The Black Rood

The Celtic Crusades #2

by Stephen R. Lawhead

Alt Cover ASIN: B000FCKOD6

In a time of legends and heroes, blood and mystery, one man will carry on his family’s destiny as he sets upon a dangerous and glorious quest.

The Great Crusade is long over, or so Duncan, son of Murdo, believes until a long-lost uncle appears from the East bearing tales of immense treasure. Though the Iron Lance had been won for the emperor, an even holier relic has been found: the Black Rood—the prayer-worn, blood-stained remnant of the True Cross—now endangered by the greedy ambitions of ruthless crusader barons bent on carving kingdoms from the desert sands of the Middle East.

When Duncan’s life is shattered by tragedy, he sets sail on his own pilgrimage to Jerusalem, following in the footsteps of his father. But the gates to the Holy Land are guarded by the warrior priests known as the Knights Templar. These fearsome guardians hold the key to more than just Duncan’s fate—the very destiny of the West is in their hands.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Historical, Christian, Adventure, Christian Fiction

624 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 16, 2000

About the author

Stephen R. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of mythic history and imaginative fiction. His works include Byzantium, Patrick, and the series The Pendragon Cycle, The Celtic Crusades, and The Song of Albion.

Also see his fanpage at Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/stephenlawhead...

Stephen was born in 1950, in Nebraska in the USA. Most of his early life was spent in America where he earned a university degree in Fine Arts and attended theological college for two years. His first professional writing was done at Campus Life magazine in Chicago, where he was an editor and staff writer. During his five years at Campus Life he wrote hundreds of articles and several non-fiction books.

After a brief foray into the music business—as president of his own record company—he began full-time freelance writing in 1981. He moved to England in order to research Celtic legend and history. His first novel, In the Hall of the Dragon King, became the first in a series of three books (The Dragon King Trilogy) and was followed by the two-volume Empyrion saga, Dream Thief and then the Pendragon Cycle, now in five volumes: Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon, and Grail. This was followed by the award-winning Song of Albion series which consists of The Paradise War, The Silver Hand, and The Endless Knot.

He has written nine children's books, many of them originally offered to his two sons, Drake and Ross. He is married to Alice Slaikeu Lawhead, also a writer, with whom he has collaborated on some books and articles. They make their home in Oxford, England.

Stephen's non-fiction, fiction and children's titles have been published in twenty-one foreign languages. All of his novels have remained continuously in print in the United States and Britain since they were first published. He has won numereous industry awards for his novels and children's books, and in 2003 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Nebraska.

also write under the name Steve Lawhead

Reviews

[Иван Величков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Малко по-скучновата от първата книга, но това си е правило за повечето поредици, независимо от жанра.
Историята започва тридесет години след първата книга (поне при главната сюжетна линия) и обхваща събитията около хашешинския преврат в Дамаск, опитът на Боемунд Втори да превземе Армения (завършил с нездравословно разделечаване на главата и тялото му) и бунтовете в Кайро.
Сюжетните линии отново са три, като авторът ги е наредил като история, в история в история.
1.Като начало имаме отново нашето момче в началото на девветнадесети век, вече дръпнал доста нагоре в тайното общество. Той получава задача да научи гръцки, за да може да прочете един древен ръкопис, който скоро ще изчезне от малък манастир в Кипър.
Отново са само четири глави и отново някак насилени. Останах с впечатлението, че Лоухед няма представа какво точно да прави с този герой.
2. Ръкописът се пише от сина на Мундо - Дънкан, който е в плен (все още неясно как) на Халифа на Кайро. Докато чака присъдата си пише писма до невръстната си дъщеря, които бавно придобиват формата на книга - тази книга.
3. Писмата описват историята на Дънкан, който тръгва по стъпките на баща си към светите земи. След завръщането на чичо му от Антиохия, Дънкан научава историята за Черното разпятие - истинския свети кръст, който кръстоносците са изровили в Йерусалим. Той дава почти детински обет да го сложи до Копието на съдбата, което от предишната книга вече е в Шотландия. Поема на въпросното поклонение, придружен от племеника на един от монасите от първата книга.
По леко скучноватия, но изпълнен с препятствия преход, се запознава със сина на Арменски принц, самият Боемунд Втори, симпатично семейство копти, селджукски халиф, както и халифа на Кайро.
Лутанята на Дънкан, сякаш направлявани от провидението, го приближават все повече до светата реликва, без той да си дава много зор, макар пътят му да е изпълнен с доста неудобства, някой почти смъртоносни. А един по-голям заговор между хашешини и тамплиери е на пър да го даде курбан за сметка на по-висша цел.

