The Book of the Lion

Crusader Trilogy #1

by Michael Cadnum

A National Book Award nominee!

Returning to the same era of his "In a Dark Wood", Cadnum's majestic novel--part mystery, part history--chronicles the pageantry and brutality of the Crusades under King Richard.

Edmund, a young apprentice, is awaiting punishment as a counterfeiter when a knight intervenes on his behalf--and compels Edmund to join Richard Lionheart's forces in the Holy Land. There, amidst the savagery of the twelfth-century Crusades, Edmund learns both courage and compassion, and discovers that cruelty is sometimes considered the will of Heaven. Set in medieval England and the war-torn shores of the Middle East, Cadnum's tale weaves together a rich tapestry of storms at sea, the brutality of hand-to-hand combat, and one of the classic horse and lance battles in recorded history--the Battle of Arsuf.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, Fiction, Adventure, War, Medieval

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Michael Cadnum has had a number of jobs over the course of his life, including pick-and-shoveler for the York Archaeological Trust, in York, England, and substitute teacher in Oakland, California, but his true calling is writing. He is the author of thirty-five books, including the National Book Award finalist The Book of the Lion. His Calling Home and Breaking the Fall were both nominated for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is a former Creative Writing Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts. Also a poet, he has received several awards, including Poetry Northwest's Helen Bullis Prize and the Owl Creek Book Award. Michael lives in Albany, California, with his wife Sherina.

Reviews

[Zoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like it didn’t have much content and the content it did have was very boring. It was really stretched out with useless words and could have been summed up in a single paragraph. I believe another reason that this book was not great was because of the way he was all over the place when he wrote. It felt moderately amateur. If the writer had clarified on several points and eliminated the fluff surrounding the plot, I think this book would have been okay.

[Kevin Keating · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book for middle school age kids. If you are teaching about the Middle Ages it is appropriate for them.

[Kira Hutchinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be interesting in the way that I learnt new things but since it is set back hundreds of years ago some of the concepts and words are hard to grasp. The author wrote the story thinking everyone would understand what is going on, for instance one minute they’d be doing something and then the next they’d have switched over to something completely different and you’d be left wondering what just happened!

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t mind the plot of this book. My big problem with this book was the style of writing. The author of the book has an incredibly scatterbrained style of writing, he’s always jumping from topic to topic. I think if the story was easier to understand this would be an incredible book with a fabulous story.

[Alexandria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very interesting storyline, on the other hand, I didn’t quite like how any women didn’t really have any important roles in the book but, that’s how it was I guess. This book was pretty hard to understand, I was obligated to read each paragraph a second maybe third time just to understand what’s going on. The authors style of writing uses quite a lot of words that I have never heard of which is good since I’d like to learn more words but, too many that it takes me a long time to highlight and research those words. The author could maybe try to use a little bit less of new words because it would make the description of each event, character, etc easier to understand.

[Rhiann Hutch · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was hard to comprehend. The wording was from medieval times and very hard to follow and the story line was plain.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book is very interesting to read and to learn the crusades the actual book was not my cup of tea. The characters lacked any real personality which lead to me not caring about the characters at all. The transition of time was sloppy and left me having to read through passages multiple times. However despite this I learned many interesting facts and it was still enjoyable to read once they actually got to the fighting part.

[Malaika Javer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was quite confusing because the author was bouncing all over the place. It felt like there was a metaphor in literally every single sentence. Once I adapted to his way of writing, the book got really fun and I actually enjoyed it a lot. The plot was also very intriguing, but the words used to describe some situations could use some revision. Overall I think think this was a good read.

[ColeG CLC · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Book Of the Loin" by Michael Cadnum showed that those with a strong will and a good mind can archive greatness and that friendship and loyalty will sculpt the world into a better place. Edmund is loyal to his master Otto by still believing or at least defending him, although he is dead. Even in battle he must protect and come to the aid to his knight or lord. In battle he ignored the pain of spears, spear shafts and missiles (rocks). I would recommend this book to those readers who like a book with very advanced and challenging words from old English text with a lot of action and then a rest between the big parts.

[BenT CLC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought The Book Of The Lion be Michael Cadnum was a very bead book. I think this for two reasons, the first reason is I thought the way some people talked in the book didn't really fit the dialogue for medieval Europe. The second reason I din't like it was because of the author did a lot of showing not telling because when their were fighting scenes there was only about ten to twenty pages of action but like 30 to 50 pages of preparation and how they felt after, but there wasn't a lot going on during the fighting which I did not like. Over all I'd say this book was not written the best and did a lot of showing instead of telling.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book begins with the promise of a good adventure/romp. A young man is forced to go off to war. But it doesn't deliver. Oh, we go to war, but the book has a heavy literary feel. Some of the writing is beautiful and gripping, but that's mostly in the description. It's choppy in its progress, with more than 40 chapters squeezed into 200 pages. We're not given any sort of closure or sense of completion. It's disappointing, because Cadnum clearly knows how to write very well, and he knows his history and setting. It was the story that was lacking.

[ALLY TUCK · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite an enthralling book to read, as I did enjoy the authors superfluous and vivid descriptions of the situation, ad though it may be too much for others, I found it provocative that the author chose to portray the book in this way, making me feel like I was there on the beaches. What I did not enjoy was the storyline itself. This category of book has never been my cup of tea, and for that reason, I didn’t enjoy the storyline as much as I could have. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the book was focused on surroundings and actions rather than going in-depth into relationships, which is fine for this type of book but it led me to stop caring about the characters. Usually, I rate a book on the amount of times that I would read it again, and because of the violent action and the somewhat primitive idea, I would not read it again.

