Sharon Kay Penman

This is the stunning story of a great medieval warrior-king, the accomplished and controversial son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine: Richard, Coeur de Lion. It is also the story of another strong-willed man: Saladin, a Sunni Muslim born in Mesopotamia who became the Sultan of Egypt in 1174, the leader of the Saracen forces that conquered huge portions of North Africa and the Middle East before his face-off with Richard the Lionheart during the...

"The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as Outremer, is the land far beyond the sea. Baptized in blood when the men of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem from the Saracens in the early twelfth century, the kingdom defined an utterly new world, a land of blazing heat and a medley of cultures, a place where enemies were neighbors and neighbors became enemies. At the helm of this growing kingdom sits young Baldwin IV, an intelligent and courageous boy...

Simon de Montfort was a man ahead of his time in the thirteenth century, a disinherited Frenchman who talked his way into an English earldom and marriage with a sister of the English king, Henry III. A charismatic, obstinate leader, Simon soon lost patience with the king's incompetence and inability to keep his word, and found himself the champion of the common people. This is his story, and the story of Henry III, as weak and changeable as Simon...

A collection of seven short stories celebrates dangerous women, both heroines and villains, and includes contributions by Lev Grossman, Sharon Kay Penman, and Diana Gabaldon.