Леееко в повече ми дойде тук христианската пропаганда, макар авторът, служейки си добре с тропите на фентъзи жанра, да не я прави прекалено натрапчива през повечето време. Ама имаше един момент в който нашето момче получи видение на самите страсти христови, според мен напълно излишен.
Почти и шибнах две звезди, но дойде един друг момент, когато търсейки Кръста в халивската съкровищница, му се наложи да си свети като запали отрязания и маринован кестен на Боемунд Антиохийски - красота. :)

[Noël · Rating 5 out of 5]

The middle book of a fantastic trilogy, The Black Rood is at once a grand adventure and beautiful tale of miracles interwoven with thrilling historic events.

[Josiah DeGraaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite book in the series. While the previous book felt a bit dull and slow at times, this book sets an excellent pace with high stakes from the beginning. Seeing the MC of the previous book, and how the events of twenty years ago that were depicted in the first book had changed him was also fascinating. Excellent read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

4-4.5 Stars. (Very Good)

[Charis Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first in the series, but still enjoyed it.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new generation goes on pilgrimage

Murdo's son, Duncan, has decided he wants to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and refuses to heed his father's counsel not to go because only devils seem to live in the Holy Land. It started for him when his uncle, Torf-Einar, is brought to Caithness to die and Duncan, while spelling his wife and the other women some of the burden of care, listens to his tales, including that the Cross of Christ (the Black Rood) has been found. Murdo has made a safe haven for the Cele De, as he promised. Padraig, one of the Cele De, goes with Duncan on his journey, which he takes with the family boatman who has obtained a map from Murdo's Cele De friend Emlyn. Sorn, the boatman, ends up taking them to Normandy rather than trying to get a larger ship in Inverness. Then, upon meetong an Armenian nobleman who is recovering from am illness that killed the rest of his party and who is trying to get home, tells them there is a way, via rivers and portage, to get to Marseilles. Sorn ends up having to turn around at Marseilles because he is older and not likely to survive the rigors of pilgrimage. On the way, they're robbed, as are some poor farmers, during portage, and have to haul the boat and wagon themselves, but they find the thieves' lair and manage to restore most things that were lost. They manage to get passage on a Templar ship because they stop in Arles and decide to see if Murdo's blacksmith friend is still there. He pays them to deliver some fancy knives that weren't ready before the Templars sailed, and this gets them on the ship without having to join up. Once they arrive, updated on the whereabouts of the people Murdo knew, the Templar advises them twice, once on the futility of asking the new head of a kingdom not to make war on the Armenian Christians, and when that doesn't work out, how to get help to get to the Armenians faster. A lot of complicated issues have to be surmounted but they do get to the Armenian kimgdom, but their solution appalls Duncan, so he leaves early. His companions, unable to get him to wait just one day, accompany him, but they come upon a battle and have to flee. Duncan's horse stumbles and breaks its back in the fall and Duncan is taken prisoner as a Crusader, even though he is not. He gets up close and personal with the shifting alliances in the Holy Land amd gets introduced to the Fedayeen, hashish smoking Muslims who believe only they have a pure faith and who use poison tipped weapons. During Duncan's captivity he manages to discover and keep track of the Black Rood, which he is hoping to reappropriate and take home. During a riot following the caliph's son killing his father and another caliph, they discover that their supposedly friendly, helpful Templar, friend of the man who helped them get to the Armenian kingdom, is in league with the Fedayeen, but the man refuses to believe them and pays for it with his life. His daughter has accompanied them and the widowed Duncan starts to fall for her. The Fedayeen attack and kill the old man, Duncan's jailer (a secret Christian), and their housekeeper. Duncan takes a long time to recover from the poison from the cut received battling the Fedayeen. Treachery also ends up killing the Armenians anyway. During his captivity with the Caliphs, Duncan was allowed to write an account of his travels to be sent to his homeland after his execution, which never comes. There are monks who are able to save the papyrus enough to transcribe it to parchment, and as he recovers they are able to ask him for clarification where the writing is too smeared by the water to read.
Like the first book, it starts in every book of the individiual "books" in the novel, with a narrator, this time narrating from 1901. It is at the end where the tie in is delineated.
Very action packed. I read it straight through! Now, onto the last book.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the first book in the trilogy, this takes a while to get going. Set many years after the first, Murdo's son, Duncan, is enjoying his life in Scotland with his wife and child. But when his wife and unborn son die, and he meets his dying Uncle, his mind becomes set on travelling to the Holy Land and rescuing the Black Rood - a piece of the cross where Jesus died.

