might happen! And it did!" How many times can you read that?Speaking of which, who is going to read this? It's too simplistic to be a thriller; too poorly researched to be "The DaVinci Code"; and too gratuitously bloody to be a romance novel. When I say simplistic, I mean that improbable situations and implausible escapes pile up like a Saturday morning cartoon. Plot developments are not merely telegraphed, they're headlined in 24 point bold. Background is wedged in so jarringly that you can almost hear the editor saying "You must establish this fact for later!" This is the kind of story where you want to reach into the page, grab the wooden staff Hugh carries, thump him with it and say: "Wake up! We all figured this out 200 pages ago!"
Read this if you will, but don't buy it - or you'll be wearing the Fool's hat.
Rating: 
Summary: A very entertaining book
Review: I can't understand all of the bad reviews this book has gotten. I found the story to be very original and entertaining. I enjoyed it very much. If you are thinking about reading it, do. Don't let the bad reviews stop you.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful
Review: First, I'm a fan of James Patterson. With this out of the way, The Jester is awful. If you've seen Braveheart, Robin Hood and the Seven Samurai, you know the plot. If you add high school level dialog, character development and plot, you understand the level of craft employed here. Throw in historical inaccuracies (Roman phalanx?) and you've got the Jester.
Go read Bernard Cornwell for first rate historical novels. Leave this one at the airport.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Enough Reading, I suppose
Review: This is a reasonably well told story about an innkeeper who goes on the Crusades to buy freedom from serfdom for himself and his wife. The story is very slow to open, with the Crusade portions almost enough to make me abandon the book entirely. Once Hugh got back to France, things rolled a little easier storywise. Unfortunately, it has more of a fairy tale feel than historical fiction/thriller, and some of the subplots were completely beyond your normal "suspension of belief". If you're a stickler for accuracy in historicals, this one will probably grate on your nerves. Logic is tossed out the window if it serves the authors' purposes. It's not the worst book I've read this year, but it isn't the best either.
Rating:
Summary: Good but different for Patterson
Review: I heard so many bad things about this book, I almost didn't read it. I found it at our local library and read it in two days. I liked the book, some of the battle scenes were a bit bloody, but I thought the story line worked and the characters seemed real. I probably would not recommend buying it but look for it in the library.
Rating:
Summary: I expected more
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books I've ever read
Review: The Jester is one of the worst books I've ever read! I should have known better than buy anything by Patterson but an Alex Cross novel; however, the lure of a historical novel was too tempting. There is absolutely no "feel" for the time period that is being written about and there is certainly no pulse-pounding advernture, mystery, and unforgetable love story (to paraphrase the blurb on the back cover of the book) offered in this novel. It is as if the writers devised a generic story and then said, "What backdrop shoud we use here? 1950 New York City? 1930 Chicago? I know, how about 1096 in southern France?" It is just awful! Save your money and your time. Pass on this one. If you want a good historical novel, try The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour (not always historically accurate , but still a good read) or any book by Tracy Chevalier.
Rating:
Summary: Patterson has done it again..w/a little help from his friend
Review: In a word, EXCELLENT! This isn't a Cross novel so don't expect one, but it is a brilliant book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would happily recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: A Thriller about a Different Time and Place
Review: Hugh De Luc is a French innkeeper in Eleventh Century France. He has a lovely wife, Sophie and is best known both for his bright red hair and his power to make people laugh. However he's got a conscience and he's haunted by the atrocities being done to Christians by the Turkish Pagans at Antioch.
So when a rag tag group on their way to join the Crusades passes through his village, Hugh takes up the cause and leaves his wife and home to join the Crusaders. However he suffers miserably on the way to the Holy Land and the war disillusions him, so he deserts and heads home. When he gets back, he finds his inn has been burned to the ground, and his wife has been abducted by riders in black.
Hugh believes she is being held by the liege Lord Baldwin, but can't find a way to save her. Then he gets idea of passing himself off as a Jester to get into Baldwin's inner circle and he augments his jokes with juggling and acrobatics and sets out to laugh and jest his way into the company of his enemies.
Meanwhile Hugh is being hunted. Someone has been mercilessly looking for him for more than a year before he returned home, desperately wanting something of tremendous value he's brought back from the Holy Land. So, how did he become the most wanted man in Christendom? Not even Hugh knows. The mission to capture him and retrieve whatever it is he's supposed to have is a mystery to him.
This is an excellent story with twists and turns a plenty. Eleventh Century France is made real by the author's vivid action and well written description. I found that I couldn't wait to see what happened next, what new secret would be unveiled in this wonderful book that transported me to a different time and place, making me forget all about the cares and worries of today.
Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: I buy Patterson books because of the specific subject matter. I was quite disappointed with this purchase!
