Defender of Jerusalem
Helena Schrader’s previous volume in her series of novels set during the Crusades dramatized the life of Balian d’Ibelin in 1171 from a landless knight of no particular renown to the trusted friend and confidante of the famous leper king of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV.
This second volume in the series (each can easily be read independently) finds Balian now a baron, married to the dowager queen and thickly embroiled in both family life and court politics.
The Christian-held city of Jerusalem in 1178 is beset by two crises, within and without: the dying King Baldwin must choose a successor before he succumbs to his illness, and the city itself must face a threat of conquest under siege by the great Saladin. It is a broader canvas than the earlier novel, and Schrader draws her readers in with panoramic shifts of time and perspective, expertly switching the narrative’s concentrations from the intimacies of Balian’s home life. For example, to the internal scramblings among various agents jockeying for the throne.
As in the previous volume, Schrader manages to incorporate a very large amount of historical fact into her narrative without bogging it down at all, and once again Balian is a hero worth getting to know.
A fine continuation of a first-rate series, and a fine novel in its own right.
