The Land Beyond the Sea

Another wonderfully dense narrative from Penman, this one completely set in the Kingdom of Outremer, the kingdom of the Holy Land originally won in the First Crusade and ruled since by a High Council and an "elected" highborn King. But things change in an instant in this land - there is constant war with the Saracens, and accidents and disease, and few men make it to old age, few boys make it to adulthood, and few heirs live to inherit. Politics is a ferocious game, winner take all, or perhaps lose the whole kingdom to Saladin; rather more at stake than the usual power play. In The Land Beyond the Sea there are wonderful characters to draw you deep into the story. The young leper king Baldwin, already called on at a too young age to hold the kingdom together but then has the horrible weight of leprosy added to his burden. His intensely ambitious mother redeemed by her equally intense love for her son. The sensible and courageous Balian d'Ibelin, whose adventures carry most of the story along and give the reader that someone to always have to root for. William, the cleric-historian and teacher-friend to Baldwin, and another source of common sense in the hotbed of rumor, ambition and old fashioned spite. And dozens of others, equally vivid and real, fully realized and vital to the complex political tapestry of Outremer, including Saladin and many of his family and staff. Really great stuff and fascinating from beginning to end. Though long, it never dragged, even through the author notes at the end - (essentially all characters were real people). Highly highly recommended.