Pagan's Crusade: Book One of the Pagan Chronicles [Paperback]

A big man in brown, sitting behind a table. Big hands. Big chest. Short and broad. Head like a rock, face scarred like a battle axe. He looks up and sees--what's this? A street urchin? Whatever it is, it's trouble. Trouble advances cautiously.

      "They said I should report to the Standard-Bearer."

      The big man nods.

      "You can call me sir," he says. (Voice like gravel rattling in a cast-iron pot.) He pulls out a pen. "Name?" he says.

      "Pagan."

      "Pagan what?"

      "Pagan Kidrouk."

This is the reader's introduction to 16-year-old Pagan, a half-Arab Christian, who is applying to join the Knights Templar. The year is 1187, and Jerusalem, held by Christians, faces the approach of Saladin and his Muslim army. Pagan is chosen to serve as a squire to Lord Roland, a Templar knight. As danger mounts and the Holy City is besieged, Pagan finds friendship--and risks everything to keep it.

The above excerpt, which is the beginning of the book, gives a good indication of Catherine Jinks's extremely spare writing style with its constant peppering of incomplete sentences. It is as though Pagan himself, who has been raised in a monastery and is therefore very literate as well as observant, is speaking to us. It also makes for a fast-paced and absorbing story that simply cries to be read aloud. I realise historical novels are not all that popular among children, but a class of, say, 12-year-olds would soon become engrossed if their teacher was a good reader and read this book to them.

This is the first book in the Pagan series. The others (in the order in which they should be read) are Pagan in Exile, Pagan's Vows and Pagan's Scribe

Is it just me or are there very few teen series out there in a guy's perspective? Yeah, Harry Potter. And Calvin and Hobbes just HAS to be compared. The wit, the childishness and the wisdom combined. Pagan is cute and clever, good and wicked. I'm a person who normally only buys books so that I can make FULL use out of them (read them to tatters, basically). This, I picked off the shelf, read the first page, and bought it automatically. I have not been disappointed.

The first book is pure Crusade stuff, with dates and smelly old lepers and annoying tourists. It gives you a day-in-the-life perspective with Pagan's cutting (yet observant) remarks. It also draws you into both his own and his lord Roland's character, making you buy the next, then the next, then sit patiently and chew your fingers for the next book.

Catherine Jinks, you've got a new big fan.

Pagan Kidrouk looks like a street urchin when he first arrives at the doors of the Order of the Temple in the great city of Jerusalem. Just sixteen years old, Pagan has had a very checkered life, one full of hardship, cruelty and vice. He has little reason to trust people, find goodness in them, or even grow attached to them. Jerusalem in 1187 is a city of holy places on the one hand and a city of beggars, thieves, corruption and poverty on the other. Pagan finds himself in the employ of the almost saint-like Templar knight Lord Roland Roucy de Bram. Pagan calls his new master "Saint George," as he finds it difficult to accustom himself to the pure and honorable ways of the knight. Pagan himself views the world in a very different light, seeing only the grime, the misery and the corruption.

As Lord Roland's squire, Pagan must accompany him when the knight escorts a group of pilgrims from Jerusalem to the River Jordan and back. These were difficult times, when infidels often attacked pilgrims, and the Templar knights were needed to protect the pilgrims as they traveled through the Holy Land. No sooner are Lord Roland and Pagan back in Jerusalem when terrible news arrives. The greatest infidel of them all, Saladin, has crossed the River Jordan and taken one of the cities. It is not long before Saladin is at the very walls of Jerusalem itself, and Lord Roland finds himself leading the Templar knights and playing a large role in the future of the great city. It is at this time that Pagan learns he is capable of new emotions; he discovers that he can feel pity and care for someone else.

Written from Pagan's point of view and in his own voice, complete with his sarcasm and disdain for those around him, PAGAN'S CRUSADE is an extraordinary book. We can laugh, be shocked and feel pity all at the same time. Catherine Jinks shows us, through Pagan's eyes, how harsh life was during the time of the Crusades and how distorted each side's view was of the other. It is only when they are face to face that they see and hear that they are in fact not much different from one another; we too learn that infidels and Christians were very much alike. When Jerusalem was taken from the Muslims, terrible crimes against its people were committed by the Christians. Now, in turn, Saladin's soldiers are having their revenge. Except, when they get to Jerusalem, Saladin shows the world that he can be generous.

As we close this first book in a planned series of four, we wonder what Pagan and his master will do next, and are left to ponder what people have done in the name of religion.

--- Reviewed by Marya Jansen-Gruber (mjansengruber@mindspring.com)

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