Upon reading the horrific review given by "jsolinas", one question begs answer: since she obviously dislikes this author why on earth has she devoted so much time to reading not just one, but all of the books in this trilogy? I found this book, as well as the preceeding ones, to be well written and interesting. As the above-mentioned review illustrates so well: if you don't like this subject matter then of course don't bother reading the book! However, if you do enjoy the subject of King Arthur, Christians vs Druids, Camelot, etc., then you will enjoy this book.

Thank goodness this was a trilogy! It is only unfortunate that it isn't an even longer series. Miles continues her masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend in her third and final installment. I am happy to say she ends as strongly as she began with Guinevere- Queen of the Summery Country.

As a history buff - I relish the chance to find a great historical fiction. Finding a book blending enough history to be intellegent but enough fiction to be entrancing is a rare indeed.
This book (and the entire series) not only delighted me - but has now been passed along to family and friends who lack my love of history....and their delight with the story is as strong as my own.

If you've read the first two books of this series by Miles, keep going!! You'll be glad you did!

The first half of this book dealt with it almost exclusively as a theme - the second half of the book was the consequence of it...which essentially was the crumbling of the realms of Arthur and Guenevere. This made it interesting (and sad) to read beyond the telling of most other versions of the legend I've read. Galahad was a difficult character for me to warm up to - he was a little TOO fanatical, otherworldly and untouchable. I was surprised to find myself very intrigued with Mordred for a change - seeing him as another tragic victim of his mother and deserving of sympathy despite his scheming and ambitious manipulations to achieve the throne. Arthur infuriated me at times - being too easily swayed and influenced by the Christians determined to rule his soul. But this was Guenevere's glorious and tragic story and it was wonderfully told. Her femininity was powerful and proud -the devotion to her religion and culture unwavering under undue pressures - her loves demanding an emotional toll of heartbreaking longing. I can look forward to reading this book again.

The Price of Immortality, swords of life and death series is highly recommended.

I have not read this book, but those genealogists I trust have, and they report it to be full of errors. Apparently the author simply used older reference works rather than doing his own full research ... or even being familiar with recent published work. Thus, use the data in it only if you don't care if it is correct.

When I discovered my geneology search led me to the British Royal Line, I began seeking a good historical resource for further details. I was delighted to find detailed facts about members of the Royal line, along with clearly diagramed and written geneology which aided and enriched my search. This book turned out to be a terrific resource.

From the semi-legendary Beli the Great to Elizabeth the second, this book deals with many, many legends, battles, usurpations, and schisms. This book even gives astounding amounts of information about obscure and obsolete historical elements, such as the kings of Magonsaete. I found this as being my favourite history book of all time!

This book was about a young boy named Edmund. His master was a counterfiter and had to take his masters punishment. He then joined with a crusade to help his master. He then joined the crusade and fought King Richards and his army. Finally the crusaders beat King Richard and won the victory.
They should of had a little more action in the authors story. The book I read was average. Also, it was still good to read because it was interting.

This book is about an apprentice named Edmund. His master, Otto of Clifton was a moneymaker. One night a few men barged in the house. The Exchequer's men came in the house. They seized Otto and severed his hand. Then Edmund ran and tried to evade the men, but they caught him too with their horses. They were about to cut his hand off too, but the sheriff came in and put him in chains. The sheriff noticed that he was very strong and looked fit for battle. There was a knight named Sir Nigel who needed a squire for he had lost one. He was going to choose from another youth named Hubert who could fight with a battle-axe and with a two-handed sword. Sir Nigel decided them to fight and choose the winner. They both became squires for Sir Nigel. Edmund became a hammer man. They trained under Sir Nigel for the crusade they were going to go on. Finally the crusade started. The crusaders started a siege on the city of Acre. After a while, they took it over. They had many prisoners. King Richard ordered for them to all be executed. This was the third crusade. Many people died. There was more, but you will have to read it to find out.

