Deus Lo Volt! : A Chronicle of the Crusades

Rating:
Summary: Biased History, Bad Literature
Review: I am a big fan of historical literature, and have seldom been disappointed with my choices, until now!

Anyone with a basic background on the history involved, and willing to see it in terms of the societal contexts of that time, can see this for a biased and shallow "hatchet job" on Western civilization in general and Christianity in particular. In this it fails to inform accurately and fairly about history. The story and theme is merely a poorly-disguised excuse for political-cultural polemic (ditto for the author's previous efforts in this genre).

It also fails miserably as literature. There is little depth either to the events related or the characters involved, who are depicted as comic book figures without human dimensions. Needless to say, it also does not make for very entertaining reading. The problem may be due to the choice of the narrative style, but ways to get around these limitations could have been found had this been desired (there are chronicles of that very same time much better than this one!). Given the apparent intentions of the author, this would have been too much to expect, as such stories necessarily have to be cast simplistically and in black-and-white terms. This may be reassuring for those who think in that way (and of course, are on the author's side of the contrast), but defrauds all those with any sense of perspective and open-mindedness.

Rating:
Summary: Remarkable, but to what purpose?
Review: In this book, Evan Connell has engaged in a masterful literary exercise. He has consolidated a great deal of historical material into a pseudo-chronicle covering all of the Crusades. But while I can appreciate the difficulty for a modern author to master the material and an archaic style of writing, I couldn't help wondering whether this exercise was more interesting for the author than the reader. Connell faithfully captures the tone of medieval texts as he combines his sources into a harmonious whole. But what's the point for the reader? There are scholarly collections of translated medieval documents available. There are better interpretive histories of the Crusades available. And there is informative and entertaining historical fiction involving the Crusades available. Connell's book is somewhere in between all these. His tampering with original texts makes it inadequate to the scholar. It offers little in the way of interpretation of events or elaboration on context, so it fails as a history textbook. As historical fiction, its lack of dramatic tension keeps it well away from the likes of 'Ivanhoe' or even Harold Lamb's classic 'Iron Men and Saints'. 'Deus Lo Volt!' rises to the challenge of imitating medieval European texts, but like such texts, it's not terribly exciting to read. In the end, regrettably, it just never really engaged me as a reader.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but I prefer Agori's novel
Review: This book relies on the traditional view of the Crusades. Too bad. The novel Defenders of the Holy Grail (with its great songs) relates more to current research and ties Jesus' family to the Crusader effort. Connell write well, but his "facts" are suspect. remember the Pope back then was whoever was strongest in Rome, and Godfrey's own uncle had been one of the Popes!! Get this, but get a copy of Defenders also.