[William Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to pick a book to read for class that had either won or shortlisted for the National Book Award. This one was both short and sounded interesting enough to me so I chose it.
I’m not sure if I would recommend or discourage this book from being taught in a classroom. On the one hand, it is fairly accurate to the historical period that it is set in, both for good and bad. It could be used to teach about the brutality of the crusades, but it has some mature and dark content. It says for twelve and up, but I’d raise the age a bit more before considering using it to teach.
There is abundant consumption of alcohol. Plenty of sexual references, most often in regard to prostitution. No rock and roll, unless you count launching actual rocks to rollover people. Some hard language. Lots of medieval violence, swords and such.

[Aberdeen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good prose, a realistic look at a time period I want to know more about, but otherwise just pretty ehhh? Sometimes I appreciated the subtle portrayals of characters, how it isn't obvious whether the author thinks they're right or wrong or even what the characters themselves are feeling or thinking. But here it's overdone to the point where the characters feel sterile and the whole story feels pointless. Historical accuracy and detail is important and impressive, but without compelling characters or themes, I'm not going to remember the historical information or care about it. Elizabeth George Speare is an example of a truly great historical fiction writer. Not sure why this book was nominated for the National Book Award but hey.

[Anika · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Book of the Lion is an interesting adventure that takes you back in time to the dark ages. I learned so much by reading this book, and inquiring about it, that I'm inspired now to read more novels based off of real history.

Though the book gets gruesome at times, it really lets you imagine what life was like in the time of the crusades. I feel that its very important that they put in all that detail, and really describe the horrors of war, and the impact it can have emotionally on an individual.

If you like to learn, and wish to experience all that you can, I do recommend this book. An amazing story that absolutely transports you and shows a new angle on the thought of a hero.

[Louisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of great battles, bloodshed, and moral dilemmas. I think the fact that they were willing to murder their own prisoners for the credit in Heaven. Their motivations the entire book were to get to the Holy Land, and then Heaven. It’s made so much worse when you discover, at the end, that these events really happened- the slaughter of prisoners is a true story. I think that this book is an accurate representation of the ideals of the time- the Crusades were the most important thing to them. Overall, however, the bloody ideas made me not particularly enjoy the book.

[Tara Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, the 'About this Book', the author's note basically, at the end of this book made me rate it a little higher than I would have. I appreciated his words about the history that he wrote of.
This story felt like a very real depiction of what likely took place at the time of the Crusades. From what I can tell, it seemed very well researched, and I appreciated the method of story telling the author used.
It read more educational than entertaining, which I believe a work of historical fiction is meant to be.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wait, this is a trilogy?

This has been on my list since sometime around 8th grade. ...I would have it enjoyed it much more back then. It's a great choice for middle school boys, as they will be amused by the pissing and such, and keep reading because war! I don't know if would do any good in the teaching-kids-that-violence-is-bad realm, but I mostly remembered thinking, "Oh. Well, then," every time a chapter ended because they always seemed to end with pissing or puking or punching.

[Ciara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of the book was well thought out and I didn’t mind it as a basis for the novel. My only problems with the book came from the style of writing. I really enjoy old English literature and it bothered me when the author jumped from old European speech to modern speech. The book would’ve really done it for me if he had chosen to stick with one style of writing. Still a great book that I would recommend!

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this book was interesting once you got into the exciting parts such as the battle of Acre. The book is written using olden day speech with to some people is very hard to understand and follow along with the book. Another thing is that there is a lot of detail in the writing, even the smallest thing consist of great detail which does make the book seem a lot longer. Over all this was an interesting book with a good story line and definitely something that I would recommend.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not a huge fan of this book personally, but this is pony because it is not a style I generally enjoy. It had good parts and bad parts, like to little description in some places and to much description in some places. I likes the use of language they used although in some places it was hard to understand. Overall I thought this book was just okay in my opinion but only because I am not really a fan of this style of writing/ the genre of the book itself.

[Tracy Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Edmund, an blacksmith's apprentice who escapes prison by becoming a knight's servant and traveling with hm to fight in the crusades with Richard the Lionhearted. This book was very historically accurate and tells the story of the crusades without any commentary. It was a tad too graphic in places for a children's book!

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book 2 stars because I found it very hard to follow which made me very confused while reading it. I also was not interested in the topic so I was bored while reading it. I think if I understood the book better I might have found it more interesting. This book was not exiting for me but others may find it more interesting.

[Megumi Birrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book over all but I found that the author tended to jump from subject to subject and it got confusing to follow. This book was also not a genre that I usually read. The book would have been a 4 star, if it had been less confusing for me.

[Kaden · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book because. I feel like the author could have done a way better job at making it easier to read and understand. I also think this book is not for me because I am not really interested in this book so I found it harder to read.

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally I thought this book could have been a lot better. It was to crazy at points. The author jumped quite frequently to different topics, some not including the last one. So in the end I think it is a 3 stars at best.

[Nate Fraser-Klein · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found it very hard to follow along with the plot of the book. It’s very jumpy. It goes from one place to. Another very fast which makes it hard to follow. I found it very boring and not that exciting.

[Janice Corturillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would think a boy, 5th - 7th grade would like this book. It's about the a squire for a Knight during the Crusades. It shows the good, the bad, and some ugly. As an adult that doesn't necessarily like this historical time period, I surprisingly found it quite interesting.

[Jackson Floe · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book was very confusing for me and once I got confused I did not know what was going on!

[Lisa W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ive had this book for years and finally read it, was surprised it was not bad, a few graphic parts, quiet a few parts that were just strange and made no sense