graham shelby

[Kveto from Prague]

couldnt find a graham shelby thread although im sure i remember discussing his stuff.

Ive read "villains of the piece" a steven and matilda tale. it was ok but im probably just massively burnt out on steven/matilda stuff.

Just finished "Knights of dark renown" which is set in the fall of the kingdom of jerusalum, one of my favourite periods. it was really good, characterizing all of the major players quite well and chronicaling the soap opera of interactions between the franks.

now ill have to look for a cheap copy of "kings of vain intent"


It seems mr shelby wrote at quite a young age but i havent seen anything recent. im guessing he gave up on HF. a pity because "knights" is good.

[annis]

It would be interesting to know what happened there- GS just stopped writing HF quite abruptly around 1990. "I think "Knights of Dark Renown" is probably his best novel. "Kings of Vain Intent" is a bit controversial in that it turns Conrad of Montferrat into a scrawny dark weasel of evil temperament, whereas Conrad is described in contemporary documents as well-built, blond, and good-looking. For some reason GS was determined to make Conrad the villain of the piece.

He followed up with a novel about Richard the Lionheart in later life called "The Devil is Loose"

I feel that you can enjoy GS's novels if you see them as adventures based on historical events, but don't expect too much historical accuracy :)

[EC2]

I recently re-read Villains of the Piece. Historically inaccurate from stem to stern in terms of facts and attitudes and pretty meh I thought. Way back I thought The Knights of Dark Renown was a very powerful novel. I don't know how I'd feel about it now, but in my memory hall of fame it shines. I've read The Edge of the Blade - good but the ending petered out. I've also read The Kings of Vain Intent - not as good as Dark Renown, but I couldn't tell you anything about it now.

[Kveto from Prague]

It would be interesting to know what happened there- GS just stopped writing HF quite abruptly around 1990. "I think "Knights of Dark Renown" is probably his best novel. "Kings of Vain Intent" is a bit controversial in that it turns Conrad of Montferrat into a scrawny dark weasel of evil temperament, whereas Conrad is described in contemporary documents as well-built, blond, and good-looking. For some reason GS was determined to make Conrad the villain of the piece.

He followed up with a novel about Richard the Lionheart in later life called "The Devil is Loose"

I feel that you can enjoy GS's novels if you see them as adventures based on historical events, but don't expect too much historical accuracy :)

ach, kind of a pity. I can only imagine that since Humphey of Toron is one of the focused characters (and shelby is much kinder to humphrey than history is) in the series and Conrad is the agent of his divorce, that Shelby played up his bad characteristics as you say to make him the villain of the piece.

I liked "knights" even though the story held no surprises for me, its one of my favourite areas. still it was nice to see the characters fitionalized. Any book on this time will have to capitalize on Reynald of Chatillion. hes one of those larger than life scoundrels. however he makes his exit at the end. Id like to see a book touching on Reynalds early years, before his 15 years imprisonment. maybe a pre-quel would have been better. most reviews ive seen echo what you say, that kings is a pale follow up to knights.

For me, the characters were close enough to their personalities as presented in records (other than making Humphrey a bit more manly) and the events follow the general accepted history. as far as i could tell, there were only 2 fictional characters, which is pretty good, IMO.

[Kveto from Prague]

I recently re-read Villains of the Piece. Historically inaccurate from stem to stern in terms of facts and attitudes and pretty meh I thought. Way back I thought The Knights of Dark Renown was a very powerful novel. I don't know how I'd feel about it now, but in my memory hall of fame it shines. I've read The Edge of the Blade - good but the ending petered out. I've also read The Kings of Vain Intent - not as good as Dark Renown, but I couldn't tell you anything about it now.

i agree there. i didnt like "villains" so i was reluctant to get "knights". but i liked knights quite a bit. but that might be my bias for the source material as i much prefer the fall of oultremer to the english civil war.

but i was surprised how much more i liked "knights" than "villains". day and night, really.