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Rating: 
Summary: Definitely a good book.
Review: Generally, I like all of the Osprey Men-At-Arms books, but this is one of my favorites, considering I'm particularly interested in the crusades and knights of the period. This book gives you a very good overview of the history of the templars, providing a lot of nice images to give you a feel for how things looked. I'd definitely recommend it. As with the other books in this series, they're too brief if you're looking for very detailed and in-depth information-- But as an introduction, a suppliment, or just for general interest, it's absolutely wonderful!
Rating: 
Summary: A good general history of the military orders of monks.
Review: Please ignore the usual Amazon anti-catholic smear in the editorial review that attempts to insinuate that the church created these orders of military monks to protect its wealth.The truth is that the church did not create these orders. For example, the Teutonic Knights were created by German merchants in the Holy Land as a hospital for German crusaders. Anyway, this volume is a good read for both the casual historian and the serious scholar. While it is by no means exhaustive, it is a good place to begin for those who wish to find out more about the selfless, devoted men who dedicated their lives to serving God and his church.
The color plates are average, Osprey has certainly produced better. Overall, I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview
Review: this book gives an excellent, although very brief, overview of the medieval military orders. All the usual suspects (Teutonic Knights, Templars etc.) are here, but also some of the lesser know (mostly Iberian) orders. My only critique would be that the color plates lack variety in showing almost excusively the three dominant orders.
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