This book was very realistic. Although I like fiction, I enjoyed this historical fiction. The story was mixed with the occurrence of the Third Crusade and an apprentice of a moneymaker becoming a squire.

My favorite part was the siege of Acre. It was very descriptive and well written.

The Book of the Lion is a pretty good book, which tells of a young boy named Edmund. The book was good but it could have been better. The story is about Edmund going off with Sir Nigel to fight in the crusades, after he is arrested and Sir Nigel sets him free. You see, Sir Nigel is in need of a squire and Edmund immediatly agrees to join up with him, so that he can save his own skin. So after some begining adventures, which you'll find out about when you read the book, the two set off with the help of Sir Rannulf, another knight and a friend of Sir Nigel's, and Hubert, Sir nigel's other squire, as well as a whole batch of other characters that I again won't mention. The journy consists of them going to Italy and then sailing of to the Holy Lands. The next part of the story describes the battles of the Crusades, although the battles could have been a bit more exiting, and the whole book could have been a bit longer. I felt like the book centered to much on the time in between battles, and exiting parts, over just describing a lot while having something exiting happen. Although the book kept my intrest, I couldn't really get into it. If you like quick books, that are pretty exiting, not to bloody, and that have a dramatic side to them, than this book is for you.

This was a time whena young man who had to be carefully taken in the steps of knightlyhood. With the days going by, he had o fight his father's foe.

I would recommend this book to a friend of mine who would like to read classsic books, and hopefully he/she would find this book enjoying. I wouldn't say the boook was totally boring, however, it could have been a bit more exciting. It always counts to the persons' opinon.

This book was so good, when I just saw the cover, it caught my attention. It had a lot of color and I knew it would have a lot of action in it. This book is called Men of Iron. The author is Howard Pyle. This book is historical fiction.
It was about a boy named Myles Falworth.He was brave and strong. He also had a lot of courage. This man believes in himself know matter what. Myles earns a reputation because hae proves himself brave.
He never gives up. At the end he wins the war. I didn't like the part he got stabbed because if that happened to me I would feel bad. It would hurt me and I wouldn't like it. I liked the part where he proves himself brave because before he got into the war he had to fight the captain to prove himself brave. I loved this book because it had a lot of adventure in it and I like adventure books.
I would recommend this book to everybody because it helps you be focused on the book. It makes you want to read more and more.

A wonderful book for young adults and adults who love tales of knights & armour. Howard Pyle's descriptions are both factual and highly entertaining, and a wonderful description of castle life in the early Middle Ages. After 30-plus years,I still re-read the copy I have!!!!!

I love to hop. Sometimes I cannot stop. But when I heard the story of the King of Skittledeedoo, I wanted to stop, hop, and cheer the king who is so funny that you should send him some money. He made me want to make funny stories that sound funny liike Skittledeedoo, too. I love that word and the whole town of Skittledeedoo. The king is so funny that he forgets to put on his clothes when a fire hits and then he cannot read or write to show that he is the king so nobody believes he is the king. Is he? You tell me! You have to read this book. It will make your tummy giggle and gurgle from laughing. Then you can read. That's what happened to me. Now I can read.

The eyecatching illustrations first drew my attention to this delightful book, and I was further charmed by the imaginative verse. It really is an exceptionally creative way of stressing the importance of reading and learning whilst capturing a child's imagination.

I believe that The King of Skittledeedoo will become a classic character for this generation. My daughter (who's five)certainly agrees. She is currently taking the book to bed with her every night and won't go to sleep until I've read her the entire story.

I look forward to the sequel and many more years with the subjects of Skittledeedoo!

Now in its second edition, Patricia Rust's The King of Skittledeedoo is an exciting children's picturebook (with no relation to Skittles brand candy). The vibrant drawings by San Wei Chan depict the king, his land and his subject in simple yet colorful shapes. The enjoyable text is entirely in rhyme, and tells the story of a king with a problem - his kingdom has burned to the ground! He can no longer prove himself the king, for he can't even read or write simple words such as "mother." But two children take the king to school where he learns his three R's and qualifies to become King again. The King of Skittledeedoo is a highly enjoyable and entertaining story with a positive message for young folks, and best of all, proceeds from its sale advance the cause of literacy worldwide.

