So, here you are, reading this review on your computer when alluva sudden, y’ blink, hiccup, sneeze, get a charley-horse in your left thigh and mightily break wind at the same nanosecond, creating a momentary local temporal rift and transporting you seemingly magically back to the Middle Ages.

Oh, poop….

But it isn’t so bad, once you get past the smell and really poor cell phone reception…you are not a peasant, grubbing in dirt and eating cold gruel, you are the son of a landholder, in fact, of an aging knight. Furthermore, you are young and strong and healthy and quick. Hot cha! No cloistered monastery life for you!

Ya-hoo!

Not so fast, Bub.

You are the fourth son, and eldest bro Rollo, though not as virile and strapping lad as you…by the Law of Primogeneture…law of succession through the firstborn son…inherits EVERYTHING when it’s ‘that time.’

So what about you, a burly, swaggering chap, not like twerpy younger brother Paphnutius,  who has little choice but to enter a monastery or abbey and nerdy brother Wenceslas, who wants to do the monk-thing.

You set out to become a Knight, earn your spurs, convince Pop to come up with some cash to equip you, then set out to earnestly fight and if possible,  plunder your way into fortune and perhaps fame and maybe even find some landholder who has a faire daughter…and no sons. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

After the First Crusade of 1099 put Jerusalem and many other sites in the Holy Land back in the hands of Judeo-Christians, not all the surviving warriors returned to their western homelands.

Many who chose to stay (or go with a later Crusade) were adventurers, captivated by the sun, warmth, the exotic Middle East. In particular, knights who were not firstborn sons (and therefore were not eligible to inherit the family land and assets) elected to stay in the Holy Land. Free men, beholden to no one, but Christians ready to defend the Faith…for a price.

Free-lances.

They became known as the Knights of Outremer, and they were a part of the region’s history from 1187 (after the disastrous Battle of Hattin) until 1344, when the Ottoman Turks re-conquered almost everything in the region.

Osprey must have considered this subject as vital, because they put their best of the best in the author and illustrator roles. David Nicolle PhD. knows his stuff and enough additional stuff for a bunch more people as well.

Christa Hook is without a doubt one of the primo living military artists. Her ability to convey weight, mass, texture, emotion in each painting leaves one’s mouth agape. Take time to look with admiration, at how she renders the textures of iron, wood, leather, rough cloth, skin.

Hey figure modelers, Smurf-dance time! For whatever reason, medieval subjects are rather prolific, especially from such outstanding companies as Andrea and Pegaso. Since there was a gob of variation and little uniformity in dress and armaments, with a bit of shopping and some minor conversions, an intrepid figure modeler can literally do a hundred Knights of Outremer without repetition.

Tunics, shields and pennants can be done in a wide range of colour, surely a welcome change from Feldgrau and WaffenSS camouflage. You can even design your own coat-of-arms heraldic emblazon for the figure’s shield and tunic. As Knights of the period were as often dismounted as mounted, there is some scope for variation there, too. A cool vignette might be the knight riding his palfrey (saddle-horse) with his squire on another palfrey, leading the destrier (war stallion) and two or three of the knight’s men-at-arms riding rouncies (‘less high quality horses’) or walking, maybe add a pack-horse and mule or two…oops, it’s become a diorama. That’s okay, too.

Okay, admitted, medieval and Renaissance subjects are a serious personal fave, so buying this book was not requiring of cranial torment. For the not necessarily pre-technologically-oriented though, this book is still a superb one to have.

Highly recommended for even the ‘litest’ student of chivalry, as this is how ‘twas on the fringes of European influence in days of yore. Perhaps less enthusiastically though still highly recommended, for the modeler, scholar, historian…anyone wanting a break from the humdrum of WW II 1943-44 Western Front Axis single-engined low-winged fighter monoplanes and with a mite of appetite for a juicy literary combo platter of superlative artwork and scholarly writing.

Review copy courtesy of the reviewer's chequebook, purchased at (R.I.P.) Timeless Hobbies

Reviewed by James Hood

(author site updated August 2005) see Scott Van Aken's m2 and other reviews of James Hood's novel Adventure--Into The Neverland, of exploring a parallel, Alternate world (concept based on the Superstring theory of physics) using WW II surplus ships, aircraft and vehicles at:)    <http://users3.ev1.net/~bjmonkeyandcj/James_Hood.htm>

Book can be ordered at <http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/SearchCatalog.aspx>  or from your local bookstore (ISBN 0-7596-9062-6 Hardbound or ISBN-0-7596-2646-4 Softcover)

M2 Book review #  (33)  20050914