The Third Crusade: Richard the Lionheart, Saladin and the Struggle for Jerusalem (Campaign) |
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David Nicolle
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Pages: 96 (Paperback)
ISBN: 1841768685
Pub: Osprey Publishing
Pub date: 2005-11-14
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 246238
Reader Reviews:
Good book with bad colour plates and very complicated maps (1/1 people found this helpful)
This is a really good book about the Third Crusade and I recommand it warmly for the introductory reading. Descriptions of the siege of Accre and of the battle of Arsuf are clear and interesting. The well known anti-Christian and pro-Muslim bias of David Nicolle is here very much under control. In fact I was pleasantly surprised by the effort of objectivity, especially considering that the cruel treatment of Muslim prisoners by Richard Lionheart could actually justify some crusader bashing. Nevertheless, the author couldn't resist to place a very demeaning comment, writing that for the Muslims the Western women were "considered pretty useless for anything". I confess being deeply shocked by that sentence.
The book has two weak spots. The maps, usually good in David Nicolle books, are to complicated, to the point of being impossible to uderstand. However, the really bad point are the horrible colour plates by Christa Hook. Hardly any details are available, the dominating shade is dirty gray and the faces of the fighters are hardly human - it is possibly good modern art, but these illustrations are useless to military history passionates.
Dont have high hopes...Christ Hook need I say more!? (1/2 people found this helpful)
Dr. Nicolle shines once again with his intimate knowledge of subject.
But he seems to be jumping on the Osprey boat to rip off customers by divulging his knowledge more sparingly in this book.
Mainly deals with the battle of Arsuf.
Of 92 pages 40 are devoted to Arsuf.
Usual waffling introduction wasting space.
One map had over 50 sidelines to read...repeated nearly as shortly in the text itself. Seems they didn't know what to write on this one and the maps where so clustered it put one off even attempting to read them.
Christ Hook got her foot in the project once again and supplied three of her obnoxious plates. The plates are so lousy that even she couldn't find anything to write for plate commentary...1/3 of page left blank!
What am I paying for here??!
Makes one laugh...and Osprey keep on selling her as a wanted artist!
Not by any serious Osprey collector.
Book is overpriced and a waste of hard earned money. Dont buy!
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Countries & Regions -> Asia -> Middle East -> Arabian Peninsula
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Britain & Ireland -> British Heads of State -> Richard I
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Europe -> The Crusades
Books -> Subjects -> History -> General
Books -> Special Features -> Search Inside!
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback