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A colorful, riveting and well-researched history of the crusade, if somewhat sensationalized.

The style is engaging and Reston does a good job fleshing out Richard as hot-tempered, generous and petty, along with his gift for tactics and his inspired leadership on the battlefield. Saladin comes off as mature and cool-tempered, Richard’s equal as a strategist if not as a warrior. The portraits of Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Philip are also vivid. The coverage of the battles is vivid (if somewhat short) The narrative is compelling, fast-paced and flows well.

Unfortunately, the tone can be a little flip at times; the the historical, cultural and political context could have been developed more; and the treatment of the two sides sometimes seems skewed in Saladin’s favor. There are no footnotes, he seems to accept the sources without question, and Reston uses dialogue that comes off as imagined. Some parts of the book read like a sensational movie script (at one point Reston writes of Richard arriving on shore carrying a sword and crossbow in both hands, even though we only know he used both weapons in one day of battle) He makes odd comparisons to Navy SEALs. Reston also seems to dwell more than necessary on his theories about Richard’s alleged homosexuality, which he seems to treat as established fact at times, and presents in a way that doesn’t always make much sense. Reston condemns Richard’s atrocities in one part of the book, but has nothing to say about those on the other side. For some reason Balian of Ibelin is almost completely ignored. Also at one point he writes that Henry II, Eleanor, and Alais "raged at one another, as we know from the modern play The Lion in Winter," even though that story is fiction. At one point Baldwin V is called Baldwin IV’s son, even though he was a nephew. Reston also seems puzzled by Richard’s decision to avoid a siege of Jerusalem and withdraw to Jaffa; he does not cover Richard’s own rationale that he was too extended from his supply base and that most of his men would go home after a victory rather than remaining behind to occupy the city. Reston also seems to find it absurd that Richard would start a campaign against Cairo, even though so many other crusaders did the same thing after Richard’s. He also seems to portray the war as one of Muslim resistance to foreign invasion, even though Saladin and his main commanders weren’t even from the Holy Land, and not all of the inhabitants were Muslim.

A clear, dramatic, well-written and very readable work, if simplistic.