The Knight’s Pledge
In 1191, after many months of travel (detailed in a previous episode), King Richard’s army arrives in the Holy Land to support the siege of Acre. Even before they land, they are drawn into a vicious sea battle, which brings Will Bowman to the attention of the king. The siege is a protracted and brutal affair, with heavy casualties on both sides, but eventually Acre falls, and King Richard is able to turn his attention to his new protégé. However, Will is imprisoned after refusing to carry out a particularly brutal order but given a chance to redeem himself by agreeing to undertake a seemingly impossible mission.
The background research is formidable. Descriptions of the terrain and fauna are excellent. Contemporary opinions of Islam are realistic and not marred by modern political correctness. Unfortunately, there are technical issues. There are too many characters, and they come and go with depressing regularity. Will Bowman is a terrible leader. He regularly makes very poor decisions, and this eventually makes his genuine courage look like foolishness and his honour like naiveté. It takes far too long for the quest to start, and the reasoning behind it is ludicrous. A small party despatched hundreds of miles behind enemy lines to find a great treasure? What happens if they get captured and it falls into Muslim hands? There have to be a lot of happy coincidences for our adventurers.
