I'll grant that the author did his historical research - Harold Hardrada (in this fictional account) surpassing Lief Ericsson as the most amazing Viking of all time. From a historian's point of view, a lot of the details of this book were fascinating.

But I agree with another reviewer who found the timing of the coincidences in the book a little too pat, especially as we have one small team of archeologists stumbling across one major find after another in quick succession.

BUT -- the author commited the unpardonable sin (and he isn't the first in the mass paperback world to do so) of playing god, or of having one of his characters do so, by discovering an artifact that might have had a profound impact on the world's understanding of itself ... deciding the world wasn't "ready" for it ... and tossing it back into the brink from which it emerged.

The fictional artifact the main character tossed back into the sea wasn't his to dispose of ... and that even a fictional character would do such a thing suggests that the author would do the same thing, or saw nothing wrong with doing so, under the same circumstances. According to his biography, the author is an underwater archeologist! Nothing like having a reader end a novel by wanting to throttle the author - or at least prevent him from ever being allowed anywhere near any genuine historical artifacts.

I thought Crusader Gold's premise had promise. Unfortunately, while I found the main characters interesting and attention-worthy, and the history was complex and fascinating, the rest of the book felt like tissue paper trying vainly to hold these jewels into some semblance of a whole skein.

The pacing was entirely off. Most of the book is loaded down with complex historical exposition disguised as dialogue. When excitement does happen, it feels sudden, jarring, and out-of-place. In particular, Crusader Gold see-sawed back and forth between over-explaining and repeating information and skipping over things as though the author suddenly realized he needed to speed things up; unfortunately he often skipped just the wrong information, leaving things confused.

There are two distinct "feels" in this book that don't jibe with one another. The over-explaining of historical and technical portions of the book gives the feel of an ultra-real adventure novel in which the author wants you to know that everything he writes is absolutely possible. However, everything having to do with the bad guys (the Nazis) in this book is one-dimensional and overblown---something you might be able to get away with in a brain-candy thrill-ride, but not in a 'realistic' adventure. In addition, the main characters find their way through the plot courtesy of just enough improbable coincidence and happenstance that such ultra-realism is similarly stretched to the breaking point. Crusader Gold really needs to be one or the other: quick brain-candy thrill ride with just enough information to make it somewhat real, or ultra-realistic info-fest with all aspects given equal attention. Speaking of Nazis, the bad guys are so utterly one-dimensional that they might as well be rabid dogs.

As if all of that weren't enough, the ending is quite anticlimactic. I won't give away the details, but suffice it to say that just when you're sure you still have some interesting mileage left because the characters haven't yet found their objective, it's all cut short and solved through a little dialogue.

Full review at ErrantDreams ( )

This being Gibbins second novel, it was a marked improvement from Atlantis. The story is a bit implausible at times, with a lot of coincidences, and yet that's how a lot of history has been discovered. Gibbins knows his material, and is really passionate about it, though he is a bit effusive at times - like many of us who are given free reign to write about that which we love. I can't wait until February for the next book with Jack Howard. ( )

Gibbins tries to blend a whole lot of historical facts to form a cohesive storyline and almost succeeds... He presumes his readers would've read Atlantis before they start this one... ( )

Although it could have done with some harsh editing, this isn't a bad read, lagging in places when the author felt a need to pass on some of the historical facts to the audience so almost losing my interest a few times by the end though it had me firmly gripped by the story and I really did want to know if some of the characters survived.

Better written in many ways than the Da Vinci Code and there's a blurb from the Mirror that suggests crossing Indiana Jones with the Da Vinci Code and getting this book. It spans the Atlantic going from Iona to Greenland to Canada to Mexico to Instanbul to Rome and sometimes the galloping pace almost left me behind. Still a good thriller. ( )