Customer Reviews

The Red Cross of Gold I:. The Knight of Death

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

 

 

Plot/Storyline: 4.75 Stars

This was an amazing, epic tale from an author with tremendous talent and imagination. I was enthralled with the storyline.

I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the timeframe of this novel. With the 'cover' and the description, I made the assumption that it was a medieval novel. However, it actually takes place in present day with flashbacks to medieval times.

My favorite parts were the flashbacks of Mark's past. They were done with terrific style, making the reader breathless for more.

About 25% of this book should have been left out. There were pages of passages that did not forward the storyline. However, I must add that it was all still very interesting.

Character Development: 4.75 Stars

I found Mark to be an absolutely fascinating character. All parts of the book told from his viewpoint were simply wonderful.

I wasn't enthralled with "Merry". She was just a bit too insipid for my taste. I think she should have been a stronger character. However, I will grant that perhaps that was part of her allure for Mark?

Writing Style: 4.75 Stars

The sentence structure was very well done, creating any easy flow throughout. This author also excels at dialogue, writing realistic speech.

The descriptions, while good, were a bit verbose at times.

Editing/Formatting: 3 Stars

There were many editing type errors throughout the book, mainly missing words or extra words that seemed to have left out or forgotten in a deletion. One section confused me when an incorrect pronoun was used, 'he' instead of 'she', several times. Some of the action sequences got a bit confusing when they involved more than two people because pronouns were used instead of names.

Overall:

An oustanding beginning to a fantasy series that will have the reader rushing out to purchase the next book.

Rating: R for graphic violence, sex, violent sex, and scenes of rape.

Living for 800 years doesn't make a person wise and self assured, according to Mr. Carroll. His hero, one of the legendary Knights Templar, not only escaped the purge of his order by the King of France, but he has survived all the years since then, along with a small group of his fellows. As we meet him, he has ventured to Texas, of all places, on what he thinks is a routine mission to retrieve a missing apprentice. He is dosed with a potion that steals his memory, and has to re-learn who he is and question everything he always assumed about his unusually long life and devotion to his order. When his brethren come for him, all hell breaks loose as they bungle their way through a rescue.

This is the opening book in a long series, and I look forward to meeting Mark Ramsay when he knows who he is. I'm sure he will still question his mission and existence.

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I took my kids swimming, and sat there for 3 hours engrossed and on the edge of my seat. They had to beg me to take them home, because I didn't want to stop reading. Every time I got a free minute, I wanted to get back to this book. I am so glad there are many more in the series!

Our hero is Mark Ramsay, immortal Templar Knight, alchemist and assassin, rough and tough and oh so gorgeous. He finds himself kidnapped and without his memory, and discovers who he is and what he is about, along with the reader. Just when you think things can't get any worse for our hero, his Brothers come to his......rescue? Murder and mayhem, sword fights and brawls, flashbacks to life during the Crusades, love and loss and sex and even some unexpected humor all abound in this terrific tale.

I highly recommend this series!

The Red Cross of Gold I: The Knight of Death, presented as the first in a series, has a lively, fascinating story line. Parts are quite unbelievable, but really, if you buy into the main character as an 800 year old Templar, why quibble about other fantastical details? The first third of the book is rife with quite well written stream-of-consciousness expository. Nevertheless, it is boring. Extremely, unrelentingly, mind-numbingly repetitive and boring. Despite this, the second part of the book is so well written that it keeps one wanting to know what happens next.

While the first part drags painfully along, about a third of the way through the book the action picks up. At this point the writing seemingly undergoes an amazing transformation. It almost feels like another writer gently moves the first one aside and lovingly picks up the story, developing the characters and moving the plot along with quite well written action scenes. The first writer occasionally finds the story left unattended while the second writer is out for coffee and inserts snippets of repetitive, useless introspection which we've read previously. * I am not making assumptions about the actual creation of this book. I merely report to you that the style differs drastically from the beginning to the end. *

My hope is that the writer matured during the process and the next book will pick up with the newer style evident by the ending. I would love to see more of this writer's imaginative, descriptive work.

If you're a fan of the Knights Templar mythology, this will provide you with a fun read. You may wish to skim the first part but by the second part the action scenes help transcend the written word and it becomes an adventure rather than a book.

