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Conrad Stargard #5
Lord Conrad's Lady
The modern-day time-traveling hero, Conrad Stargard, returns to medieval times where Countess Francine, his wife, complicates Conrad's swashbuckling life
296 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 13, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 13, 2009
This series has been pretty interesting and I did enjoy the bringing of the industrial revolution to 13th century Poland. But Conrad has become whatever the male equivalent of a 'Mary Sue' character is for me and I am burned out by him.
As a woman, I find the misogyny and extremely weak female characters whose only motivation is to jump Conrad's body, just pitiful. This series would have been a 4-star for me, except that I am so annoyed with the playboy-like male fantasy aspects that I just can't add that extra star.
I had high hopes for Lady Francine as a foil/equal, but by the end of the book, Conrad's god-like sexual powers had once again eaten her brain and self-will. Yuck! ...Another cipher.
As a woman, I find the misogyny and extremely weak female characters whose only motivation is to jump Conrad's body, just pitiful. This series would have been a 4-star for me, except that I am so annoyed with the playboy-like male fantasy aspects that I just can't add that extra star.
I had high hopes for Lady Francine as a foil/equal, but by the end of the book, Conrad's god-like sexual powers had once again eaten her brain and self-will. Yuck! ...Another cipher.
December 11, 2024
This is honestly one of the worst books that I have ever read. It was so horrifically sexist and misogynistic, it was almost hard to read at times. I'm definitely not going to be continuing this series now that the main arc is done. Honestly this book was underwhelming, like after the excitement of the war in the last book, this book was literally just Conrad complaining about being almost king and then him going off and sleeping with all of the women in Poland. An unnecessary amount of focus was out on side characters that you weren't familiar with, while almost completely ignoring beloved other side characters that you actually know and care about.
January 10, 2019
In this fifth book of the Conrad Stargard series, the Mongols are finally and utterly defeated outside the gates of Three Walls. The Crossman, a group that Conrad has tangled with before, are next on his list.
This book was quite interesting in the we get to see parts of the war that were alluded to, but never delivered to the reader in the previous book, such as the tragedy of East Gate, as well as learn more about what some other people did during the war. Also, there is an interesting interlude between Conrad and his American cousin.
This book also deals with some of the political issues at the time and how Conrad chooses to deal with them. This brings out a side and skill in Lady Francine that was never shown so openly before.
One of the things that I love about this series is how Frankowski uses diaries of other characters to reveal parts of Conrad’s character.
Overall, this series has been a fun read, blatant sexism (finally acknowledged in a foreword that is meant to be tongue in cheek) aside. I continue to enjoy the books and that that it is well worth the time spent reading it.
This book was quite interesting in the we get to see parts of the war that were alluded to, but never delivered to the reader in the previous book, such as the tragedy of East Gate, as well as learn more about what some other people did during the war. Also, there is an interesting interlude between Conrad and his American cousin.
This book also deals with some of the political issues at the time and how Conrad chooses to deal with them. This brings out a side and skill in Lady Francine that was never shown so openly before.
One of the things that I love about this series is how Frankowski uses diaries of other characters to reveal parts of Conrad’s character.
Overall, this series has been a fun read, blatant sexism (finally acknowledged in a foreword that is meant to be tongue in cheek) aside. I continue to enjoy the books and that that it is well worth the time spent reading it.
October 31, 2018
This book loses all control of the series for me. In this one the time travel starts to get really screwed up and the interludes containing it don't really add to the story that well. Conrad marries Lady Francine and she tries to get him made King but he circumvents that because he is too busy being an engineer. It leads to the breakup of their relationship but he rewards himself with a few young things to keep him busy. Really lose respect for the character in this book. Read at your own risk.
September 16, 2019
Lol. Just lol.
June 27, 2020
Seems to be the end of the series and everything is wrapped up. I own two more books after this one, so I assume more is to come.
October 20, 2022
Conrad's ethics seemed to dip some here, and the inevitable but irritating introduction of more time travel soured things some.
January 3, 2024
This one through me for a loop a bit and I really didn't like Conrad's wife nor the time travel interruptions.