As others have said, it's a long book and you feel the length. The author's adherence to what I take to be traditional Nordic phrasing, vocabulary and concepts gives the book an epic and genuine feel but also slows the reader down. Still, I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't a story that compelled me to plow through it in a night but I kept coming back to it over a month or two and was drawn into the story each time I opened the book. Brilliantly depicted characters that are at once earthy, believable, and of epic proportions.

Finally, not at all a dry or dull book. Lots of well-detailed action and vivid scenes of daily life with the vikings.

I freely admit that I'm often a lazy and careless reader. I enjoy reading books that I can read quickly without sacrificing comprehension of the text (see Robert Jordan, etc.) But occasionally I try to read more complex books, and _Mother of Kings_ is definitely a complex novel.

This is not an easy read. The plot is difficult to follow. Sometimes the novel moves slowly, sometimes quickly. The character names are unfamiliar and often either similar or identical to each other (Anderson apologizes for this in his Afterward but notes that since the novel is based on historical facts there was little he could do).

But for all its difficulties, this is a very rewarding novel. I found myself enthralled with the devious machinations of Gunnhild, the 'mother' from the title. Much of the action in the novel occurs away from the reader, so Anderson tells us about it rather than showing it to us. This is generally considered a no-no, but Anderson does an able job with it.

This novel is quite long. The actually page count is under 500, but the words are really packed onto the pages. I would estimate that _Mother of Kings_ has the same word count as a 550-600 page novel. Don't pick this one up unless you have the time and the motivation to finish it. One of my 5 favorite fantasy novels from 2001. Highly recommended.

Set in the tenth century, this is the story of Gunnhild, Queen of Norway and England (a real person). This was the waning days of the Age of Vikings.

As a child, Gunnhild learns the ways of withcraft from a Finnish concubine of her father, a powerful Norse chieftain. She also notices Eirik, son of their king. Growing up, Gunnhild keeps her eyes open and learns the relationship between the powerful and the weak. But she doesn't want to stop there. She becomes a spaewife, a master in witchcraft and sorcery, a knower of the Gods.

She marries Eirik, and things are wonderful for a while. She gives him seven sons, all of whom become great warriors, and one daughter, Ragnhild. Forced into a political marriage, Ragnhild gets a reputation as someone whose husbands tend to die before their time. Eirik's strength and Gunnhild's craftiness and knowledge of sorcery make them formidable foes.

Haakon, another son of Eirik's father, has an equally strong claim as Eirik to be King of Norway. This is a time of building alliances for both men among the groups in that part of the world. The fortunes of Eirik and Gunnhild start taking a turn for the worst. They are forced to flee Norway and live for a time in York, England. Anotherv time they flee to the Orkney Islands, part of present-day Scotland. Eirik dies in battle, as do his sons, one by one. Meantime, Christianity comes to that part of the world. Haakon embraces this new religion, partly because his best friend becomes a priest. He expects those in aliiance with him to do the same. But, there are those, including powerful people, who are not happy with the old gods being tossed aside.

This is a great novel. It's a big novel, both in size and in scope, so it is not easy or quick reading. Once again, Anderson shows why he was a master of the genre. The style of writing gives the impression that it was actually written a thousand years ago. Recently translated, it was mispackaged as Fiction instead of History. I know of no other contemporary writer in the field who can consistently do that like Anderson.

This book will take some patience, but it is highly recommended.

