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Warlord continues the story of Sir Alan Dale, a knight who is loyal to his Lord, Robert of Locksley and his king, Richard I of England. In this book, Alan accompanies Richard and his liege lord to war with France, which leads him to a path of discovery about the life of his late father.

The story opens in Alan’s later life. The year is 1230, and Alan is writing his memoirs as a gift for his grandson. I loved this way of telling the story. The action remained throughout in the first person, which made it feel as though you were there with Alan, but as he was writing from the future the story sometimes features perspective; how he felt at the time, and how he feels now. At intervals during the story we hear from present day Alan, which is also a nice touch.

I love Angus Donald’s use of language in this book. His prose flows perfectly and his characterisation is fantastic. We see Alan struggle with his varying loyalties, his senses of love, guilt and honour, we see his passions and his flaws. There is a time in this book where Alan is clearly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, and this is handled so wonderfully and sympathetically. Other characters are just as well done; Godifa, Alan’s betrothed, is a multi layered, strong woman and Mercadier, one of Alan’s fellow soldiers is brilliantly bad. Hanno, Alan’s loyal man, was my favourite character in the book. He was brave, loyal, clever and an excellent warrior.

Angus� battle scenes are some of the best in the book. Everything is action packed, exciting, descriptive and realistic. Away from the battlefield, the book still holds its own. The embedded stories of both the mystery surrounding the downfall and death of Alan’s father and the fate of his former mistress Nur keep things very exciting. The story about Alan’s father is an excellent story on its own, so added to this book it is fantastic.

The best thing about this book is that even as part of a series, it stands alone. I have not read the first three of Angus Donald’s Outlaw chronicles (yet!) but still thoroughly enjoyed this book. Nothing was confusing or random, it is an excellent story in its own right.

At the end of Warlord, Angus provides us with an author’s note explaining the factual parts of his story and the parts he has fictionalised.