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Order in Chaos, Book Three of the Templar Trilogy
Order in Chaos, Book Three of the Templar Trilogy by Jack Whyte (Penguin Group $38)
The Knights Templar was a union of fighting monks, founded by Hugues de Payens in 1118, ostensibly with the aim of protecting Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land.
But it's quite possible its agenda also included the recovery of treasures stored beneath the ruined Temple of Solomon by fleeing Jews after the Roman siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD.
These were not your everyday trinkets and treasures. We're talking about the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, objects the Catholic Church would have been desperate to uncover or possibly cover up.
No wonder Jack Whyte couldn't resist. The Templar knights have always fascinated, and dozens of books of fiction, history, fantasy and mystery have been written on the subject, long before Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Heroic characters, mysteries, quests for hidden treasure, secret rituals, battles and betrayals... Of Scottish origin, Whyte may have been drawn to speculate that the surviving knights took sanctuary in Arran, a remote area of Scotland, loosely under the rule of the excommunicated King Robert the Bruce, a famous warrior and Scotland's greatest king (1274-1329).
Much of Order of Chaos is based on possible fact. The Templars' exile could have been real, for example, as carvings in Scotland's Rosslyn Chapel seem to depict certain Templar rituals.
Jack Whyte's Knights of the Black and White, released in August 2006, and Standard of Honor, released one year later, have chronicled the Templar origins through its founder, Hugues de Payens, and the ongoing Crusade adventures of three members of the St. Clair family.
Those who have read the first two books will be eager for this final novel.
In Book Three, Sir William St. Clair has a lot on his shoulders. France's greedy and devious King Phillipe IV has pounced on the Templar, seized its assets, and imprisoned its knights.
Grand Master Jacques De Molay has been snatched and is now at the mercy of the Inquisition. After more than two hundred years of prosperity and service to church, king and country, the Order of the Temple of Solomon is about to come to an end.
Not all is lost, however. St. Clair, alerted by De Molay, has managed to spirit away a large fleet based at La Rochelle, taking the Temple's famous treasure with him, along with a thousand knights.
In Order of Chaos, Sir William St. Clair and his knights manage to overcome enormous obstacles and to thrive in their exile, forming close relationships with the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, and his close friend, Sir James Douglas. Both the king and Knight Templar are on shaky ground.
Robert the Bruce must oust the British and their supporters from his lands. His excommunication from the church for a perceived murder in Dumfries before the high altar has not helped matters.
Sir William must keep order and morale high within his ranks, conceal their true identity, and face an unknown future.
In spite of the ultimate death of the Templar's last Grand Master, who is burnt at the stake, and the subsequent realization that the order is finished, and can never again return home, optimism lingers.
There is a cumulative battle in full Knights Templar regalia, during which our heroes attempt to defeat British invaders in the face of overwhelming odds. We hope that St. Clair will be able to sail off to a distant land called Merica with his ladylove, the feisty widow, Lady Jessica Randolph.
This is a meaty book, full of details you wouldn't expect to find in an adventure so action-packed: what the knights wore, every layer down to their skin, for example, and how ladies of the period prepared their makeup and hair.
Several pages are devoted to Sir William's solitary bathing in the sea and his convoluted preparations for drying himself. I'd rather the pages were spent in bringing me up to speed on what is happening to Tam, Sir William's invaluable aide and the most intriguing character in the book. After such a strong entrance, he resurfaces only occasionally.
Like a Greek tragedy, much happens in-between the chapters, often the really exciting stuff, like the decisive Battle of Bannockburn.
(In1314, the Battle of Bannockburnwas wonwhen a Templar force led by Sir William St. Clair came to Robert the Bruce's aid; and thereafter Scotlandremained an independentkingdom for 289 years.) There is also the revelation of the origins of the battered ship William spies following his solitary swim. All of it is learned second-hand, in true Greek messenger style.
But, to be fair, 'showing' might have made this 600-pager even weightier, and how much action can a reader withstand?
Word is that this indefatigable Kelowna author has another trilogy underway, to be called The Guardians of Scotland, set in the 14th century during the Scottish Wars of Independence. The Templars have made their fictional exit with Order in Chaos, but we can look forward to seeing more of Robert the Bruce and James Douglas.
