The Jester

When I read the back cover I thought the idea was interesting. A man disguised as a jester to take revenge on a powerful feudal lord. But the writer is not able to create tension or any believable character. It is like we were expecting all the time to the point when we can understand why someone wrote this book.
I am not talking about the historical accuracy, probably the writers have done a lot. It is only that we cannot see it, at least I cannot.
There is not real adventure on this book. The writers seemed to have wrote the book in a week. Because is so fast...But also there is nothing on it that makes me feel any empathy with the characters. They are all grey. Even the villains are boring.
All seems so cliche. Like if you have read this book other thousand times. Nothing new, nothing interesting.
A pity because the idea was very good.

Didn't get into it right away. I was expecting a time jump from "then" to "now". When that didn't occur I had to go back and re-read some sections to catch up on the story. Lots of turns and weaves, an entertaining book. Lots of ups and downs with the main characters, some which got me involved with the people. I wish I could write like this, it is a true talent.
Patterson's writing style is so different from Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton, the short chapters seem to lead me through the story faster and make transitions between events and people easier to follow. After reading over 20 of his books, I'm still hooked.

I'm appalled at the reviews. Even the bad ones. Has the term hero lost all meaning? Forget the errors in history and the language, what about the age old term hero: champion, defender, guardian, etc. Here's a short synopsis of what I took from this book. The village is being preyed upon by the villain. He puts out his demands, and if they aren't met people will be grossly mistreated or killed. The champion steps up to the plate and vows to keep the village safe from the villain (because the villain has already done his worst and left his victims alive). Then the hero decides to run off to the Crusades. When he returns, not ony is his wife taken, but the villagers are grossly mistreated and/or killed. There was a deadline to be met that was set by the villain, which the hero had vowed to meet. The hero showed his true colors and reneged on his vow AND left his wife (the most beautiful woman in all the land) totally unprotected. He didn't even have the forethought to ask someone else to vow to protect her. That's because there was no one. Everyone in the village had already been abused, so he left them all unprotected.

As he goes searching for his wife and tries to solve crimes and mysteries while playing the fool, he falls in love. Although he still thinks of his wife, the new object of his obsession slowly takes over and his wife becomes more or less an afterthought. When he finds her, she has become the object of the most deplorable and inhuman conditions, but hey, he's in love with someone else now. Eventually the story ends with him living happily ever after with his new love and their new children. The author should at least have had the hero's fingernails pulled out or had him flogged. I've never read a story with a hero who totally steps back from his responsibilities and "vows" and still lives happily ever after.

I've read The Jester more than once. All I can say is EPIC READ. The fast-paced storyline and suspense pairs perfectly with the graphic details and desire for the underdog to win. This book will tug at your heartstrings while making you pump your fist eagerly awaiting for karma to kick in against the antagonist(s). Great job, Patterson.

A friend recommended this to me as being Patterson's best book, and now that I have read it, I agree. It is part Braveheart, part Gladiator. Hugh De Luc runs a small village inn with his beautiful young wife. But the tyrannical Lord Baldwin and his minions terrorize the village and exact huge taxes and kill and torture citizens. Hugh De Luc goes to war to fight for a better world, only to be disillusioned by the violence. He comes home to find that he has a young son who was killed and that his wife was abducted. He goes on a single minded mission to find her, becoming a jester so that he can infiltrate Baldwin's court. Along the way, he is aided by a beautiful noble woman and a wise old jester.

The book is about love, loyalty, and the dream of a world at peace. One of the best books I've ever read.

James Patterson is one good author whom i've frequently heard around in certain circles, whence i never immediately noticed that I have one of his thrillers entitled SHE HOW SHE RUNS while reading this great medieval novel - wherein the main character have chosen to look for a holy relic just to pacify the tyranny that their townsfolk suffers under the hands of a very cruel government, only to find that upon his return his allegiance to the governing kingdom would be tarnished by its betrayal of the pact they've been given.
Hearken from this scenario- the novels already enticing pace runs to gradually build up from there even more.

