3 out of 4 stars
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The Honorable Knight by Patrick John Donahoe is the first historical fantasy novel in The Fellowship of the Ancient Covenant Series. The story starts off with Ian, a young Irish farmer boy who dreams of carrying out a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Along the way, he saves the life of Jacques, the son of a rich noble, who also wishes to travel to Jerusalem. Where Ian longs for the honors of becoming a Knight, Jacques yearns more for personal glory than helping the common folk. After some years, they arrive in Jerusalem as part of the Crusade and soon get promoted to higher ranks.
It is in Jerusalem where they meet Desiree and Serena. Desiree is a Muslim nurse at the local hospital who falls for Ian and Serena is the Jewish daughter of a swordsmith who falls in love with Jacques. Although Ian has feelings for Serena and Jacques for Desiree, creating an uncomfortable love quadrangle. They meet an old Egyptian man who offers them the gift of immortality in exchange for protecting the world from all evils. A deal that they accept happily. In modern days, Ian is a Navy Seal, Jacques is a Mercenary, Desiree works for the CDC and Serena is a Mossad Agent. They must work together to fight off a terrorist attack that is planning on setting off a biological weapon that would kill thousands of people through a deadly virus that causes rapid aging.
The story-line of The Honorable Knight is very interesting and flows smoothly. The novel is very descriptive and I feel that the author went to great depths to investigate both historical events and modern day technology to make this book even more convincing. The jump from ancient Jerusalem to modern day times was a bit drastic, but the reader does not feel lost as the dates are clearly marked and I felt that I was able to carry on with the new story-line easily.
The characters are described very well and the author also made sure to use the different dialects that could be found in ancient times, making them even more convincing. The author gives his characters just enough backstory to help the reader get a general feel for them and I also liked how the reader can grow with the characters as they undergo their own personal changes and challenges throughout the novel.
At times, I would be drawn away from the story due to small typos and editing mistakes that, while they do not affect the flow of the book drastically, do stand out quite a bit. I also found sentences that repeated the same word quite a lot, making the sentence sound quite forced and unnatural. The story itself ends nicely, even though it does have a cliffhanger to continue with the next one in the series.
Overall, I rate The Honorable Knight with 3 out of 4 stars. The story, the plot and the characters were all great and, if it weren’t for the typos and editing issues, I would have rated this book with four stars. There are some violent scenes in the book that are quite descriptive and so I would not recommend it for younger readers or those who do not like violence. Overall, I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys reading historical fantasy and to those who are not put off by a bit of violence.
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The Honorable Knight
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