If you understand that the author's premise is that all gods are the same, that Alleh, Yahweh and Christ is the same God, then you can reach the same conclusion that he did. That we should all get along and not fight.

If you have read the Koran and the Moslem's doctrine, you know they do not allow others to co-exist with them.

If you have read the Torah, you know Israel's God is a jealous God and does not share with others.
If you know Christ, He has said, "I am the only way."

The premise of seeing our differences and yet knowing we are trying to live nicely and worship some god is very strong in the book. A nice fiction premise, but not based on the doctrines of any one of the groups presented in the book.

The author did present an interesting view of the Crusaders---uneducated, heathen, destroying everything in their path. Which during war at this time may have been sanctioned.
But his biased view of Moslems co-existing peacefully with Jews because of the same God has never shown in true history.

There were scenes I completely skipped for its bedroom activity. Other sections I did skip as well.

The book caused me to think. Disturbed me, until I realized his premise, and put a desire to read more about the Crusades. ( )

The famous Muslim leader Saladin believes that he has finally driven the Christian crusaders from Israel's shores. The King of Jerusalem has surrendered, most other nobles have gone home, and there's only a small, stubborn contingent to deal with outside the town of Acre. Newly-crowned King Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) sees this as his chance to win everlasting fame and glory. He rallies his forces to travel back to Israel and try again. With his brilliant strategies and fearless leadership, the Muslims won't know what hit them.

I guess in a nutshell you could say that this is the story of the Third Crusade told from a Muslim point of view. I found it incredibly interesting. It's always a little--what's the word?--enlightening to see things from the "enemy's" point of view. This took place so long ago that I didn't go into it feeling invested one way or another. Still, if you learn anything about the Crusades in school in the Western world (and I don't remember learning much), it's probably that the Christian knights were fighting to take the Holy Land back from the "infidels." I found it fascinating to see what the Muslims thought of Westerners at that time. Of course they saw them as infidels also. But they also saw them as dirty, ignorant, and without honor. They were medically and scientifically advanced and I'm guessing that Europeans hadn't progressed past leeches and wouldn't for several hundred years. The book opens with Saladin re-taking Jerusalem. The Christians still living in the city are cowering in fear, knowing how their soldiers had treated the Muslims when they took the city earlier. Saladin makes it clear that he's not going to harm anyone. The war is over, enough people have died, and if you don't harm my people, we won't harm you. That's Saladin's take on things. I'll keep this vague, but it's a very different, horrifying story when the Crusaders win over a city later.

I'll freely admit that I know very little about Islam. I try to keep an open mind about things, so I do know that what we see on the news is just a small group of radicals. Other than that? I don't know much. I do tend to think that women in the religion are awfully repressed. True? Sometimes true? I don't really know. I learned a few things here. I don't watch the news much, but even I've heard the stories about wives being stoned to death by their husbands for adultery. According to this book, the husband has to provide four eyewitnesses before he can punish his wife for that. If he accuses her and can't produce the witnesses, he's the one who's punished. Really? I didn't know that and had to readjust my thinking a little. There's also a line in the book where Saladin says, "The Jews are People of the Book and are protected by our religion. The Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, forbade us to oppress them." Another shocker. With all the fighting that seems to go on between them, I had no idea that was in the religion anywhere. Time to readjust my thinking yet again.

Enough about all that. That's all well and good, but what about the story?