August 10, 2014
I'm really not sure how to shelve Lord Conrad's Lady on my virtual shelves. It might be "science-fiction" since it deals with time-travel as part of the book's meta-set-up, but except in a couple of spots, it doesn't really deal with time travel. Time travel is just back there. And even when the premise of time-travel behind (above?) this series of books is revealed late in this volume, it seems like one shard of reality is close enough to several shards of reality that "history" is either so relative that it doesn't matter or so resilient due to exponential replication that it doesn't matter. Yet, you should be aware, if you read this volume, that one spends 290 pages in an alternative medieval Poland and only about seven dealing with time travel and paradoxes.
In reality, what Leo Frankowski accomplished for a "future" citizen of Poland by setting him in a time-travel version of medieval Poland is similar to what Taylor Anderson has done with his Destroyermen series where he put WWII ships in a near-primeval environment; he has given us an excuse to wonder how one could adapt modern awareness of technology into the limitations of other cultures/circumstances. Most of the novel consists of speculation on how one could make items which require a certain level of technology without necessarily having that technology. If you can't make a metallic filament to build a light bulb, can you use something like a strand of hair? It might work, but would it have any duration? The whole series (well, both series) has (have) featured ingenious ideas and that's what will appeal to most readers. I'm not sure that the humor of turning inns into medieval Playboy clubs would hold up over the long haul.
Lord Conrad's Lady deals more with politics than the previous books did. However, since the Conrad of the previous books was not actually interested in politics, Frankowski needed a different angle. If Conrad wasn't ambitious in the political arena, his wife would be. Adding the politically astute wife to the mix and even creating marital friction as a result of her ambition gave Frankowski the opportunity to tell certain episodes from two points-of-view. That's what I most enjoyed about the book, but it was unbalanced and not altogether satisfying to me.
I enjoyed some lines and insights from the book, though. Once offered a throne, Conrad had suggested "...that it looked very stiff and uncomfortable and that he had a fine, soft leather chair in his office that tilted back and suited him. When I suggested the crown, he said that a crown was nothing but a hat that let the rain in." (p. 93) [Yes, I know he's riffng off a real comment.] I also liked: "The idea that war encourages technology is a myth. War encourages war production and very little else." (p. 99) Frankowski even used the same paraphrase about work space that I've used, "Building space is consumed in direct proportion to its availability, regardless of what, if anything, has to be done there." (p. 239)
Of course, I also resonated in the space-time discussion with these two lines. "What I'm trying to tell you is that cultures all develop blind spots, things that they don't even think about because they know the truth about them." (p. 275) "One of the philosophical stupidities of the twentieth century was the confusion of what we think we know with what actually is, ..." (p. 277).
The battle scenes were extremely well-depicted and the political scenes had a fascinating verisimilitude. For my taste, Frankowski went a little over the top with regard to his depiction of sexual mores for his protagonist, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
In reality, what Leo Frankowski accomplished for a "future" citizen of Poland by setting him in a time-travel version of medieval Poland is similar to what Taylor Anderson has done with his Destroyermen series where he put WWII ships in a near-primeval environment; he has given us an excuse to wonder how one could adapt modern awareness of technology into the limitations of other cultures/circumstances. Most of the novel consists of speculation on how one could make items which require a certain level of technology without necessarily having that technology. If you can't make a metallic filament to build a light bulb, can you use something like a strand of hair? It might work, but would it have any duration? The whole series (well, both series) has (have) featured ingenious ideas and that's what will appeal to most readers. I'm not sure that the humor of turning inns into medieval Playboy clubs would hold up over the long haul.
Lord Conrad's Lady deals more with politics than the previous books did. However, since the Conrad of the previous books was not actually interested in politics, Frankowski needed a different angle. If Conrad wasn't ambitious in the political arena, his wife would be. Adding the politically astute wife to the mix and even creating marital friction as a result of her ambition gave Frankowski the opportunity to tell certain episodes from two points-of-view. That's what I most enjoyed about the book, but it was unbalanced and not altogether satisfying to me.
I enjoyed some lines and insights from the book, though. Once offered a throne, Conrad had suggested "...that it looked very stiff and uncomfortable and that he had a fine, soft leather chair in his office that tilted back and suited him. When I suggested the crown, he said that a crown was nothing but a hat that let the rain in." (p. 93) [Yes, I know he's riffng off a real comment.] I also liked: "The idea that war encourages technology is a myth. War encourages war production and very little else." (p. 99) Frankowski even used the same paraphrase about work space that I've used, "Building space is consumed in direct proportion to its availability, regardless of what, if anything, has to be done there." (p. 239)
Of course, I also resonated in the space-time discussion with these two lines. "What I'm trying to tell you is that cultures all develop blind spots, things that they don't even think about because they know the truth about them." (p. 275) "One of the philosophical stupidities of the twentieth century was the confusion of what we think we know with what actually is, ..." (p. 277).
