Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "templars"

Knight Assassin by James Boschert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Talon de Gilles may be young in age, but inside he is a man. Stolen when a lad, he grew up among the Assassini in Persia and was trained to be a killer. Now, he sails home to reunite with his parents, but his heart remains in Palestine. Captured by the Templars, he was forced to abandon the princess he loves and his best friend, both of whom may now be dead. There is little he can do for them, but his knowledge and skill are in great need aboard the ship, which is pursued by pirates. Aided by his uncle (a Templar knight) and Welsh mercenaries heading home, Talon implements a daring strategy to save all their lives.

The reunion with his parents is filled with joy, but too much has changed and not necessarily for the better. The land his mother inherited from her father and which her husband oversees is desired by her cousin, who is determined to take the property through fair means or foul. Nor can his parents secure their claim of ownership because they are unable to locate legal proof of the inheritance.

At present, her cousin employs mercenaries, who raid and burn outlier holdings. They also leave behind no witnesses. Her cousin has also been courting the church, but it takes Talon’s special talents to unveil the true treachery against his family. While friends from the journey home search for the needed documents, he accompanies his uncle to meet their overlord, the Count of Carcassone, where Talon makes new friends and forges powerful alliances. Talon also becomes a knight and is sent on a secret mission through territories where it’s difficult to tell friend from enemy.

Knight Assassin is the second book of Talon, and while not as exotic as the first, the politics and locales are just as skillfully depicted and unusual. The only drawback to the book pertains to layout formatting and grammatical errors, all of which could have been easily corrected with a thorough proofing before printing. Setting the story in France allows Boschert to spin an intricate web that not only brings the past to life, but also allows readers to meet a plethora of unique and intriguing characters, some of which would not be possible in any other setting. As events unfold, a complicated house of cards is assembled, but a single misstep is all that requires it to topple and it does so during a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat race that will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter in Talon’s adventures.




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Greek Fire by James Boschert

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In 1176 Talon de Gilles and his friends languish in the port of Acre at the start of the fourth book in the Talon series. Having captured a ship, they don’t know what to do with it. There’s also a dispute as to who actually owns the vessel; the Templars claim it belongs to them since Talon belongs to the order. The freed galley slaves can find no work and the city is both expensive to live in and inundated with squalor. Tempers flare and Talon and his friends find themselves in jail, where it takes Sergeant Templar Max Bauersdorf three days to track them down.

Sir Guy de Veres, a senior knight in the order, is in need of a warship with a reliable crew. Talon’s galley suits his purpose, but he insists that they leave late at night to prevent the various spies within the city from getting wind of his secret mission. The documents he carries are for the Byzantine emperor, so speed and tact are essential. Once again, Talon, who’s not particularly fond of boats, finds himself at sea on a journey into the unknown. Aside from Sir Guy and Max, the entourage includes the Byzantine emissary Alexios Kalothesos, who at first looks down upon Talon, but soon comes to admire Talon’s eagerness to master what he doesn’t know and to call him friend.

While visiting Alexios’s home, Talon and Max recognize another foreigner, the Genoese merchant whom they blame for the murder of a fellow Templar while they were in Egypt. Max wants to avenge the death of their friend, but Talon urges greater caution. Caravello Levaggi appears to be a simple merchant, but appearances are deceiving. In actuality, he’s there to meet with someone of importance in the Byzantine government. Both men wish to topple the current regime, and they plan to do so with the help of an Arab pirate fleet and a highly-prized, but carefully guarded, Byzantine weapon – Greek fire, which can even burns on water – because there is no defense against it.

The Byzantine emperor seems amenable to Sir Guy’s proposals, but he insists that Talon remain in Byzantium while Sir Guy returns to the Templars. During this interlude, Talon becomes better acquainted with the political and cultural affairs of the city, and even joins Alexios in playing a game of Tzykanion. But Talon’s skill makes him two powerful enemies: the son of the traitorous government official and the emperor’s brother. When the emperor decides to lead an offensive against the Turks, Talon is ordered to accompany the army. Alexios’s urging of caution at a dangerous point in the campaign falls on deaf ears and he, Talon, and Max discover too late that the army marches into a devastating and brutal ambush from which none of them emerge unscathed.

To aid the reader in keeping track of who’s who and where’s what, the author has included maps of the Byzantine Empire in 1165 and Constantinople, as well as a list of characters and who they are. One drawback is that the story could do with a second proofreading to correct minor errors in spelling and punctuation.

The first half of this story provides interesting details about Byzantium and lays necessary groundwork for understanding what unfolds, but doesn’t hold the reader’s interest quite as well as previous titles in the series. One notable change in this volume is Talon no longer keeps his separation from the woman he loves and his stalwart friend from his days among the assassins at the forefront of his thoughts. Aside from an early reference to them, no further mention is made until much later, whereas in previous books there were constant reminders and mentions of them. Fate once again thwarts his attempts to return to Syria, yet with his focus more on what to do with his ship than on his primary goal of finding them, the purpose in going to the Middle East gets lost in Greek Fire. Even so, readers who stick with the adventure are amply rewarded once the army leaves on campaign and Talon encounters treachery, amorous women, and other men trained as assassins whose mission it is to kill Talon, as well as some of his friends. There are also tense, riveting scenes involving the Arab pirates, Greek fire, and Talon’s well-honed skills at subterfuge and stealth.




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A Falcon Flies by James Boschert

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Trouble comes at inopportune times. Just when all is going right for Sir Talon de Gilles, old charges of witchcraft resurface and he comes under close scrutiny by the Bishop in Acre and his henchman, Brother John. But Talon must leave his affairs in his friend Max’s capable hands, for Sir Guy de Veres requires his special talents. Salah ed Din, the Sultan of Egypt, has been too quiet, and Sir Guy fears what that silence might mean for the Templars and the king of Jerusalem in 1177. Additional peril comes from the Assassins of Rashid ed Din, who have been attacking Templar castles – a fact that Talon and Sir Guy experience firsthand when an assault comes from unexpected quarters. Talon’s suspicions help the Templars to gain the upper hand and capture several prisoners, one of whom reveals that Reza and Rav’an yet live.

News of his best friend and his heart’s true love rekindle hope. For six long years, Talon has feared both died soon after the Templars took him prisoner and shipped him back to his real family in France. He yearns to find Reza and Rav’an, but trouble intervenes once more when Salah ed Din’s true intent becomes known: he plans to attack the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Talon’s knowledge of the Egyptians proves invaluable, and his participation in the Battle of Montgisard gains him the edge he needs to be given special dispensation to leave the Templars and search for Reza and Rav’an. But the way to reunion is fraught with escalating perils that threaten to thwart him time and again. Then he hears that Rav’an is a sultan’s wife, her brother’s pawn in an alliance that promises only death if her secret becomes known.

From first page to last, A Falcon Flies keeps the reader spellbound with serpentine twists more numerous than coiled rope and more breathtaking than the plunges and climbs of a roller coaster. As always, Boschert introduces an array of intriguing and unique characters, not least of which is Talon’s servant, a young thief whom he rescues from death. Maps and translations are included to orient readers as they journey from Acre to Antioch, Jerusalem, Bagdad, and Isfahan. A Falcon Flies, the Fifth Book of Talon, is heart-stopping adventure not to be missed. It is also a journey of true love, where one man is willing to risk all to reunite with his beloved.




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