Didn't Finish the Book...

As much as I’d like to, I don’t finish everything that I read. This can be for a number of reasons ranging from ‘I couldn’t get into it’ to ‘the author obviously didn’t check the spelling before self publishing...’ Despite not finishing them I still like to mention these books on the blog. After all, people were kind enough to send them my way so the least I can do is say why they didn’t work for me!
So, here goes...



‘Chapterhouse: Dune’ – Frank Herbert (Ace)

How long have you left it, between books, when reading a series? You’re normally looking at a couple of years between books being published (with some notable exceptions) and that’s not too much of a gap really. Twenty years though...? I was about fourteen (maybe a bit younger) when I read Frank Herbert’s ‘Heretics of Dune’ and never got round to picking up ‘Chapterhouse: Dune’... until now.
Here’s a book where you really need to have recently read the rest of the series if it’s to make any sense at all. I had no idea what was going on! This is a book that I will no doubt re-read once I’ve been back over the rest of the series but when will I have the time to do that...? I don’t know. In the meantime, ‘Chapterhouse: Dune’ has gone back on the pile.



‘The Templar’ – Paul Doherty (Headline)

Here’s the Amazon blurb...

1095 and crusading fervour has swept Europe. Christ’s fief of Jerusalem has been seized by the Infidels. The Frankish Knights of the West are to march east to liberate the Holy City. Hugh de Payens and Godefroi of St Omer, the soon-to-be founders of the Templar Order, and Hugh’s younger sister, Eleanor, leave the security of their homes in Burgundy, France, with a plan to join Count Raymond of Toulouse's army, and march across the known world to Jerusalem.

Follow the crusaders as they march through Europe into the glories of Byzantium and onto Syria and witness the hardships, bloodshed and trickery they encounter on their treacherous travels to the Holy Land.

I was after something a little different and ‘The Templar’ sounded like it could fit the bill nicely. It’s a real shame then that the book was so dry, in tone, that I ran out of steam trying to read it. While there was a real sense of history to the work I didn’t get the feeling that the same level of attention was being paid to the characters. The pace was a little too slow for my liking as well although I did expect it seeing as the author is dealing with the mass migration of thousands of people!
I know someone who will like ‘The Templar’, and its sequel, but it wasn’t for me...