Swords and Scimitars

The Royal Pavilions #1

by Linda Lee Chaikin

Tancred Redwan, a Norman warrior and scholar, and Helena of the Nobility, the beautiful Daughter of the Purple Belt, are brought together and caught in a web of intrigue during the First Crusade

Genres: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Christian, Romance, Fiction, Historical, Middle East

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Linda Chaikin is a Christian fiction author with a focus on historical fiction. She sometimes publishes using the name L.L. Chaikin.

Linda was the youngest of 10 children and her father died shortly after she was born. She wrote her first full-length novel with pen and paper at the age of 14 - this novel was later rewritten as Wednesday's Child, part of the Day to Remember series.

She met her husband, Steve, in a Bible study, and they were married 6 months later. They both went to Multnomah School for the Bible, now known as Multnomah Bible College and Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Suzannah Rowntree · Rating 2 out of 5]

THE BACK COVER PROMISED THE KIND OF SWEEPING HISTORICAL ROMANCE SHE LOVED, BUT THE CONTENTS DELIVERED LESS THAN EXCELLENCE.

Ahem. Got to love those cheesy Bethany House cover blurbs.

So, I decided to read this for two reasons. One is that I once somewhere acquired a wish to try out some Linda Chaikin. The other is that I am studying the Crusades and hey sure why not let's read a fun historical novel set during that period.

Overall I would not recommend this book. The history is flattened like a pancake, the plot and characterisation are far from believable, and words are misused all over the place (how does one have an "artistic face"? ).

The history is all minced up. For example:

- Lots of things are called by anachronistic modern names. The Eastern Romans are called Byzantines. Hired killers are called Assassins, which is weird because this was the point in history at which western Europeans discovered the historical Assassin sect. Armed pilgrims are called crusaders.

- Did you know that all medieval peasants were superstitious idiots who went to the Holy Land not to liberate it from the Saracens but because they had been promised gold and land? That all Byzantines were cowardly, devious, and effete schemers and liars? That all medieval Jews were saintly and learned? Me either. Not to say there's no truth in any of these things, but I don't believe Anna Comnena either when she says that all Kelts were so greedy they would sell their own mothers for a song. I certainly won't believe Linda Chaikin's equally sweeping generalisations. As for going on Crusade to get rich, that idea has been thoroughly discredited by more recent historians.

- Related, true, Alexius Comnenus was an acquired taste and a supremely agile diplomat, but you do not trash talk him like this. The man was supremely competent, a brilliant general, the veteran of a squillion battles (beginning at age 14). He was also not without great personal piety - if you believe his admittedly biased daughter.

- "I serve no master", says the hero, a knight from a medieval feudalistic society in which everyone was linked by overlapping rights and responsibilities.

So why did I stick with this rather painful book? I wanted to know what Chaikin would say about the Crusades. This was very useful and interesting. As a supercessionist myself, I was surprised by her focus on the Jews and her insistence that true Biblical faith demanded that the Holy Land belong neither to Muslims nor Christians but to the Jews. Don't get me wrong, they've got it now and I wish them all joy of it, but I was amazed that Chaikin would insist that the reason the Crusades were a farce was because the land belonged to the Jews anyway.

In so saying Chaikin completely misses the actual historical belief among the crusaders that the Holy Land belonged not to them nor to Muslims nor to Jews but to CHRIST. That is a belief I can share in so far as that goes, but the medievals put their own twist on things: they believed that he died siezed of the land. That it was his patrimony and that they as faithful liege warriors of Christ had the responsibility to defend it against his enemies. Of course it was their responsibility and not the Jews', for the Jews had rejected Christ and the Christians, not the Jews, were his followers.

So yes, there was an actual legitimate theological underpinning to the aim of the Crusaders, which Chaikin either ignores or is ignorant of.

Nevertheless, while historically ill-informed, I thought this book contained some really great and thought-provoking commentary on the First Crusade. Was it really God's will for those warriors to go on Crusade? Was it not arrogant and deluded of them to claim God's will for their blood-soaked campaign?

Or, given that the Crusades actually succeeded, however precariously, for 200 years, were they so far out in claiming the will of God?

That's the question that's really going to do my head in.

[Johnny Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sword and Scimitars is a book that has been read multiple times and held in the collection for years. The historical setting seems well enough researched that it drove interest to study the People's Crusade. The storytelling is compelling and the characters just believable enough. Though Tancred Redwan is a bit too much white knight superhero. A little action. A little romance. And an okay amount of political intrigue. When you throw in the dichotomy of good Muslims and bad Christians in a christian book, one that also hints at the unfair and unfavorable treatment of Jews, one gets a good example of how religion applied to politics and likewise politics applied to religion, leads to neither one being appropriately applied to the people.

[Telisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a series in my top of Linda Chaikin. She dedicates most of this book explaining the history and events along the crusade path - which she does rather well but it leaves the characters shunted off to the side a bit.

My favorite part is at the very end of the book
All religions except Christianity are man's efforts to make peace with God. But Christianity is God's work to reach man.
Based off of Romans chapter 4

[Isaiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the “Heart of India” trilogy by Linda Chaikin I had to keep reading her books! I am a huge sucker for the medieval time period so I decided to start the “Royal Pavilions” trilogy. For now I’m going to give this book 3 stars. I don’t think much happened in this book. I really like the main characters and the setting. I have a feeling this is going to end up like the India trilogy, the first book acts more like a setup, books 2 and 3 the story takes off. We shall see!!

[Jennie Webb]

Really good historical fiction!

I really like ancient and medieval history, so this book is right up my alley, so to speak! It does have a good bit of historical description, but I really like it. To me, it was easy to follow, with likeable characters and a good plot.

[ScriptLit-You Are What You Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

#throwbackthursday

Throw Back Thursday

Book: Swords and Scimitars (Book 1 of the Royal Pavilion Trilogy)
Author: Linda Chaikin

I didn’t realize I was doing it, but I guess I’ll stick with the theme of the week for Throw Back Thursday!

This week for Book Rec Monday, the challenge category was # 16 Medieval Setting, so for throw back Thursday, I’ll recommend my favorite book that fits this category.

This was the first CF book I’d ever read with a lead male protagonists, as well as someone who struggled to find what he really believed in between Christianity and Islam. Tancred’s story touched me, and it all happened with the Crusades as a back drop!

I absolutely adored this trilogy by my favorite author. Highly recommended!

https://m.facebook.com/groups/scriptl...

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoying the story so far... Entertaining well developed characters, great pace, predictable in some parts, but also some interesting twists and turns. My only complaint (and this is probably really my fault) is that I didn't realize it was the first of a series, so I got to the end in the middle of the story and won't have access to the next book for quite a while. Kind of a bummer...

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I read this and the second book a long time ago, and I remember liking them a lot. (I read them twice.) I never knew there was a third book, so now I'll have to see if I can find all three of them!

[Claudette]

Did not finish.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novella length story.