I enjoyed it. There were plenty of twists and turns, and I did manage to restrain myself from cheating and checking Wikipedia to see how things turned out. Saladin became a very real character for me. It's clear that he's a legend in his own time, and even to this day, but his responsibilities weigh heavily on him. He's always trying to do the right thing, but sometimes it's hard to see what that is. He's very much a man who knows his own mind, but he's not too proud to seek the advice of others, no matter the source. Miriam, a completely fictional character, was a strong woman whom I enjoyed reading about. She's lived through unimaginable tragedy. It's left a mark on her soul, but she chooses to live her life to the fullest rather than cower in fear. She speaks her mind at all times and takes brave risks to try to help her people. I also liked William Chinon, another fictional character. He's a Crusader with a conscience. He doesn't feel any need to go on Crusade, but he travels along with his friend King Richard to try to be a voice of reason amid all the madness of war. He doesn't judge people by their beliefs (well, not too much), but rather judges them by their actions. He was a welcome relief from Richard's cruelty, and he was by far the most truly Christian person among those forces. There was one section where this otherwise-prosaic story took on an element of the fantastic to explain some stuff that happened. It was only a few pages, but those pages had big ramifications for the entire war. I wish the author had found a way around the mysticism.

Really, I enjoyed this book on a lot of levels. There are obviously some people who are going to be uncomfortable with the point of view. But if you're curious about stepping into someone else's shoes for a while (assuming you're a Westerner), go ahead and pick this up. It was rather eye-opening for me.

Thanks to the publicist for sending me a copy for review. ( )

The Middle Ages are my favorite era in history to study. Right now, I should tell you I majored in social studies education. I took as many classes on the medieval period as I could, because I find it fascinating. You've got religious elements, social change, trade, battles, some major historical players, oh heck yeah the Middle Ages are cool. So, when I was offered The Shadow of the Swords by Kamran Pasha, I jumped at the opportunity as a large part of the book focuses on Saladin, who is a military genius and completely fascinating.

The Shadow of the Swords is adult historical fiction set during the Crusades, when it came down to Richard The Lionheart vs. Saladin. With my inclination, this book should have set me on the edge of my seat, however, I think I may have read it at the wrong time for me. First, I wasn't really in the mood to read it, but I did anyway, you know pressure and all. Second, I've been reading straight YA, and it is really hard to transition into adult fiction when you are used to books going at breakneck speed.

The beginning of the book starts off with a main character who was not a real person in history. Her name is Miriam and she is Jewish. She's travelling across the Middle East with her parents when all of a sudden Crusaders come upon their caravan and kill her parents and then rape her. After that, we flash forward to about 10 years in the future. Saladin is in charge of Israel, and Richard the Lionheart has just been made king. Richard is not a big fan of Muslims and wants to reclaim the Holy Land. He also wants to cement his throne, since his brother John wants to be king too. (Also, guys, John really has a bad rap, but actually he just did the best he could, I mean COME ON, Richard drained the treasury, of course taxes had to be raised).

And so, of course, these characters interweave. Battles are had. As is love. And sexytimes. I'll admit, I liked the parts with Marian, she was pretty cool. Very headstrong, however she was constantly described as being hot with her milkshake bringing all the boys to the yard, which sort of got old after the 4th time. But, I did like her ingeniuity and the fact that she enjoyed reading in a time when not a whole lot of people were literate. Also, she was sexually liberated, in that she has sex for fun and her enjoyment. Again, I like that. As for historical accuracy, I am not too sure that is an accurate portrayal of women during this time. I mean, from my love sex and marriage in the middle ages class we learned people were all about chastity and if they were getting it on, it was with hookers, not with an upper class woman, like Miriam. But, it may have been different in Israel.

As for Saladin, he is so beyond cool. I mean, the man treats his war prisoners like guests instead of criminals. He is generous. He's got a great head for military. He is calm. He's also peaceful and tolerate of other religions. Now, of course the peaceful disappears when his land is attacked. I suppose that is when all bets are off. Either way, I did enjoy reading all that focused on him.

Finally, Richard. I found him to be an insufferable twit. He's so narrow-minded and cruel. I think this may have been on purpose. However, I could not wait for his parts to be over. I know history paints him as a hero, but really, I am not a fan. Personally, I like his father, Henry II best out of all the Angevins.

