Although I am a big fan of Sharon
Kay Penman's historical fiction and mysteries, I confess I was
disappointed with her latest historical novel, Lionheart, about King Richard I of England.
Penman,
a former attorney, is a meticulous researcher. I have found her stories
to be historically accurate and free from the anachronisms that plague
much historical fiction.
Herein
lies the problem, I think: the author and her story got lost in the
weeds of her extensive research on the Third Crusade. This book is far
more history than fiction. It needed a good editor to pare down the
recitation of facts and genealogy that bogged it down, and to encourage
more of the character development that is a great strength of Penman's
other work. Most of the characters in the book (including King Richard)
are one-dimensional.
Alternatively,
it could have been a good work of non-fiction. I admire the author's
thorough research and use of primary resources. In fact Penman says in
her afterword that she developed so much information about Richard I
that she found it could not all be used in one book--which was her
original plan.
Penman
plans a second part to her story of the Lionheart--picking up after the
Third Crusade where this novel ends and continuing through the King's
capture and subsequent life. That book will be called The King's Ransom.
I'll probably read it and will be interested to see if the author gets
out of the weeds of history and regains her creative approach to telling
the story.
I
would only recommend the book for Penman fans because it is atypical of
her writing. If you have never read her work, start with any of her
other novels, like The Sunne In Splendor or When Christ and All His Saints Slept.