9780670045150
-- review by Cherie Thiessen
[BCBW 2009]
The Knights Templar was a union of fighting monks, founded by Hugues de Payens in 1118, ostensibly with the aim of protecting Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land.
But it's quite possible its agenda also included the recovery of treasures stored beneath the ruined Temple of Solomon by fleeing Jews after the Roman siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD.
These were not your everyday trinkets and treasures. We're talking about the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, objects the Catholic Church would have been desperate to uncover or possibly cover up.
No wonder Jack Whyte couldn't resist. The Templar knights have always fascinated, and dozens of books of fiction, history, fantasy and mystery have been written on the subject, long before Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Heroic characters, mysteries, quests for hidden treasure, secret rituals, battles and betrayals... Of Scottish origin, Whyte may have been drawn to speculate that the surviving knights took sanctuary in Arran, a remote area of Scotland, loosely under the rule of the excommunicated King Robert the Bruce, a famous warrior and Scotland's greatest king (1274-1329).
Much of Order of Chaos is based on possible fact. The Templars' exile could have been real, for example, as carvings in Scotland's Rosslyn Chapel seem to depict certain Templar rituals.
Jack Whyte's Knights of the Black and White, released in August 2006, and Standard of Honor, released one year later, have chronicled the Templar origins through its founder, Hugues de Payens, and the ongoing Crusade adventures of three members of the St. Clair family.
Those who have read the first two books will be eager for this final novel.
In Book Three, Sir William St. Clair has a lot on his shoulders. France's greedy and devious King Phillipe IV has pounced on the Templar, seized its assets, and imprisoned its knights.
Grand Master Jacques De Molay has been snatched and is now at the mercy of the Inquisition. After more than two hundred years of prosperity and service to church, king and country, the Order of the Temple of Solomon is about to come to an end.
Not all is lost, however. St. Clair, alerted by De Molay, has managed to spirit away a large fleet based at La Rochelle, taking the Temple's famous treasure with him, along with a thousand knights.
In Order of Chaos, Sir William St. Clair and his knights manage to overcome enormous obstacles and to thrive in their exile, forming close relationships with the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, and his close friend, Sir James Douglas. Both the king and Knight Templar are on shaky ground.
Robert the Bruce must oust the British and their supporters from his lands. His excommunication from the church for a perceived murder in Dumfries before the high altar has not helped matters.
Sir William must keep order and morale high within his ranks, conceal their true identity, and face an unknown future.
In spite of the ultimate death of the Templar's last Grand Master, who is burnt at the stake, and the subsequent realization that the order is finished, and can never again return home, optimism lingers.
There is a cumulative battle in full Knights Templar regalia, during which our heroes attempt to defeat British invaders in the face of overwhelming odds. We hope that St. Clair will be able to sail off to a distant land called Merica with his ladylove, the feisty widow, Lady Jessica Randolph.
This is a meaty book, full of details you wouldn't expect to find in an adventure so action-packed: what the knights wore, every layer down to their skin, for example, and how ladies of the period prepared their makeup and hair.
Several pages are devoted to Sir William's solitary bathing in the sea and his convoluted preparations for drying himself. I'd rather the pages were spent in bringing me up to speed on what is happening to Tam, Sir William's invaluable aide and the most intriguing character in the book. After such a strong entrance, he resurfaces only occasionally.
Like a Greek tragedy, much happens in-between the chapters, often the really exciting stuff, like the decisive Battle of Bannockburn.
(In1314, the Battle of Bannockburnwas wonwhen a Templar force led by Sir William St. Clair came to Robert the Bruce's aid; and thereafter Scotlandremained an independentkingdom for 289 years.) There is also the revelation of the origins of the battered ship William spies following his solitary swim. All of it is learned second-hand, in true Greek messenger style.
But, to be fair, 'showing' might have made this 600-pager even weightier, and how much action can a reader withstand?
Word is that this indefatigable Kelowna author has another trilogy underway, to be called The Guardians of Scotland, set in the 14th century during the Scottish Wars of Independence. The Templars have made their fictional exit with Order in Chaos, but we can look forward to seeing more of Robert the Bruce and James Douglas.
9780670045150
-- review by Cherie Thiessen
[BCBW 2009]
Submitted on September 3, 2009 in By David.
