Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

It has been a couple of years since Sharon Kay Penman released a book and her latest, which recounts the story of England’s Richard I and the Third Crusade, has to be the most highly anticipated historical fiction book of the year. I love Penman’s books – especially The Sunne in Splendour and Here Be Dragons (which remains my favorite book of all time) so I was thrilled to receive a review copy.

And now, I’m about to commit the ultimate in historical fiction blasphemy - I didn’t love it.

Any book about Richard and the crusade would be expected to be heavy on the battle scenes and that is certainly the case here. In fact, the vast majority of the books 600 pages are dedicated to a never-ending litany of battles with only the date and place to distinguish them. Throughout the story, Penman provides snippets of the women in Richard’s life – his sister Joanna and his wife Berengaria – and I thought those were some of the more enjoyable parts of the novel, providing a nice break from all of the fighting and killing. But be warned, you will never look at your Thanksgiving/Christmas turkey the same way…

One of the author’s strengths is the detail and attention paid to researching the historical record and incorporating it into her story. But while her previous books take the historical information and weave it into the story, here, it is the story. And for a novel, that is not necessarily a good thing. Just as I have been disappointed by some novels not having enough historical detail, here, I felt overwhelmed by it. The book covers a time period of slightly more than three years and though it suffers from some of the same plodding that I thought plagued Time and Chance (with the Thomas Beckett storyline), Lionheart never fully recovers and lacks any real energy.

In her “Author’s Note", Penman talks about the wealth of sources that she found related to the crusade, including one that was a field diary of sorts and its use in constructing the storyline is evident. But it seems that in her zeal to tell the whole story of Richard’s crusade, Penman literally told the whole story and included every little event and skirmish she found no matter how mundane.  It's almost like having found all of this information she was reluctant to let any of it go to waste and I was disappointed that someone of Penman's caliber fell victim to it. And while some of it was interesting, the sheer volume and repetitiveness of it drags down what should have been a fast paced and exciting story and at times it read more like a history book. I think there must be a real skill in being able to write a battle heavy story and manage to keep it fresh, exciting and moving along – Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles is an example of how this can be done well.

So, given all of that, you might be surprised at my rating but the reason for that is simple: in less capable hands, this would have been a real mess and I likely wouldn’t have finished it. When it comes to actual writing, few can match Penman – the imagery puts you in the middle of every scene and her dialogue is realistic, lively and witty. For most of the novel Richard didn’t really do anything for me - I didn't find him engaging at all and it was some of the secondary characters that actually captured my attention and had me wanting to know "what happens next".  But towards the end, as Richard battles his inner demons and tries to balance his emotional dedication to the crusade with logic and reality, the man that history has exalted to a legendary status evolved into something more human. Penman also has the extraordinary ability to capture the heart and soul of a relationship – whether it is between spouses, siblings, parents and children, or kings and nobles - and I would have liked to have seen more of that side of Richard rather than so much emphasis and detail on the actual fighting.

Here Be Dragons this is not.  Not even close.



In case the FTC asks: Review copy via Library Thing’s Early Review Program