I'm very divided on this book. On the one hand, there were large sections that reminded me of the "3-stooges" in their ridiculousness (not the humor, just the improbable, repeated fails). Other sections, and large parts of the premise, were highly unbelievable; most egregious, an 800 year old knight, who's spent most of his several lifetimes fighting, is bested several times by inexperienced, under-trained fools and thugs (he isn't even massively outnumbered). Furthermore, he displays a kind of Stockholm syndrome which I found unlikely. As part of his captivity, I felt there was also way too much sex in the beginning, that served little to no purpose (either plot or titillating). Overall, this novel just felt messy, like the author wasn't really sure what was going to happen or how.

That said, there were some redeeming moments. The writing, sentence by sentence, wasn't bad; it was in fact quite good. There were moments when I laughed aloud, or was feeling a bit of suspense or enjoyment. The problem lies in combining those individual sentences and scenes (and evoked feelings) into a cohesive and enjoyable whole. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this novel, and would advise the author to focus more on planning the plot from the beginning, and checking that it passes a "ok, that's at least possible considering these characters/situation" test.

Slooooooooooooowwwwwww plot. After 200 pages of the same thing in different words, I quit. Good luck, Ramsey, hope you escape, but I'm long gone.

I bought this book for my Kindle and enjoyed the premise but it was a very clumsy read. I found spelling and punctuation errors on countless pages. Even the best of ideas can't be saved from poor writing and lack of editing. I've read material from high school students that's better edited and more thought out than this book. If you can overcome the mistakes you then have to overcome the idea that an entire team of immortal assassins gets beaten by a dying woman in Texas with a trailer park trash bodyguard. I purchased the second book hoping for an improvement. Hopefully that one will have at least been reviewed by an editor. If not, I'm done with this series.

I found this on Amazon and thought it sounded interesting. Was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed the story as much as I did. Although the ending of this first book had me furious. Did some research and found that this was only 1 or 23 books in this series...wow! It seems this author loves to torment mentally his characters and it succeeds in keeping us reading turning the pages and buying the books. The typos and misuse of some words was sometimes irritating and at times it felt like the action scenes were a bit hard to follow but all in all this is a great story. Marks character makes you want to root for him and his relationship with Merry. Unfortunately its definitely an emotional rollercoaster and not a quick read so be prepared.

I had a really hard time deciding how I felt about this book. Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars seems appropriate. But ultimately it was really entertaining for me, so I'm giving it 4. The novel starts off really slow. The first half of the book moves along at a snail's pace, but it sets up much of the scenery and some of the main characters. I had a hard time even picking up the book to read it at times, because it just didn't hold my interest. But around the half way point the action takes off and just I couldn't put it down! Every time I thought "well, things can't get worse for him now"... something I didn't expect would happen. I loved that I could not predict the ending (or even the next few events).

I really enjoyed the interaction of the Knights with each other. Their dialogue was fun and it was easy to understand their relationships with each other. Several times I found myself chuckling at their situation. My only complaint is that the author is not consistent with his names for each character. Sometimes they are referred to by a first name, sometimes a last name, or sometimes a title (in Latin or in English)... if you don't pay attention you may get a little lost in who's speaking.

I had a love/hate relationship with the main character. I really liked him and wanted to see him succeed, but sometimes he would behave in ways that just made me want to slap him. Overall though I thought he was a strong character, and as he starts to recover his memory the author gives great insight into his behaviors. Like another reviewer, I was not thrilled with the character of "Merry" either. I didn't really understand why she thought and behaved like she did, and I would have liked to learn more of her history. I would also have liked to see more interaction between her and "Cecile" to better understand their relationship.

I liked it enough that I will definitely pick up the sequel. The book is well written and generally enjoyable. As I said, it kept me really entertained and I would recommend anyone to give it a try (and give it a chance, past the slower first half).

Also... this book does contain quite a bit of sex and violence and other adult situations. BUT... it is not overly graphic. This is not some trashy romance, and it's not a graphic slasher story either. Enough to get the point across but not enough to spoil the story, so don't let that deter you from reading.

Great book. I really enjoy how authors offer their first book free. I'm a big fan of kindle books that are priced right. I'd definitely get the second book if there is one. People should show their support for good kindle books that are priced reasonably