While I should have loved this book, I slightly liked it. Now, I don't think that is the book's fault, rather it is mine for reading it when I wasn't really feeling in the mood for it. ( )

Don't judge this book by its cover. Beneath the cheesy painting on the cover lies an exciting story of the Third Crusade in the year 1192. Richard the Lionheart leads the armies of France to reclaim the Holy Lands from the sultan Saladin. The author's beautiful writing occasionally veers into purple prose, but I didn't mind-- it was all rather fun! This is the kind of book I love- one where I can learn a lot of history and get swept away to a faraway place and time.

Most interesting to me were the author's notes at the back. Kamran Pasha, a former Hollywood film and television screenwriter, relates how he was inspired to tell this story after 9/11. He felt the Crusades represent a sort of reversal of today's Christian/Muslim conflict:--"Like the Crusaders, the Muslim extremists are resorting to barbarism and brutality to fight a war they feel they cannot win any other way."

Pasha delivers a wonderful religious sensitivity throughout the novel. Lovers of history and epics will no doubt be captivated by this fine work. ( )

Few will argue the old cliché that there are "two sides to every story," or that truth requires consideration of both sides, especially when it comes to the study of written history. The tendency of history textbooks to present only one point-of-view brings to mind the famous Winston Churchill quote, "History is written by the victors." But the "victors," unfortunately, tell us only what they want us to know, and the losers generally have lost their right to argue the point.

Kamran Pasha's "Shadow of the Swords" is an opportunity for Western readers to look at the bloody Third Crusade of the late twelfth century through the eyes of Saladin, commander of the Muslim forces in Palestine at the time of Richard the Lionheart's invasion of the region. Note, however, that portions of the book are written from Richard's point-of-view, although Saladin's character remains the most influential one throughout the book.

Most intriguingly, at the time of Richard's quest to recover the Holy Land from the hands of the Muslim "infidels," the relative strengths and weaknesses of the European and Muslim worlds were near opposites of what they are today. The twelfth century Muslim world was well ahead of its European counterpart in the areas of science, mathematics, medicine, government and weaponry. Despite this, Europeans generally considered Muslims to be little more than barbaric infidels with no right to occupy the Holy Land, especially the city of Jerusalem. As Saladin and his people saw it, Richard the Lionheart was the terrorist of his day, leader of an army seeking to destroy Muslim and Jew, alike, in the name of Christianity. More than 800 years later, the roles and positions of the two cultures have largely reversed.

Just three years before, Saladin had successfully rid Jerusalem of the Christian army that had controlled it for so long. Now, while Saladin continues to fight remnants of that army along the coast, Jerusalem is a peaceful city within which people of all faiths live and work in relative harmony. Saladin, a bit surprised at how quickly the Europeans have been able to place such a large army in Palestine to challenge him, realizes that he and his people are faced again with a war that might very well change the course of history. This fight, though, is as much about Saladin vs. Richard the Lionheart as it is about huge conflicting armies and religious differences.

Pasha uses a combination of historical and fictional characters to tell his story. And his fictional characters are so vividly painted, and his historical ones so well fleshed, that it can be difficult for the reader to remember which are real and which are made up. Pasha, very helpfully, explains which are which in an attachment to the end of the book that also puts much of the story into its historical context. "Shadow of the Swords" is eye-opening historical fiction cloaked in a love story involving Miriam, the niece of Saladin's Jewish advisor and doctor, Maimonides. Fate gives Miriam a chance to charm both leaders and she makes the most of her opportunity, eagerly playing the spy on Saladin's behalf. The inclusion of a fictional character like Miriam allows Pasha to create more complete personalities for Saladin and Richard so that there is a very personal aspect to their clash as the two men meet on the biggest world stage of their day.

Readers may find this one to be a little bit of a slow-starter (and some may, perhaps, even be a little put off at first by the point-of-view from which it is written). Do not, however, give up on this one too early; if you do, you are going to miss out on one heck of an adventure and a very painless history lesson.

Rated at: 5.0 ( )