Like the first book, Duncan's pilgrimage is very much a series of accidents and events that lead him to the place where he needs to be - he never actively looks for the cross and instead almost literally stumbles across it while trying to survive as a prisoner of the Arabs. Maybe you could argue that is God's will that pushes him from one thing to another, but I ended up not really feeling much for him one way or the other - it's only in the last few chapters that he truly does something and even then, you have to wonder why the author choose that final show down in Cyprus.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the read, but at times thought the book was a bit long-winded and wanted Duncan to DO something about his predicaments, rather than just go along with what is happening. I'm not sire I liked the change to first person narrative, although that fitted neatly with the 'modern' story line happening outside the main plot. Again, hard to decide whether this is primarily a historic novel or supernatural/fantasy one, as the latter plot devices are so subtle that you'd blink and miss them.

But I'm looking forward to reading the next one to see what else this family can add to their hidden treasures!

[Godly Gadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of the same... (3 stars)

Lawhead’s “Celtic Crusades” continue with the next generation, Duncan, son of Murdo (familiar to readers of Vol. 1 in the series, “The Iron Lance”). One again the action revolves around a sacred relic, this time the black rood, a remnant of Christ’s true cross, which Duncan aspires to obtain in a crusade to the Holy Land. The narrative of Duncan’s vision of Christ’s death in connection with this relic is one of the central passages of the book (p334-347). In his quest, Duncan is accompanied by the Cele De priest Padraig and Prince Roupen of Armenia, and must deal with danger at the hands of the Moslems (Seljuq Turks) and the more mysterious intrigues of the Templar Knights.

As in the first novel of the series, the story is framed by the memoirs of Gordon Murray, a member of a nineteenth century secret society, but Murray’s connection to the plot is still enshrouded in mystery and will only become clear in the final volume of the series.

There’s no question that the novel is rich in historical detail and adventure, and there are some solid Christian themes. Typical are sentences like: “the Swift Sure Hand does bend all things to the good of those who love him.” Despite this, “The Black Rood” lacks the gripping suspense of Lawhead’s historical epic “Byzantium”, and the passion and imagination of his forays into fantasy. I look forward to when Lawhead leaves the realm of historical fiction and returns to fantasy.

