Rating: 
Summary: Something Different - Something Wonderful!
Review: I just finished the Jester and loved this story. I needed a wonderful hero right now and Patterson and Gross have given us one in Hugh. I had doubts about this book when I first purchased it, but all of my doubts were put aside in the first few chapters. Another wonderful book like all of Patterson's works. I haven't missed a book of his yet and won't in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: The worst book I've ever read
Review: Save your time and money by not reading this disappointing story.
The idea and story line could have had great potential but the events are violent, gross and vulgar. The writing is far from creative...
Rating: 
Summary: Out of his element
Review: No matter what James Patterson's prior experiences are, he cannot be called a historian.I finished this book with a distinct feeling of disappointment. This is my first Patterson book, and I was expecting far more than I got. I enjoy Patterson's writing style and the short chapters and "train of thought" organization of the story are an interesting change of pace. However, the author has hurt himself immeasureably by not taking the time to research the history of the time in question. He has villagers in southern France building stone buildings in less than a month and has battles fought against castles where the besieged don't use the military tools that any decent castle would have at their disposal. He places artifical hooks in the storyline and uses obvious ploys to move the plot forward. Another thing that annoyed me was his constant use of the first person intermingled with third person. It was as though the author couldn't be creative enough to use foreshadowing and innuendo to achieve what he wanted to convey. Patterson seems to race through events without giving much depth to the story and I found the overall experience to be vague and well intentioned, but with no real texture to grab onto. He could have take lessons from Ken Follett's epic "Pillars of the Earth."
Rating:
Summary: Boring and lacks imagination...
Review: I have read many of Patterson's law enforcement thrillers, and much historical fiction. This attempt by Mr. Patterson and Mr. Gross lacks the imagination, suspense, character development, and detailed historical landscape that comes so brilliantly to the likes of Umberto Eco, Iain Pears, and Michael Faber. The Jester is, quite honestly, BORING, predictable, preposterous, and uninspired. Patterson's Hugh De Luc is not the least bit original--he is stale. The development of this main character lacks direction and never really changes. How tiring is it to read, every time Hugh is in a jam, "I knew I was going to die"? In spite of the tragedies that befell Hugh, he never truly garnered a sympathetic emotion from this reader. The foreshadowing in the early chapters is obvious, making each page thereafter bromidic. The plot can best be decribed as "moth-eaten", though I won't detail the formulary to those who may still be interested in reading this book (they will know it within a few pages anyway). Of the hundreds of terrific reads in the genre of historical fiction/suspense, Patterson's latest is certainly not one of them. Very disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining Historical Fiction
Review: Known for his terse, simply worded mystery novels, Patterson deviates greatly from the norm to pen this historical tale of romance and deception in eleventh century France. With a first person account of poor innkeeper, Hugh De Luc, Patterson probes the force behind a relic of the crusades and the loss of lives when greed consumes those who desire this relic. Leaving behind his young wife Sophie, Hugh journeys east to join the crusaders in their quest to quench the Turks. With the passage of two years until his return, Hugh discovers that his wife is missing, and a band of marauders murdered the son he never knew. His vengeful path leads him into the arms of Lady Emilie, a lady in waiting to Anne, wife of Stephen of the duchy of Boree. Training as a jester, Hugh travels to Treille to confront Lord Baldwin, the man he holds responsible for Sophie's abduction. With his wit and charm, Hugh infiltrates himself into Baldwin's home as a jester and subsequently leads the people of his hometown to defend their property. Mystery fans beware, for the only mystery element present here lies in the discovery of Sophie's tormentor and the knowledge of the relic that Hugh doesn't even know he carries. But his fast-paced tale, devoid of eleventh century language, proves true to Patterson's quick plot summaries and enigmatic characters.
Rating: 
Summary: OK but VIOLENT!
Review: OK is about all I can say about The Jester. I have loved James Patterson's previous novels ( I have a shelf just for him!)and being a Medievalist I was totally anticipating a wonderful book. Sadly, I was disappointed. The violence is almost too much to bare at times. The basic story behind all of the gratuitus violence, rape and murder has promise. But frankly, after wading through the atrocities mentioned I was just trying to make it to the end of the book. If you are an avid fan of James Patterson as I am, go ahead and get the hardback. If not, wait until the paperback or borrow from a friend.
Rating:
Summary: First and last Patterson novel
Review: Never having read James Patterson before, and being a devoted fan of good historical fiction, I decided to give The Jester a whirl. Although I liked the short chapters and the plot concepts were good, it severely lacked significant detail and persuasion. I was looking for something in line with Ken Follett's great historical novel, Pillars Of The Earth, and I was disappointed with The Jester. I'll take a long, leisurely, detailed fiction any day as opposed to this so called "page-turner".
Rating:
Summary: So bad I laid it down . . .
Review: I'm a Patterson fan. This one, however, was not readable. I only finished 100 pages and finally gave up. The writing was flat, the story was dull, the characters were uninteresting. Perhaps it would get better in the end, but I did not care to find out.
Rating:
Summary: Average
Review: Although I have never read any books by this particular author, the concept of the story was very interesting to me. Like several other reviews, I also felt the child slayings at the start of book were almost enough to put it down.
I was dissapoionted at the lack of time spent on the developemnt of the main chatacter's "pretext", as a Jester.
I did feel the last 100 pages were the best and most interesting.
This story is a very quick and average read.
Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: No long dissertation just hope he will get back to what he does best and this isn't it! First Patterson writing I haven't completed and enjoyed.
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