My boyfriend and I bought this book in the British Museum bookstore so we could keep the monarchs straight. For that purpose it is perfect. Each page is about the size of two credit cards, and each monarch gets two pages each- one page for a picture of him/her, and one page for a biography. The brevity of the biography obviously leads to inaccuracies in the interest of cramming it all into a single tiny page. In other words, I don't recommend using it to study for a history test, but if you want to put it in your backpack as you are touring London so you can say "Oookay, now Henry the VI was a [crummy] and weak king" as you stand over his tomb in St. George at Windsor and "Henry VII killed Richard the III, that bad guy from Shakespeare" as you stand next to Henry's tomb in Westminster Abby, it is absolutely perfect for that purpose. However, if you want a more thorough review (and loads of pictures, but less backpack friendly) of each monarch, I very much recommend Antonio Fraser's "The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England."

My only complaint about this book is that it tells a complete falsehood of the blessed Anglican Martyr Charles Stuart. To put this in a nutshell, Queen Victoria had a grudge against several of her predecessors (including Charles the martyr.) During her reign she fabricated the tale that Charles was a self server. On the other hand she tried to make the monstrously evil Cromwell into a champion of constitution and democracy. (Don't take my word for it. Read Winston Churchill's "History of the English Speaking People" 1955). Otherwise, this book is EXCELLENT. It offers a brief listing of the different houses. It also offers a beautiful photograph of each monarch. For the most part, it offers a brief but accurate passage on each of the monarchs. One thing Best does very well is that he goes beyond common and inaccurate opinions of some famous monarchs (including Henry VIII) and gives a scholarly opinion of their contributions to England.

If you want a coffee table book, this is not for you. Though tiny in size, this book is packed with valuable information. The illustrations, which cover all 43 of the rulers, are beautiful. The biographies are short and sweet, providing a basic background on each monarch. Also included are some humorous and shocking facts! I bought this for a friend and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it myself. It's a great value.

Milton Meltzer is clearly out to rewrite history. He's eager to point out every petty flaw of King David and Charlemagne, but makes the bloodthirsty Atahualpa and Kublai Khan look like modern egalitarian leaders. Capitalism and self-determination are clearly bad things, but totalitarianism and forced labor come off as benign. Hammurabi is described as a "benign despot", and we are told that slaves in ancient Babylonia were not treated as harshly as "slaves in the Americas".

I'm not sure what Meltzer is trying to accomplish, but make sure you read this with your child with open and questioning eyes.

As Milton Meltzer tells the reader in his introduction: "This book is about power-power in the hands of kings." "...As you'll see, kings, like the rest of us, are complex human beings: good, bad, a mixture of the two; benevolent, cruel, brilliant, stupid. Each monarch's story may help you grasp how political leaders use and abuse power..." Meet ten kings who had an enormous impact on the world and times in which they lived. From the familiar, Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, Charlemagne, Kublai Khan, Louis XIV, and Peter the Great, to the lesser known Hammurabi, David, Mansa Musa, and Atahualpa, Mr Meltzer brings these rulers to life on the page, and paints evocative portraits of their lives, accomplishments, and failures. His engaging text, written in an easy to read, conversational style is filled with a wealth of history, drama, intriguing sidebars, informative maps, fun facts, and trivia, and enhanced by Bethanne Andersen's appealing artwork in bold and vivid colors. Perfect for youngsters 10 and older, Ten Kings And The Worlds They Ruled is an eloquent book and includes a comprehensive bibliography and index for further reference. Kids may first pick up Ten Kings for report research, but it's a sure bet that once they start, they'll continue reading each fascinating chapter.

Hammurabi, David, Kublai and other kings shaped their times and ultimately the world: Ten Kings And The Worlds They Ruled selects ten kings from history to profile, including maps, color illustrations, and descriptions which read with the excitement of a novel, yet are packed with information and detail suitable for reports. An intriguing approach to history and biography.

