Brilliant

What an excellent listen. So good that I couldn't stop listening !! I love British medieval history and this book really does bring the period to life. The author has linked the facts and the fiction to produce not only a good book but a credible account of the period. Thoroughly enjoyable and very highly recommended.

13 people found this helpful

You feel you're there. Part of the tale unfolding

What did you like most about The Greatest Knight?

How William was able to get through what seems to be unsurmountable problems in his life and just battles on.It made it all the better because William Marshal was the greatest knight and much is known about him. The story has been weaved cleverly through the history that is known to make the reader feel they are part of some of the most turbulent times in our history.

What did you like best about this story?

How the Greatest Knight develops as a person and how he balances work and personal life.

What does Christopher Scott bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

The length of pauses in the right places. It gives the characters more depth. Helps the listener wait anxiously for more. Yet he paces the book so well.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

To give you some idea of my feelings for this first of the William Marshal books. I've downloaded the next one and the others are in my wish list.Elizabeth Chadwick is a great novelist who couldn't have done better than choose Christopher Scott to narrate them.Thank you all.

9 people found this helpful

Brilliant

One of the best books I've ever read about medieval life, if I ever thought it was boring and staid then I have been sorely misinformed. I would recommend it to anyone.

Wonderful

7 people found this helpful

Extraordinary Life of a Knight

The early years of William Marshall and how life was for a knight of the royal court. The intrigues and politics make for a good plot and Elizabeth Chadwick manages to transport one back in time with a brilliant and descriptive talent. I would really recommend this book to historical addicts.

5 people found this helpful

Great book about the Greatest Knight

Oooooooooo, loved every minute of this book, didn't want it to end so I was pleased to discover there's a sequel! The narrator is easy to listen to, which is obviously a bonus and the story canters along at a great pace!!

4 people found this helpful

A really good read

Its the first time I have chosen a book by this author but on the recommendation of my sister I downloaded this one. Although I have only just got it I am very impressed. Its a really good story which bounds along at a good pace and am already planning to download more from the author.

4 people found this helpful

No depth, no real conflict, no passion

What disappointed you about The Greatest Knight?

This could have been an exciting book with heart-wrenching and exciting scenes, if the author had managed to inject any real emotion whatsoever. As it is, it's monotonous on the level both of the overarching plot, and each scene. Even if you don't know anything about William the Marshal, every time he's facing some new hardship you know that he's going to come out of it on his feet with his halo intact and very little real challenge. If the narrator switches to a character other than William Marshal for a moment, you know they'll be important, and within a sentence you can probably guess why. The characters have very little depth and it's just hard to care about them. The chapters felt about as emotional as if I had just read "William's liege was sinful and died, so William was sad and went to Jerusalem to save his soul and ponder death. Then he came back, won another tournament, and the queen told him how honorable he was."It was okay listening (on x1.25 speed) while I was doing data entry at work, but I won't be getting the sequel. I guess a positive point is that I now know how to pronounce "deshabille", as the author seems a bit addicted to that word.

Would you ever listen to anything by Elizabeth Chadwick again?

Nope.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was fine, although there's a piece of weird new-age-jazz-celtic music they've composed to put in chapter breaks and things, and it seemed to be just randomly put into places where it's not needed and left out of places it should be in. Sometimes it's like this:"William came in from his latest journey looking tired and full of honor. **MEDIEVAL ELEVATOR MUSIC** His wife thought about their babies, ran him a bath, asked him what was going on and gave him sage advice."but then sometimes it's like this:"William was no longer surprised that his 23 year old former captive medieval lady wife was a budding diplomat and took her advice to heart. John watched as knights rode up to his castle, fuming about how hard his life was and how he wasn't as good as his little brother."

What character would you cut from The Greatest Knight?

They're all as cardboard and shallow as each other.

Any additional comments?

It WAS interesting from a historical point of view, given that it's essentially a badly-dramatized biography, and did prompt me to spend some time on Wikipedia learning more about who the characters were in real life and how they fit into the rest of that period in England's history. I'm going to have to look up more historical fiction about this period and these people, just not by this author.

6 people found this helpful

Dull, poor history and even worse fiction

The narrator makes a pretty good fist if this, but let down by a mediocre book: do yourself a favour, read a Wikipedia entry or something, the history will be better and so will the writing.

Not often I fail to finish a book

2 people found this helpful

Disjointed and confusing

Far too many time jumps without enough explanation. For instance, a war happens and the reader only learns of this through the main character briefly reminiscing about it. This happens so often, instead of witnessing the character going through events, being told how he felt during those events, we're instead briefly told about them through the characters memory. This creates a rather hollow main character that goes through very little change. I lasted 7 hours, nothing much has happened. Oh except tourneys, lots and lots of tourneys.

The performance is ok, however, some of the voices sound a little too similar. I constantly forgot who was supposed to be talking.

2 people found this helpful

Medieval Minefield

The author, Elizabeth Chadwick, has an enviable style of easy delivery whilst the narrator, Christopher Scott, did justice to all the characters in my mind. I particularly enjoyed his rendition of Isabelle.
All in all a thoroughly enjoyable tale spanning four kings, including the renowned Richard the Lionheart and his evil brother Prince John but without any Robin Hood moments.