Customer Reviews

Saracen Blade

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Saracen Blade is definately the best novel I have read in my 21 years of life. I have read this book countless times and I am in the process of using it to write a research paper for my Literature class. Frank Yerby is a lesser known author that deserves much credit. Every one that has read this book has loved it and it has even made avid readers out of some that I know. This book teaches the reader about history, love, pain, war, and what our world used to be like in great detail. It is a book about two people in love set in the 12th and 13th century towards the end of feudelism. It is the tale of a gently born serf that falls for the daughter of a baron and how is life progresses. He becomes a knight, baron, the friend of the Holy Roman Emporor and much more. It is the tale of his life and how he overcomes the odds to become what he has always wanted and deserved. This is a MUST read for all people.

THIS BOOK COULD EASILY BE AS IMPORTANT AS ANY REQUIRED HIGH SCHOOL OR COLLEGE NOVEL. AS EASY TO READ AND EXCITING AS THE HOBBIT, BUT BUILT ON REAL SUBJECTS, REAL HISTORY, REAL HUMANITY. THE AUTHOR EXPLORES MORALITY, ANCIENT HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, RELIGION AND EVEN MECHANICS OF WAR. A GREAT BOOK FOR ALL AGES. MY 80 YEAR OLD FATHER READ THIS BOOK IN 1952 AND RECOMMENDED IT IN 2002 TO HIS 40 YEAR OLD SON.

This is probably the only love story that I have ever enjoyed. Yes it is historical fiction but the story that two lovers kept apart for such a long time just breaks my heart. I first read this book as a young one. I then found a copy while in high school(and loaned it out, never to return). I shall endlessly search until I find a copy again.

I first read this when I was in my early teens, and loved it. I mentioned the author to my mother. She said, "I think he's black."

I replied "No way!". In my experience, black authors did not write novels about 13th-century Sicily.

But she was right -- or half-right, anyway: he was the child of a black father and a white mother. But he left the United States in 1955 in protest against racial discrimination, moving to Spain where he remained for the rest of his life. He wrote many historical novels, extensively researched and often endnoted (as here).

Taken together, there is a certain repetitiveness in them. The protagonist always rises from poverty to great eminence and wealth; and there are always two women in his life: the true love who is good for him, and the beautiful enchantress who is bad for him. The present work certainly follow this formula.

But for my money, "The Saracen Blade" is easily the best of the bunch. Mr. Yerby may not be the world's greatest stylist, but he's a first-rate story-teller; and it's this that leads me to give the book five stars instead of four, despite one or two passages of rather purple prose. I don't agree at all with the reviewer who thought the historical detail got in the way: I thought it added wonderful colour. The characters, too, are brought vividly to life -- particular the enigmatic emperor Frederick II (the grandson of Barbarossa), who was in so many ways ahead of his time, yet almost comically superstitious.

I thoroughly recommend this book to all lovers of historical adventure.

This is an execellent book. Frank Yerby's novels always put the reader into history. Not only are the stories true to life, but you casually learn about different societies.

This book reflects a perfect blend of love and war and is a great fiction of its time.

This was the first book my dad have to read. It started my in this wonderfull. It not only describes the past in the most detailed way, it takes you back to a plece some never knowe existed. I really recomend every one to read eat, the copy I have is in spanish, and for the last 4 years I have been looking for the origial copy. Just a way to show you how much I really love taht book. This book will be in your mind for the reat of your life, every time you think of reading a book, or books you've read you'll always come across The Saracen Blade.

The Saracen Blade by Frank Yerby, follows Pietro Di Donati, his beloved, Iolanthe, and their burning desire and pursuit for each other. However destiny, callous to such feelings, pulls the strings of reality on these ill-fated lovers. This book encompasses humanities desires, passions, lusts, insatiable love, conflict and lastly, battle.

Set in Europe during the 1200s, Pietro is the son of a serf who lives for one purpose: to marry Iolanthe, a woman from a rich and powerful home. However, Pietro's class of uneducated, ignoble, and ill-mannered individuals makes this possibility bleak. Pietro, although not a knight or of noble blood, studied intensely as a child, setting his intellect far above those of his social class. The story follows Pietro's adventures, spanning from his birth to his early forties, his quest for knighthood, and the fair maiden Iolanthe. While this may seem like a gripping novel, brimming with passions that devour every human soul, despondently, it falls short of such grandeur.

Oftentimes, Yerby's extensive knowledge of history and continuous attempts to inform his reader, steal the main focus rather than enhance it. Through lengthy descriptions on attire, societies, geography, historical figures and battle strategy, comprising at least seventy percent of the novel, Yerby quickly looses the patience of his readers. The remainder of the novel displays a soap-opera of characters that are emotional disasters, acting upon their every whim. The ratio of soap-opera to history lesson is far to much for either a history junky, or conversely, a soap-opera aficionado to enjoy. Although small portions of this book were gripping enough to keep me wondering what was coming next, the majority left me yearning to close it. However, unlike the characters of this 1952 bestseller, I pushed my desire aside, perhaps, in spite of the characters who acted upon theirs or possibly, because my hope in Yerby was too great. So, if you find you are bored with quality literature, this novel will suit you well.

It may seem strange that I would review a book that I read 5 years ago, but that is how good of a read "Saracen Blade" was. It is an historical novel. Although I can't say it leaves you changed in any "profound" way, it leaves you memories, like a great road trip that you keep thinking back to. "Saracen Blade" was a borrowed paperback, which I returned. I have been trying to find a copy of it ever since.