[James]

The Celtic Crusades is an epic trilogy of a Scottish noble family fighting for its existence and its faith during the age of the Crusades. The series traces five generations of knights and noblemen over a span of almost 500 hundred years, during the crucial period when military and sacred history melded. Set against a backdrop of the declining Holy Roman Empire and its ruinous wars with the Saracen East, this series is full of exciting drama. Each of the three books centers on one of three periods of Crusades history as well as one significant relic: The Iron Lance features the spear that pierced Christ's side; The Black Rood, the cross itself; and The Mystic Rose, the grail. The Black Rood begins with Murdo, the courageous warrior from the first novel, as a grandfather and wealthy landowner in Scotland. When his brother returns home from the Holy Land, Murdo and his family enter into an exciting search for the Black Rood, a piece of the very cross upon which Christ died.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der zweite Teil der Trilogie von Stephen Lawhead ( Der Gast des Kalifen) führt den Sohn der Hauptfigur Murdo aus dem ersten Teil ebenso auf den Weg ins heilige Land wie einst seinen Vater. Er will den schwarzen Stamm, einen Teil des Kreuzes an dem Jesus starb, als Reliquie retten. Sein Weg führt ihn dabei von Schottland über Frankreich nach Zypern und ins heilige Land und schließlich in die Gefangenschaft des Kalifen von Kairo. Anders als im ersten Band wird die Geschichte zum größten Teil aus der Perspektive eines Ich-Erzählers (Duncan) erzählt und zwar als Brief den er an seine Tochter verfasst. Und man kommt auch ein Stück in der Rahmenhandlung, die 1901 spielt, dem Rätsel auf die Spur, was sie mit der eigentlichen Geschichte zu tun hat. Ich fand das Buch auf jeden Fall gut. Man kann sich langsam schon denken wer die Tochter im dritten Teil (Die Tochter des Pilgers) sein könnte.

[Toby Brennen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Iron Lance" chronicals the trials and tribulations of Murdo during The Great Crusade. Horrible experiences Duncan's father rarely spoke about. After Murdo's brother returns home to die, Duncan learns more of his father's past, and when his wife dies, he decides to quest 'to the East' himself. "The Black Rood" is the heart wrenching tale of destiny, recording Duncan's quest to recover one of the most sacred relics that had been lost - the remains of the Cross of Christ.
In Lawheads typical style, history is remelded into a gripping tale of faithful friends, surprising deciet, and eventual triumph but not without substantial suffering. [4/5]

[Ashleigh Motbey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Although I enjoy the topic this series are about as I love reading about history, I didn't find this one to be all that engaging. I felt aspects of it dragged on too much, and the most enjoyable parts for me were the parts about Gordon, rather than Duncan. I am still looking forward to reading the third installment, and I adore Lawhead, but I am unfortunately not enjoying this trilogy as much as I'd like to.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though not as captivating as the first book in the series, The Black Rood builds slowly to a satisfying ending that leaves enough questions for the third and final novel in The Celtic Crusades trilogy.
As always, Lawhead does an excellent job of drawing the reader into the world of the crusades, and delivers an intriguing quest of adventure, love, betrayal and discovery.
A great read for anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review of this books is largely in comparison to the previous book in this series, The Iron Lance.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read with good adventure and fun characters. However, it lacked a little bit of the magic and grit that we had in The Iron Lance.

I liked that it was in the first person perspective, so we weren’t pulled away from the main plot for less interesting stories. But that’s probably all that was better in The Black Rood compared to The Iron Lance.

It lacked a little sense of an origin story, Duncan starts this story as a fully formed adult with unwavering convictions and goals. Murdo had a lot more development and growing to do over the course of the previous novel, which made him a lot more interesting and endearing.

There was also a lot less decisive action in this book, often Duncan ends up in the right place at the right time for things to happen.

[Byron Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying this Trilogy after the first two books. I can see where some people might think that the pacing is slow but I think that the slower pace serves to lend gravity to certain moments. And when those moments happen, in both the Black Rood and the Iron Lance, I had to sit the book down for a little bit and process before continuing.

[Occhi Aperti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lawhead weaves another good story about the Crusades, the Templars, and one man's struggle to save a holy relic. Duncan chooses to leave his home in the Caithness and travel to the holy land in search of the True Cross. He has no idea about what and whom he will encounter and the dangers and intrigues that await him.

