Standard of Honor | 
 enlarge | Author: Jack Whyte
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Category: EBooks
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $6.18
You Save: $19.77 (76%)
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 11918
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: 1st
Pages: 540
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
ASIN: B000UZNQVU
Publication Date: December 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
The second novel in the thrilling historical trilogy about the rise and fall of the powerful and mysterious Templars, from the author of the immensely popular Camulod Chronicles. In 1187 one of the few survivors of the Battle of Hattin, young Scots Templar Alexander Sinclair, escapes into the desert despite his wounds. Sinclair has learned about the execution of the surviving Templars after the battle, so when he is rescued, he says nothing of his own standing among the Order of the Temple. Sinclair is one of the Inner Sanctum of the Order--a member of the ancient Brotherhood of Sion, a secret society within the secret society. Two years after the battle, Sir Henry St. Clair is awakened after midnight by a visit from his liege lord, Richard the Lionheart. King Richard is assembling an army to free the Holy Land from the grip of Saladin and his Saracens, and he wants Sir Henry, his first and favorite teacher, to sail with him as his master-atarms. The old man is unwilling to go-he neither likes nor trusts Richard, having found him both a sadist and an egomaniac. But his future, and that of his young son Andre, a rising knight in the order, depends on his allegiance to Richard. Sir Henry knows that Andre worships his older cousin, Alexander Sinclair of the Scottish branch of their family, who has been in the Holy Land for years. Alexander will be an ally in an unfamiliar land. Sir Henry agrees to go despite serious misgivings about Richard, and his motives for war. From the moment the first soldiers of the Third Crusade set foot in the Holy Land, the story of the three templars unfolds as the events of the campaign and the political and personal intrigues of the Crusade's leaders again bring the St. Clair family -- and the Order -- to the edge of disaster.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Better sequal!! October 6, 2008
G. Simms (Washington, DC United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's hard to write a sequal which exceeds the original, but this happened here. The character development is exceptional for a work of historical fiction. His sense of place and time is excellent. Great read.
Pretty good September 22, 2008
N. Perz (St. Louis)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've had a hard time finding good historical fiction so I was looking forward to SoH when it was recommended to me. Overall, it's pretty good (I would have given it 3.5 stars if I could) but nothing to get too excited about. Like most books of this type, SoH is 400 pages of story in a 800 page book. There is a lot of information-dumping but that's really for the benefit of those readers who did not read the first installment of the series. The story moves a little slow and the choice of narratives was strange: he skipped over parts where I had expected much more detail. He tends to undercut his own climaxes after he builds them up. The characters seemed a touch flat (but I, personally, am more interested in story than character developement so I didn't care too much about that).
Even with these criticisms, however, Jack Whyte is still one of the better authors (in this genre) that I have found recently.
In any case, SoH is a decent read (and reads quickly since much of it can be skimmed without missing anything important). If you like the genre, then this is passable material.
Recommended (but just barely).
Not Enough Focus September 12, 2008
E. L. Sapp (Washington DC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book a lot, but it could have been so much better. The author can never seem to decide if he wants the book to be about the Templars and the Crusades, or about Sir Andre St Clair.
The first book dealt with the Knights as a part of the situation in the Holy Land between the First and Second Crusades. The story was good, and it fit within the time. This book lacks that focus, and it almost seems as if it could have been set in any time at any place in the world. The fact that the characters are Templars is secondary to the plot, and could easily have been left out without losing anything.
 Standard of Honor September 3, 2008
A. Gill (Aspen Colorado)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Whyte places a 2008 politically correct microscope onto a 900+ year story. I found this novel very long and very dry and found the author self serving. I happened to be traveling internationally and this was the only reading I had available. Would not recommend.
 save yourself, read a good templar book September 1, 2008
j johnny
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Read either "The Sword and the Grail" or "The sign and the Seal" for an enjoyable and insightful read.
Else...ever read a poor short story made worse by the addiction of the story teller to their own voice, you will be hard to find a more poorly written story than this extremely long winded tale by Whyte.
Lacks insight, concise editing, and a passion to spin a good yarn.
First and last book I'll read with him as author.
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