This is one glorious little romp of a novel. I personally don't agree that EVERY character in this book is dispicable, I thought Dreyer was perfectly tragic in his eventual realisation, but even so, I don't find the unsympathetic nature to be a fault. The physical world of King Queen Knave is something that pervades the existence of all the characters even to the most grotesque degree (see Franz's chronic disgust), but even though it may seperate their subjective experience to the extent that everybody refuses to understand anybody elses' position, Nabokov fights the deterministic cycle of the Naturalist novel and shows how these walls of relativism can be broken down, and further, that is is even NECESSARY that they be broken down. But more than that, Nabokov twists the arm of fate in his dark conclusion; he delights in showing the authour's mark behind the facade; and there's the expected round of lovely descriptive passages. One shouldn't take Nabokov's "this is by far my gayest novel" too seriously though; this is a farcical romp, but it is one darkly treacherous romp. The reader thanks God that the world around these three main players isn't caught up in the same downward spiral. That creaky boat ride upon the Lindy, the oars fighting, is sharply analgous the overall ride. This is a very good novel, a treat for anybody familiar with Nabokov, but it definitely can stand its own ground. Either by comparison to Nabokov's more brillant later work, or on its own, this novel is a dark little comic-tragedy.

This is the only Nabokov novel I have read, but it sticks in my mind as sensual and tragic... definitely reminiscent of Shakespeare.

"The Graduate" also comes to mind.

Nabokov's descriptive detail puts the reader into the rented room of the nephew, where the first sexual encounter takes place. He doesn't romanticize - he tells everything exactly like it "is" & makes it extremely real.

Very suspenseful at the end, although I see the description on this site reveals the entire ending, so it ruins it for any potential readers!

So don't read that, just read the book. It evoked strong emotion in me, suffering with the characters' situations, frustrations, and desires.

This was Nabokov's second novel, published when he was a mere 28 years old. Thirty-nine years later, after writing so many other fabulous books he said of King, Queen, Knave "of all my novels this bright brute is the gayest." By this he meant that he enjoyed contemplating its "rapturous composition" and reminiscing of how the idea for it first came to him on the coastal sands of Pomerania. The book maintained a special place in his heart. The theme is in many ways similar to Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary, as Nabokov himself admits in the Foreword to the revised English version. I love those other books dearly, but Nabokov's contains several twists and turns that are even more dramatic and less likely for the reader to detect ahead of time than either of those other classic husband/wife/paramour triangle stories.

The setting here is Berlin in the 1920's. The young, unsophisticated Franz arrives on the doorstep of his rich uncle Dreyer with hopes of securing a job in his department store. He gets the job and repays Dreyer's magnanimity by falling for his beautiful wife Martha. (Franz's aunt? Hello!) Martha's seduction of Franz seems to be motivated by something at least bordering on pure boredom, but at any rate, the triangle is set. Dreyer, oblivious to this development, plods on with his money-making schemes and inventions/diversions. Martha, in a departure from the more suicidal natures of Anna K. or Emma B. decides rather to begin clumsily plotting her husband's death so that she and Franz will be able to live happily ever after on his money. But things are not so easy in anything Nabokovian are they? Well, things don't work out the way they're supposed to here either, and that's all I will say. Far be it from me to unravel a rope the Nabokov has so skillfully stretched tight. By the end of this story Franz's conscience lies in tatters, and Martha is _____!

The only reason I don't give the book a perfect 5 stars is because the very ending left me a tad bewildered. I attribute that to a fault in my reading of it and trust that you, being much sharper than I, will rate your experience with King, Queen, Knave a star higher than I did.

It was pretty good, but it was kind of showing out of the knight period. They wrote a lot about castles and it was titled knights. This bothered me. I really liked how it showed what a knight has as his duty.

My 10 year old son is fascinated with all things midevil. This book shows the armor, weopons, and lifestyle of knights. The photos are excellent and the copy is interesting. Your child may need a little help with some of the vocabulary.

DK eyewitness books are some of the greatest non-fiction books around. The distinctive white background and high-quality photography gives this book an edge over any other nonfiction picture book. And -- these pictures are real! They're beautiful museum-quality photos of all things related to knights, accompanied by informative captions and text.

Learn about medieval life, knights, armor, etc. If you know someone (young or old) who is fascinated by medieval times and knights, then you must introduce them to this book!