[Marcia Chocinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt this book was much better written than the first in the series. I enjoyed it more and the story was much more satisfying. I will take a break before reading the last in the series, as I have read the two back to back.

[Matthew Hickmott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the 1st! Second is even better.

[Ted P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as the 1st book (The Iron Lance). Dragged until about 2/3 of the way thru and even then it was the last 40 pages before the real action.

[Martin Keast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful story. Not sure about the Christian faith expressed, more traditional than biblical, but an interesting yarn all the same.

[John Sturges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lawhead does historical fiction well.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Promising beginning, interesting middle, startlingly unsatisfying ending.

[Megan]

DNS 5/8/23 no longer interested

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm realizing even though I am part Irish I know little about Celtics

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Celtic Crusades. I thought it was well-written and moves at a good pace; it introduces the reader to other elements living in the Holy Land during the time of the Crusades [both Christian and non-Christian]. It follows the pilgrimage of Murdo's only son Duncan after the family discovers the True Cross has been discovered and then desecrated by the Crusaders in their mad bid to gain complete control of the Holy Land. Most of the novel is told in first-person in the form of Duncan writing down his experiences in a journal to his sole child and heir, his daughter Kait.

Duncan's uncle [and only surviving brother of Murdo] arrives in Caithness, having barely survived his adventures in the Holy Land. He has come home to die; his arrival shocks everybody. It especially shocks Murdo, who believed his brothers to both be long dead by this point. Torf tells of how the One True Cross was discovered and is believed to have helped the Crusaders win an important battle. As a result, the cross is separated into four pieces because no Crusader army is willing to march without this new talisman to lead them. Unfortunately for the Crusaders, it does not always work. Two pieces have been either destroyed or captured by the Muslims; one [I believe] is in control of the Emperor, and the final piece is in Bohemond's control. Duncan believes he has been called on a Holy Mission by God to rescue one of the surviving pieces of the One True Cross and bring it to a safe harbor where it cannot be misused by selfish men with small, petty plans contrary to God's will. He encounters various troubles during his journey as he is forced to take a different path than that taken by his father; he ends up playing delivery boy by delivering some valuable knives to a group of Templars who will be traveling to the Holy Land. During his traveling, he encounters an Armenian prince whom he befriends and offers to help take home to Armenia. Upon reaching the Holy Land, Padraig and Duncan attempt to convince Prince Bohemond it is foolish to attack Antioch as Antioch is held by fellow Christians [who happen to be Armenian]. Bohemond disagrees, and the group is forced to flee for their lives. They flee to Cyprus and encounter some Coptic Christians who offer to help them reach Antioch. The Armenian Prince is gratified to have been returned home; Duncan and Company are well-paid for their efforts. However, an enormous Muslim army has attacked Bohemond and his men, slaughtering the Crusaders and ensuring the balance of power has now been tipped to the Muslim's favor. Duncan is captured trying to flee the Antioch; he then moves from caliph to caliph during a few prisoner exchanges and ends up in Egypt as a prisoner. The Caliph of Egypt's son is causing much trouble, which ends up causing several riots that allow Duncan to escape with the help of another Coptic Christian. He finds Padraig, Sydoni, and her father and the group flees back to Cyprus. Duncan wishes to leave for home right away, but the Faidin attack his host's house and kill several people. He ends up having to stay in Cyprus for several months recovering from being poisoned, but eventually he returns home.

This book is only broken up into three sections [as opposed to the first novel's four sections]. Each section begins with a 'future story' where the future descendant is discussing how he and his wife are sent to Greece after he learns Greek in order to translate an ancient document on the Island of Cyprus. He is delighted to learn more about his ancestry through translating Duncan's journal.

