ALA Booklist (Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2000)

This is a pulse-pounding tale, vivid and visceral. It opens with young Edmund's witnessing the king's justice: Otto, Edmund's master and the moneyer who minted coins for King Richard, has his hand cut off for cheating, and dies. As Otto's apprentice, Edmund could suffer the same fate, but, instead, he is pressed into service as squire to a knight going to the Holy Land to fight in the Crusades. Cadnum brilliantly captures both the grisly horror and the taut, sinewy excitement of hard travel and battle readiness. Edmund and Hubert, a fellow squire, cross the Channel to France, see Venice (I had never seen a more dismal town), endure sea storms and lost livestock, and eventually end up at the siege of Acre and the battle of Arsuf. Blood, filth, boredom, and fear are expertly conjured, but Cadnum also allows Edmund to catch and reflect upon differences in custom and language, meat and drink, raiment and armor. There's bawdy and violent talk, but religion as part of the heart and bone of life is present, too. (Reviewed February 1, 2000)

Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2000)

Apprentice Edmund narrowly escapes having his hand struck off when a crusader who's joining Richard the Lionhearted agrees to take him along as squire. Edmund's journey across Europe and the subsequent siege are rich in incident and historical detail and charged with frequent violence. With skill and perception, Cadnum holds to Edmund's medieval world view and never ascribes anachronistic feelings about war to the characters.

Kirkus Reviews

Cadnum revisits the medieval setting of In a Dark Wood (1998) for this tale of a young squire's experiences in the first crusade, but once again, his storytelling lacks conviction. Having seen his master's arm struck off at the order of the Sheriff of Nottingham, strapping apprentice Edmund is saved from the same fate by Nigel and Rannulf, two knights preparing to follow King Richard to the Holy Land. It's a long, grubby journey, from London to Venice, thence to the siege of Acre, and the subsequent battle of Arsuf, replete with mud, blood, filth, disease, violence, rough humor, moments of beauty, and even fugitive kindness. Edmund views his world, and his own acts, with a detachment that robs his narrative of immediacy, particularly at climactic moments. In the end, he gets a glimpse of Jerusalem, then accompanies Nigel, whose arms have been crushed, back to England. Cadnum builds on a sturdy historical framework, and the naturalistic detail adds plenty of color, but few readers will be truly caught up in Edmund's adventure. The author's confessed bafflement over "caring, responsible" adults behaving with such brutality seeps into the story, making it emotionally inaccessible. (Fiction. 12-15)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Edmund, a squire, awaits the joint punishment for his master's counterfeiting charges and escapes his fate when a knight asks him to join the Crusades. In a starred review, <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW wrote, "The message about the romance vs. reality of war proves powerful, and fans of history and adventure alike will devour this well-crafted, dramatic quest." Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9-Apprenticed to a minter of coins for King Richard, Edmund is awakened one night by the Exchequer's men, there to exact punishment for the minter's use of counterfeit metals. As Edmund watches, his master's hand is chopped off, and he knows that as apprentice, his hand is next. He escapes, but only because his arm is more useful wielding a sword in the battle to reclaim the Holy Land than nailed to a stake. As a knight's squire, he travels through Europe and across the Mediterranean, getting into a fair share of trouble and experiencing the vagaries of life on the move. Finally, arriving at Acre, he finds himself camped outside the castle walls. While all await the arrival of the king, the anticipation of the glorious battle to come is lost in the everyday reality of Crusader life-heat, poor food, sickness, and boredom. At this point the book seems endless, but in fact, the story just echoes the life they are leading. Cadnum paints a vivid, but not idealized, picture of the times. With the deft use of word and gesture, he delineates his characters in a way that makes them believable even though their mind-set is very different from ours today. What is most clear is that though the characters have faith in the rightness of their cause, the battle they are fighting is no different from any other ugly, brutal, and destructive war. Readers must be willing to stick with a tedious section of slowly rising action before the climax, but those interested in the subject should enjoy the story.-Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline, MA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.