between Edward or Robyn at all. No build up of their romance or attraction for each other. They just loved each other at first sight? Not believable.

Collin was not likable at all. Jo barely, Joy less so. Deirdre was fun but underdeveloped as a character. The reader never knows whether to like or distrust these characters, it was frustrating. I didn't feel I knew anyone, even Robyn very well. They were all paper cut-outs or comic strip characters

Again, the premise gets 4 stars, but the story itself was weak and the love story even weaker. I didn't sense any of Gabaldon's famous passion between this author's hero & heroine.

...because I didn't want to miss out on any of the descriptions of the people and places of the War of the Roses. The author really knows his stuff and it was just fasinating to me. This is the kind of history lesson I like. He didn't even need to include the love story, but that was an added bonus. If you love The Outlander and the following books in that series, you should like this one.

A fan of both D Gabaldon and the Yorkist kings, I picked up this book with great enthusiasm, only to be disappointed. While the fictional aspect of time travel, witchcraft, and adventure are creative, the author leaves reality totally behind when dealing with the history of this period. Edward IV (Robyn's romantic interest throughout the book) was a shrewd, charming, ladies man who never seemed to exhibit the kind of romantic loyalty described in the fictional character of the book. If the author had chosen a different person in history, he might have been more credible. But so much is known of Edward, that I simply could not buy into the author's changes of his character. With Edward's brother, Richard III, already maligned by the Tudor revisionists, I hesitate to read any sequels to this book. My hope is that he will either focus more on the fiction or align the story more with history. (If Robyn is meant to be the lady love who Edward married and then died alone in a convent after he threw her aside, the sequel will be short indeed...unless Robyn goes to another time in history.) Of note, I did enjoy the characterization of Jacquetta Woodville (Edward's future mother in law) as a witch, certainly in keeping with historical accounts.

I had never read this author before. This book was just enchanting. I wished it would go on forever. I was sad when it ended, however from what I read on the jacket this is just one book in three so fortunatly there are two more books. I just wished they were already written so I could continue the saga.

For a book written by a man, with a woman as the main character, Mr. Robertson does a super job! I almost expected the usual mushy romance novel stuff, but this was very refreshing indeed. I could not put this book down, much to the shagrin on my boss( I read most of it at work, then at home, well into the night). I felt like I "was there" the whole time I was reading, escaping most easily into the past with/as Robyn and again, as she begins her search for her beloved Edward. Enjoy!

Starting with a silly premise that anyone who time travels under a "displacing spell" will be able to speak and understand any language anywhere and in any time period--Isn't That Convenient?-- and a dragging opening that doesn't get the story off the ground until page 70, Knight Errant is neither a romance [as labeled] nor a riveting novel. Heroine Robyn doesn't get in bed with anyone but a flame in her former life, once, behind closed doors, in the course of the book; and is satisfied with no more than kisses from her new hottie, Edward Plantagenet, earl of March, future king of England two years from the start of the book [Edward IV 1461-70 and 1471-83]. He is a "younger man," a plus for most female readers, though at 17 maybe a bit too young. Jail bait anyone? And not portrayed as the self-indulgent womanizer history later records he was. Robyn's age is never mentioned, though she is a Hollywood producer. Nor is she described beyond saying she is attractive, and her hair is cut short. And she was a barrel racing rodeo queen in Montana, thrown in as bald overkill as another coincidence to show she's at home on a horse.

Robyn encounters Edward hiking in Twenty-First Century Wales in Nikes that later become modern hiking boots in the same scene; and he mistakes her for a boy, though boys and men in his century didn't wear pants as she does but tunics and hose, nor cut their hair short.

The most tedious aspect of the book is the author's insistence on virtually mapping out, trudging over and describing every road, hill, wood, stream and river in England, making the reader slog through the most trivial details, seldom of any relevance to the largely episodic plot. Much could have been skipped. [Yes, readers enjoy authentic research and want to see the places important to the story brought to life. Just not every blooming place in Medieval England and France, not to mention Flanders.]

Comparing Knight Errant to the novels of Diana Gabaldon is a slander to Gabaldon. She has a sense of humor throughout. R. Garcia Y Robertson rather unsuccessfully attempts humor in the first chapter or so, then wisely abandons the effort.

I wish this was a better book. I love a good time travel, especially Diana Gabaldon's two earliest books. However, at 553 pages of tiny print, this is a sad waste of paper. As a reader, I wonder why more good time travels and historicals don't get published, while fantasies without an actual ending like Knight Errant --it seems you've got to read the upcoming sequel, if you're just a bear for punishment-- and time travel romances with lame humor and little plot do find their way into print.

Garcia Y Robertson is at least a more intelligent wordsmith than some, but lacks a first-rate novelist's ability to self edit or any notion of pace that keeps the reader turning pages. I only finished it because of an injury that kept me stuck on a couch.