There is not much to say. I felt it moved at the right pace. It was neither too long nor too short. It was interesting to read it in the journal format - it did not bother me near as much as it has other reviewers. I especially liked how the book showed other cultures and how they went about their daily routine in the Holy Land region. He did a great job in how he went about it. I also liked how he included Christians [as well as non-Christians] from other races and created fairly believable characters while doing so. It was nicely done and kept the book from getting stale.

I disliked the lack of development between Sydoni and Duncan. It is great that they fell in love and that they are to be married, but the author really does not do a very good job of describing their 'courtship' throughout the course of the book. I know it would have made the book seem quite a bit longer if he had written more about the courtship, but still. It would have been nice to see some kind of development other than Duncan suddenly realizing how much he loves this woman. Especially considering how little she is actually in the book.

Overall, a good book and I enjoyed reading it.

[Lance · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has been a thoroughly satisfying sequel to "The Iron Lance". In the tradition of the best fantasy sequels, Lawhead builds on the fascinating world of the Middle East during the 12th century crusades, expertly continuing to recount the lineage of the avaricious characters met in the first books, including both Bohemond II and Baldwin II, whilst increasing the cultural diversity of the setting by introducing minority Christian sects such as the Copts and Armentians.
Duncan, son of Murdo, vows to travel to the Holy Land to rescue the True Cross after his wife dies. He begins his journey with a succinct venture through mid-Medeival France which projects a vivid atmosphere of 12th century Europe, scenes pettiness and poverty on a small scale which the author will meaningfully contrast later in the book with the contests on an international scale occurring in the Middle East. On this journey, Duncan becomes the journey companion of an Armenian lord who has survived a plague. This new character confides the discrimination which European Christians display towards the ancient Christian race of Armenia, to the point of regarding them worse than heathens. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Armenian culture, and it is a great credit to the author that this book encouraged me to head more broadly about Armenian and its history online. Duncan attempts to reason with a charismatic teen-tyrant Bohemond II (think Joffrey Barathean, but with the power to cause some serious damage). On reaching Anazarbus with a warning that the crusaders are marching to invade, the Armenians strike a deal with the Islamic Seljuq warlords. Duncan ends up separated from his friends and the courtesy and honour of the Muslim Caliphs, as well as the brutality of the scheming nomadic Arabs is revealed through Duncan's captivity. I appreciated the depiction of greedy villainous Christians alongside the pious ones, and the competence of the native Muslims. However, I was disappointed when the single example of a compassionate Islamic character turned out to be a Christian in disguise. It would have helped with the diversity of this contentious setting to have at least one tolerant and kind Muslim.
The novel culminates, for me, with Duncan running around the Caliph of Cairo's abandoned treasure house carrying a flaming embalmed head (as in, the severed head is on fire), whilst the knights of the Temple of Solomon and a bunch of high Arabic assassins break in through a doorway screaming for blood and after the holy relic ... The tension builds brilliantly throughout the novel.
Lawhead has almost entirely banished the faults I found with his previous book. For example, I found the pacing must better judged and the narrative was laced with suspense. Also, the obvious metaphors were largely banished from "The Black Rood", which may have been a result of the narrative taking the form of Duncan's first person narrative rather than Gordon's third person recording. Which brings me to one of the strangest aspects of this novel - the shift to first person narrative. This is fairly jarring and disconcerting for the second book in a series to take on such a different form to the first. Also, as the letter is intended for Duncan's infant daughter, there were several places where he gave an inappropriate detail about how attracted he was to certain women, and he wavered between sparing the gory details for his daughter's sake and spilling every rotting, putrescent detail. Overall, I found the choice of narrative voice at times inconsistent.
I really wanted to give this book 4 stars. By the end I was incredibly excited and immersed in the world. However, there was a seriously mismanaged central theme here. Duncan initially embarks on his quest as a result of a failed suicide attempt after his wife's death. I understand that the Christian community at that time were condemnatory of suicide, however, Duncan shows no sympathy for himself in his own thoughts, and seems able to cast off his mental illness during his pilgrimage. I worry that the suicide attempt was included more as a motivational plot-point than a serious contemplation of mental illness. Likewise, it is claimed that Dodu the haulier suffers from mental retardation, yet this is largely ignored other than the blunt statement. There is also the case of Prince Roupen whose extreme physical frailty due to recovering from the plague is unhelpfully conflated with an extravagance and effeminacy of behaviour. Overall, I think the author should have avoided mental health altogether, or given serious thought to balanced portrayals of these issues through his characters.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

