Crusade is the second part of Robyn Young’s Brethren trilogy. This middle entry takes in the final years of the Christian kingdoms during the Ninth Crusade.
William Campbell and Anima Templi have secured peace with the mighty Mamluk Sultanate. However, this peace is fragile, and forces on both sides want to restart hostilities. There are greedy merchants who profit from war, religious zealots, and Baybars Bundukdari’s ambitious heir. William and Amir Kalawun must work within their respective factions to prevent a resumption of war.
Brethren was an enjoyable novel for history nerds because of the rich detail and epic scope. Crusade offered more of the same, whilst also being a more concentrated story. All of the events of Crusade took place in the Middle East, except for one chapter in Gascony and a quick scene in Lombardy. The story spanned a 15-year period. The book was at its strongest during the first two parts since the story revolved around the theft of the Black Stone, one of the most holy relics in Islam. If the theft went ahead so the Islamic nation would invade the Crusader Kingdoms and unite Christendom for a new Crusade.
There were many factions at play. Besides William, the Anima Templi, and Kalawun, there was Guillaume de Beaujeu, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, who allied himself with the merchants and was getting involved in the Kingdom of Jerusalem’s politics. King Hugh III was fighting for his throne against a powerful claimant, Charles of Anjou, the King of Sicily, who was the brother of the King of France and de Beaujeu’s cousin, so the embattled king got involved in the plot in a desperate attempt to retain his crown. Whilst in Baybars’ court, his soothsayer, Khadir was trying to manipulate the sultan into his bidding, and one of his commanders was secretly working with the rogue Christians in this provocative act of blasphemy.
This medieval version of spycraft and special forces made Crusade feel similar to one of Bernard Cornwell’s novels. They told of quests where a load of characters were after an important artifact, or in Crusade’s case, stopping an artifact from being taken. The novel had a lot of moving parts, but it worked since most of the characters and storylines converged to the same point. There were so many plots going on that there was overlap between them, and even conspiracies involving Christians and Muslims being prepared to work together.
William was in the middle of multiple factions. He was a member of Anima Templi, he was the Anima Templi’s link to Kalawun, and de Beaujeu promoted William after he prevented an assassination attempt. This story was a thrilling page-turner, and it’s clearly a positive that I wanted to keep reading the book, and annoyed when events and circumstances stopped me.
Crusade does lose some momentum during the third part. There was a 10-year time jump to the end of the Crusader Kingdoms. It felt disjointed to the rest of the novel, more like an extra-long epilogue. On its own terms, this was perfectly fine as it described how relations between the Christians and Muslims deteriorated to the point of war. The Siege of Acre was entertaining since the Christians were fighting a losing battle. It was entertaining to use the types of weapons the Mamluks had, including the use of Greek Fire. Part Three was used to resolve a personal conflict that had been brewing between two characters since they were 13.
Young wanted to stick close to historical events. As someone with a history degree, I commend Young for this. However, like Brethren, Crusade showed how difficult it was to be historically accurate whilst telling a fictional story. In Crusade, the historical events were treated more like side events than driving the story. An example of this was the storyline involving the power struggle for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which became a part of the plot to steal the Black Stone, but the resolution was unsatisfactory.
Character-wise, de Beaujeu was the best new addition. He was a noble character who was willing to go to desperate lengths to get the West involved in another Crusade. De Beaujeu was written to be a commanding leader and skilled knight, and he and William developed a mutual respect. De Beaujeu had been trained and educated by the Temple since he was a child, so he believed his duty was to bring the City of Jerusalem back under Christian control.
The villains were one-dimensional. Angelo Vitturi was an arrogant brat whose main concern was making money. Khadir felt slighted that Baybars stopped his war against the Christians, so he groomed Baraka Khan, Baybars’ heir, to join the plot against the Sultan. Baraka was upset his father didn’t pay him attention, and at the tender age of 14, he was already a sexual deviant. Finally, there was Garin, who lost any sympathy he had in the first novel since he was a self-pitying drug addict who envied William.
Crusade was an enjoyable novel that showed Young improved her plotting, but the characters weren’t as interesting.
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