Synopses & Reviews
An action-packed tale of chivalry and betrayal set during the Hundred Years War
William Gold comes into the world as his family slides down the social ladder. His head is filled with tales of chivalry, yet he is branded a thief, and must make do with being squire to his childhood friend Sir Robert, a knight determined to make a name for himself as a man at arms in France. While William himself slowly acquires the skills of knightly combat, he remains an outsider—until the Battle of Poitiers, when Sir Robert is cut down by the greatest knight of the age, Sir Geoffrey de Charny, and William, his lowly squire, revenges him. But with his own knight dead, no honor accrues to William for this feat of arms, and he is forced to become a mercenary. Scavenging a mismatched set of armor from the knightly corpses, he joins one of the mercenary companies now set to pillage a defenseless France, and so begins a bloody career that sees William joining forces with the infamous Sir John Hawkwood and immersing himself in a treacherous clandestine war among the Italian city-states. Paradoxically it is there, among the spies, assassins, and hired killers serving their ruthless masters, that William finally discovers the true meaning of chivalry—and his destiny as a knight.
Synopsis
An action-packed tale of chivalry and betrayal set during the Hundred Years War.
September, 1356. Poitiers. The greatest knights of the age were ready to give battle.
On the English side, Edward, the Black Prince, who'd earned his spurs at Crecy.
On the French side, the King and his son, the Dauphin. With 12,000 knights.
And then there is William Gold. A cook's boy - the lowest of the low - who had once been branded as a thief. William dreams of being a knight, but in this savage new world of intrigue, betrayal and greed, first he must learn to survive.
As rapacious English mercenaries plunder a country already ravaged by plague, and the peasantry take violent revenge against the French knights who have failed to protect them, is chivalry any more than a boyish fantasy?
Synopsis
The triumphant action-packed final volume in the epic series
Twin monarchs Satyrus and Melitta have worked hard, seen much blood shed and many good friends die to secure their fertile kingdom on the Black Sea. But as the colossal conflict between Alexander the Great's former generals to inherit his empire rages from one end of the known world to the other, sitting on the sidelines is not an option. If their kingdom is to have a future, Satyrus and Melitta must join forces with one of the contenders, knowing that making the wrong choice could mean disaster. And with Ptolemy, Antigonus-One-Eye and his son Demetrius "the Besieger," Lysimachus, and Seleucus all massing their forces for one last battle, the stakes could not be higher. But with the wily Athenian schemer Stratokles, the courtesan-spy Phiale and Satyrus's lover, the power-hungry Briseis, daughter of the Tyrant of Syracuse, also determined to secure the spoils of victory for themselves, the twins find themselves caught in a deadly web of intrigue that could cost them everything.
About the Author
Christian Cameron is a former U.S. Naval Intelligence officer and the coauthor, with his father, Ken Cameron, of the acclaimed Gordon Kent military thriller series, as well as Washington and Caesar. He lives in Toronto.