Brethren is the first novel by Robyn Young and the first part of a trilogy of novels set during the Eighth Crusade.
In the middle of the 13th Century the Knights Templar has made many enemies, including The Knights Hospitallers and Prince Edward of England. In 1260 a book was stolen from The Knights Templar’s headquarters in Paris and if it falls into the wrong hands it could lead to the downfall of the organisation. 1260 also sees the rise of Baybars Bundukdari as Sultan of Egypt and Syria, a zealot who wants to see the destruction of the Christian kingdoms in the Middle East.
Will Campbell is the son of a Templar and a sergeant at New Temple in London. He’s skilled with potential but a troublemaker. When tragedy strikes Will gets taken under the wing of Everard, an elderly priest with his own agenda.
Brethren was a dense book, the paperback edition was 641 pages with a story that spanned across three continents and a 12-year time span. Will grows up from a 13-year-old squire to a knight fighting in the Middle East. This density expanded to the number of factions in both camps. It was like George R.R. Martin. Within the Knights Templar, there was a secret organisation that wanted to do something extraordinary in the Middle East, a Knights Hospitallers wanted to destroy the Templars even though they were fighting on the same side, and Prince Edward wanted to regain the English Crown Jewels from the Templars, whilst in the Mamluk faction, Baybars was determined to go to war against the Christian Kingdoms when his advisors argued for peace or a ceasefire.
There were a lot of story and character dynamics going on in the novel. Will was trying to gain his father’s approval and suffered from memories of a tragedy back in Scotland. He was a character looking for forgiveness and redemption yet became thrust into the politics and intrigue in Paris and Acre. He suffered a lot in the novel and Young did a great job incorporating Will’s personal torment with medieval ideals about the importance of going to the Holy Land. The relationship between Will and Everard was a fun dynamic as it starts with Will loathing his master that becomes grudging respect for each other. However, Everard does make the same mistake throughout the novel.
The most interesting characters in the book were the main villains. Baybars had a remarkable backstory since he was a slave who rose to become a general before seizing power. He was only in the novel for brief periods, but I wanted to spend more time with him. He was the worst type of extremist since he was on a genocidal quest, yet he was also a skilled commander. Prince Edward was a more thoughtful type of villain since he was a cunning political operator and schemer who could manipulate people to do his bidding. He put on a charming face to people but had his own agenda in private. The weak link in the villain department was Edward’s main henchman, Rook, since he was just a violent psychopath who liked to torture and humiliate Garin. At best Rook was just a blunt instrument.
Brethren appealed to me because I am a fan of Bernard Cornwell’s work. He has a knack for blending a fictional story and characters with real events and Young does the same with her novel. In the historical notes after the novel Young confesses that an event in Normandy was a work of fiction and artistic license was used for some character motivations but there have been worse crimes in historical fiction. When the story moved to the Middle East Young gave the reader a sense of how different the Christian Kingdoms were to London and Paris. The area was more diverse but there was more conflict with the nation. The Christians were in a hopeless situation since they were surrounded, outnumbered and their fortresses were undermanned.
Young was more interested in intrigue than warfare. The bulk of the story was about the characters searching for the missing Holy Grail story. This made Brethren into a treasure hunt story, similar to Indiana Jones and Cornwell’s Holy Grail series.
Brethren was published in 2005 and the political situation of the period must have been an influence for Young. This was when the War on Terror was in full force and the United States and some of its allies invaded Iraq. Young input some modern ideals since the story was a condemnation of religious extremism on both sides and the heroes wanted to achieve in the Middle East through tolerance, cooperation, and religious harmony. It was like how Kingdom of Heaven portrayed the Crusader Kingdoms where Christians and Muslims were living side-by-side, but religious extremists were trying to force a war. The novel came out when there was a mini glut of media featuring the Knights Templar. The Da Vinci Code was about the Templars knowing the truth about Jesus’ descendants, Kingdom of Heaven showed the Templars to be warmongers, and in the Assassin’s Creed games the Templars were the bad guys. Brethren stood out due to the fact the Templars were shown in a more positive light.
Brethren would satisfy the fans of historical fiction satisfying any craving they may have. It was rich in detail and a page-turning story, even at its high page count.
-
Score