The Black Rood is the second book in The Celtic Crusades Series by Stephen R. Lawhead.
This is an engrossing historical adventure with plenty of action and intriguing developments that will keep you flipping the pages to find out how everything plays out in the end.
Well worth the read.
My full review is still to come.

[Dion · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

The pacing, structure, and plot have all improved from the first book in this series. This makes for much more interesting, compelling reading.

It’s really historical fiction, not fantasy, with a dash of “what if”.

[Jack Vasen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book of a series. It tells a complete story, while building on the background of the first book.

This book is extremely slow moving and depressing through most of it. It is a first person history written in captivity with a death sentence looming. A good part of that describes the captivity in detail.

I did not think there was enough character development, and the romance was strictly a token one with little effort at relationship building.

This book does not condemn either of the two major Christian churches as the first did. In fact, other Christians are quite helpful in Duncan's quest.

This seem to me to be as good a telling of the history of that period as the first book. What history there is, centers on Armenia and on Bohemmond's plot.

I didn't like the way the ending was handled. It was wrapped up so quickly with little elaboration. It's almost as if SRL ran out of allotted words.

Mature themes: There is a scene of a husband "loving" his wife but nothing more explicit. There is not as much violence against civilians as the first book, but the horrors of war continue to be revealed including detail of the torture and murder of prisoners of war and a death march of prisoners.

I read another review which complained that the pig torture scene was too vivid, yet the same person said nothing about the explicit beheadings of prisoners of war. Interesting.
One thing is clear after reading these two books - if Lawhead's descriptions are typical of the time, and I have no reason to believe they aren't - I would never have wanted to leave my home in Scotland and travel to the Holy Land.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating C-

Review This book is just another example of Stephen Lawhead doing the things that he does well, well (and continuing to do the things he does poorly, poorly). In comparison to Book #1 in this series, I think The Black Rood built off that set-up and provided additional interesting glimpses into life in the Middle East in the 12th Century. Lawhead does active description really well (I have the mental imagery of a pig torture scene in my mind and it's probably going to haunt me for some time) and scenes are very well drawn. I also enjoyed that there was the added complexity that Duncan spent a great deal of time in this narrative in captivity, much of the book takes the form of a letter recounting his experiences. This further fleshed out Lawhead's interesting take on the cagey nature of monarchs and various rulers.

What I didn't like was the loose threads at the end of this book. There are relationships severed and relationships forged, but you don't see any of that resolved. Book #3 takes up the story of Duncan's daughter (which should tie some of these dangling pieces together), but it was all felt too unfinished at the end of this book.

Recommendation Fans of religious conspiracies (a la, Dan Brown) would probably enjoy this book.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second in the "Celtic Crusades" trilogy - but this trilogy also follows on from "Patrick: Son of Ireland: in some ways. The book is Lawhead's usual mix of well researched history and a good dose of fiction filling in the gaps.

Duncan, son of Murdo: Lord of Caithness, sets out on pilgrimage to the Holy Land following the death of his wife in childbirth of their second child. He vows to find and bring home the Black Rood - the true cross of Christ. This book recapitulates much of the former book ("The Iron Lance"). We have the journey to the Holy Land, broadening of horizons, disillusionment, capture, escape and a little bit of treasure hunting on the side. However the first book was better than this one as it had a more human conflict that had to be resolved also in the form of the greedy bishop of Orkneyjar. This book lacked that tension.