Seldom would a book grab your attention that'd make it on the level of a hard-to-put-down category. This undoubtedly levels to shack itself that way.

The paperback includes an excerpt of the author's upcoming novel. Note however that the paperback edition goes with two different covers - the difference is in the bloated print-out of the cover's name for the author - the one with the grey edition has a picture of James Patterson on the inside back flap cover of the book while the white one has not. How did I found out is because I replaced the first copy i bought and replaced it with a more mintier conditioned copy only to find that its the white one. Hence I got me two copies of the same book .. *doh!*
The novel is written in the format wherein the lead character narrates the story, and yet there are portions wherein we are granted a narrative at some points that are outside of the lead character's perspective. I guess this explains which parts are written by Patterson and those by co-author Andrew Gross (-me thinks... presumably that is) with Patterson doing those which are narrated by the character and Gross had the ones which are plain narratives outside the confines of the lead characters' scope.

It's best that the reader should just lay back and allow the plotline to run its course while reading the novel - without raally having any idea about what's to come up next on its storyline. And it beats the retard-like ambitious farce of the DA VINCI CODE (which is soon to be out as a major motion picture starring the ever-faggy Tom Hanks)- this one's a great hell of a fabulous ride.

This is one of those wonderful books which grabs you immediately and doesn't let go . . . and then, when you have turned the last page, you wish you were still in the middle.

The characters are alive and well-rounded. The historical adventure through the Crusades is thorough, bloody, honest, and powerful. Hugh De Luc an innkeeper who becomes a crusader, jester, warrior, leader, spy, et al. He is enchanting, and his character grows through loss and reward, pain and triumph.

By far, one the best historical fictions on the market.

If you're only familiar with the Alex Cross Patterson novels, then you'll hardly believe this is by the same author.

A lot of authors find a niche that they are good at or drives home the best sales for their publisher, and very rarely stray from that formula. Here, Patterson takes a chance, and delivers a terrific story.

Hugh is a protagonist that you are certain to root for, and while the story itself may not be historically accurate, somewhat farfetched in terms of the obstacles that Hugh overcomes, and ends somewhat predicatably, this is a story of human survival that will tug at your heart strings.

Sit back, relax, suspend belief for awhile, and drift off to a thousand years in the past.....

I'm not sure who wrote this book. The cover says something about a James Patterson, and his cohort Andrew Gross, but the diction is not much better than a 7th grader. I'll make the assumption that this is a junior-high school prank; sending in a story and getting published under another person's name. I hope Mr. Patterson isn't too offended.

I had heard that this story was very well researched. Well, I guess if you Google "crusades" and skip past some embarrassing things said by president bush, you'll get a plethora of information you can use in a book. Like how people in the 11th century would say things like "sonofabitch", "sharpened to a tee", and "whaddaya do". I never knew they talked like that, but it is this realistic sense the author uses that allows the reader to suspend disbelief (even as it approaches the weight of a piano). But hey, I don't begrudge the kid. He writes fairly well for a 7th grader. Very well skilled for his vocabulary level, though I think he lacks talent for any sort of plot, character development or storytelling in general. But I hope he keeps trying.

The only thing that really upsets me about this book is that I paid $4.99 for it out of a bargain bin. Sorry, but that would have been better spent on a Latte, and maybe some change left over for the parking meter. Alas, more's the pity.

This will make a nice B-movie someday. I think it'll be one of those films that turns out better than the movie (by far) (very, very far). Even if it stars "Carrot Top" as our intrepid innkeeper. Hey, especially "Carrot Top"! But don't bother with the big screen. It'll be on late night TV soon enough.

Jester reads like a Spielberg film and it's a pity the filmeister hasn't thought of making this story into an epic.

This is not typical Patterson far and I would guess Patterson fans might be put off by a period piece, but this is one great story.

Proof? You know that feeling of sadness when one finally reads the last page of a book, only to realize the story has ended? Proof enough.