The battle scenes were extremely well-depicted and the political scenes had a fascinating verisimilitude. For my taste, Frankowski went a little over the top with regard to his depiction of sexual mores for his protagonist, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
October 2, 2021
This final book in the Cross Time Engineer series has pretty much all the good and bad points as its predecessors. Of some interest in that it ties up some of the loose ends from the previous books.
June 25, 2012
To me, this book is where the series started to go downhill. While the book was overall enjoyable, it starts to feel like the author has stopped caring as much about the characters and the setting. Conrad starts to act less like the character we knew in the previous books. Maybe that was intentional, though, and is meant to show how power corrupts. It feels less like an intentional change, though, than just the author not caring as much about internal consistency...or maybe it's just a reflection of the changes in the author's life. Whatever the case, from this book on, the characters become less and less likeable and realistic. It's still fun to read, overall, but with the original plot line resolved, the most interesting parts of the book aren't the characters any more, but the changes in the world. The timeline is so changed that where it goes next is fascinating in itself.
October 1, 2012
I have to say that this is my favorite time travelling series, but this one was the weakest one, it really trailed off.
I felt like after the war with the mongols was won, Leo had a panic moment and realized he wanted to have a few more fight scenes and finally kill the Tuetonic knights.
All well and good if that was the focus, but it trails off into long segments about law, and guilt, and even though some of Conrad's musings are interesting, overall it takes away from the direction of the book.
When I read these the first time I don't think the age differences between Conrad and his ladies bothered me (but I was like 16). Now as an adult with kids I do find it to be a bit creepy.
If you haven't read the series yet, just stop at book 5 unless you really love Conrad, its kinder that way.
I felt like after the war with the mongols was won, Leo had a panic moment and realized he wanted to have a few more fight scenes and finally kill the Tuetonic knights.
All well and good if that was the focus, but it trails off into long segments about law, and guilt, and even though some of Conrad's musings are interesting, overall it takes away from the direction of the book.
When I read these the first time I don't think the age differences between Conrad and his ladies bothered me (but I was like 16). Now as an adult with kids I do find it to be a bit creepy.
If you haven't read the series yet, just stop at book 5 unless you really love Conrad, its kinder that way.
June 29, 2008
Book 5 seems superfluous, as the first four books take you through the war with the Mongols, which had been the overarching plotline throughout. With that done, what's left to do except engage in politics and get more factories built? And that's just what they do. But if you've hung in there this long, you're the type who a)likes this whole future history business, and/or b) is craving a long-overdue pat on the back for Conrad, the unwitting time-traveler.
Keeeeep reading ...
Keeeeep reading ...
October 5, 2014
I love books that take a character and move him out of his time and place such as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, or The Chronicles of Narnia. This is one of my favorites. I love the world building. I could do without all the sex with nubile young women, but I'm not offended by it.
Wrap up from the war with the mongols. It is not necessary to complete the series, but it is still a good fun read.
Wrap up from the war with the mongols. It is not necessary to complete the series, but it is still a good fun read.
February 18, 2021
One of my favorite books for over 30 years
I’ve been reading this series since the first book was published in 1985. I reread the entire series at least once a year. My only regret is that it’s not on Audible.
I’ve been reading this series since the first book was published in 1985. I reread the entire series at least once a year. My only regret is that it’s not on Audible.
October 24, 2008
My favorite time travel books/series ever.
January 18, 2012
he seemed to set it up for more, but evidently this is the last book in this series
December 31, 2021
Still my least fav of the series.
June 16, 2020
Not as good as the first four but still OK
March 14, 2016
Incredibly good series. The baisc man-out-of-time story line but very involved. Excellent characters and story. Highly recommended.
March 4, 2016
By far the weakest in the series, maybe there's simply not enough substance in Conrad or frankowski to justify so many instalments
May 21, 2016
I enjoyed the whole series
It is a great read one I would read again. It does cause one to think about ones way of living.
It is a great read one I would read again. It does cause one to think about ones way of living.
September 1, 2016
Behind a good man is a more ambitious woman!
January 3, 2021
It seems like the last book ended too soon because the first third of this one is the end of the last.
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September 26, 201214
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews