The Book of Talon - James Boschert

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » Fri February 17th, 2012, 3:10 pm

I would like to briefly review the Book of Talon Trilogy, by James Boschert. I will discuss each a bit briefly.

The first book, The Assassins of Alamut begins in Palestine during the Crusades. The protagonist, Talon, son of a minor Frankish nobleman, is kidnapped from his parents on a raid. He is eventually taken to the castle of Alamut, home of the legendary/infamous assassins (based on the hashashins). He is trained to be a member of the order, ready and willing to die on a mission, thus guaranteeing his admission to paradise.

But, of course, things take a turn. Talon falls in love with the princess, which of course, would be instant death if discovered. He finds that the master of Alamut and his son are attempting to overthrow the master, and kill the princess, his sister.

So Talon, Rav An (the princess) and a faithful companion perilously escape Alamut and flee through the deadly Persian winter. A harrowing chase ensuses across Persia, and finally, a showdown.

The second novel, Knight Assassin finds talon back in his native France, helping to defend his family home against a nefarious machiavellian plot, instigated by a neigbor. He ends up falling afoul of the Church, which leads us to...

The third novel, Assissination in Al Quiara finds Talon, now a Templar Knight Initiate, being shipped back to the Holy Land, where he hopes to find word of Rav An and his friend. He is shipwrecked in Egypt, becomes a slave, and engages on a harrowing adventure there.

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All in all, I really enjoyed these novels. The main characters are very likeable, and the settings are magnificent.

I have only two complaints...

First, the villains. Both the father and son in the first novel that are plotting to take over the assassins and the family that is trying to take Talon's family home in the second novel are cartoonish. The first set of villains are your garden variety sado-masachists. Yawn. The family in the second book are your typical avaricious arrogant villains. Yawn. I think the author could have made the villains more interesting, more accessable.

And secondly, Talon, raised a Christian, finds himself plunged into the Islamic world, then back to Christian Europe, then back to Muslim Egypt. He never seems to really care either way which religion he is. He kind of takes a "when in Rome" approach. I think the author missed an opportunity for what would have been an interesting internal struggle.

But all in all, I highly reccomend this series.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Sun February 19th, 2012, 12:51 am

Alamut could hardly be a more fertile source of inspiration for the writerly imagination! Drugs, houris, assassination ... In the rather short section on Persia at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info, 3 of 8 novels listed are set there (I will have to add the Book of Talon trilogy), and several others (focusing on European main characters and therefore listed on other pages) are briefly described in the review for Vladimir Bartol's 1939 novel Alamut. A more recent adventure novel that Annis reviewed favorably for the website is Scott Oden's The Lion of Cairo (see review).

Years ago, I read another novel about a boy raised to become one of these assassins (I think it must have been at Alamut). It was a pretty good potboiler adventure story, but I got really disgusted when I came to the last page and found a cliffhanger ending evidently intended to coerce me into rushing out to the bookstore and buying the sequel. It did the opposite. I can't any longer recall the title or the author's name.

annis · Post by **annis** » Mon February 20th, 2012, 6:52 am

Kerbouchard, the hero of Louis L'Amour's Walking Drum spends some time in Alamut too, I seem to remember.

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » Wed May 9th, 2012, 4:17 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]Alamut could hardly be a more fertile source of inspiration for the writerly imagination! Drugs, houris, assassination ... In the rather short section on Persia at http://www.HistoricalNovels.info, 3 of 8 novels listed are set there (I will have to add the Book of Talon trilogy), and several others (focusing on European main characters and therefore listed on other pages) are briefly described in the review for Vladimir Bartol's 1939 novel Alamut. A more recent adventure novel that Annis reviewed favorably for the website is Scott Oden's The Lion of Cairo (see review).

Years ago, I read another novel about a boy raised to become one of these assassins (I think it must have been at Alamut). It was a pretty good potboiler adventure story, but I got really disgusted when I came to the last page and found a cliffhanger ending evidently intended to coerce me into rushing out to the bookstore and buying the sequel. It did the opposite. I can't any longer recall the title or the author's name.[/quote]

Yeah, I always find that really annoying. Its one thing in a TV show, that will be on again next week, but I hate that with books that may be months or even years till the next installment.

The one that really killed me was Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I started reading it when I was 14, a freshman in high school. By the time he (or rather his estate) finished it, I was in my 30's, had earned a diploma and two degrees, and had been out for five years. Come on man, I'm not going to hang with a series for two decades!

I also hate it when authors break something up into a trilogy that isn't long enough, just to charge me three times. If your entire book is 400 pages, that is one book, not a trilogy of three 130 page books.