Product Description

GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD is set in the Kingdom of Arran, in the Caucasus Mountains, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, A.D. 950. It tells the tale of two wandering adventurers and unlikely soulmates, variously plying their trades as swords for hire, horse thieves and con artists - until fortune entangles them in the myriad schemes and battles that follow a bloody coup in the medieval Jewish empire of the Khazars. Hired as escorts for a fugitive prince, they quickly find themselves half-willing generals in a mad rebellion, struggling to restore the prince's family to the throne. As their increasingly outrageous exploits unfold, they encounter a wondrous elephant, wily Rhadanite tradesmen, whores, thieves, soldiers, an emperor, and discover the truth about their young royal charge.

Beautifully illustrated throughout, this is a novel brimming with raucous humour and cliff-hanging suspense, combining the spirit of The Arabian Nights with the action of The Three Musketeers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31640 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

The Times
'The book equivalent of the Promised Land'

Review
'Every page holds a twist, while the prose is rich, but perfect in its control, and its calibration between the poetic and the exotic . . . readers might feel that they have reached the book equivalent of the Promised Land.' (The Times )

'It's been a while since I had such fun reading a book . . . It's like dipping into a leather-bound chronicle full of exciting legends and reminded me of the fathomless pleasure with which I used to read as a child. I was rapt.' (Daily Telegraph )

'From the opening sentence of this rip-roaring, swashbuckling yarn, you know you're in the hands of a master . . . That level of brio, invention and panache continues at breakneck pace throughout . . . smart, clever and stylish' (Scotland on Sunday )

'A rip-roaring ride of a novel' (Independent on Sunday )

‘Intricate and exuberant . . . It's hard to resist its gathering momentum, not to mention the sheer headlong pleasure of Chabon's language.’ (New York Times Book Review )

'a celebration of male friendship' (Sunday Telegraph )

'great fun' (Sunday Times )

New Statesman
'Made sparkling by the wit and energy of his writing. Ridiculous but very readable rambustiousness'

Customer Reviews

Delicious!
The subtitle to "Gentlemen of the road" is 'a tale of adventure' which is exactly what it is, and it's dedicated to Michael Moorcock, which is very telling too. Fabled lands of ancient history (where you can never really that what is fact and what is fiction), a pair of very different but both extremely likeable heroes and a host of colourful other characters, cities under siege and relentless pursuits on horseback... it's all there and very well done too. The language is at times difficult but ultimately shows how rich the English language is and to what great effect it can be used.

This book made me feel like I was twelve again and discovering for the first time Ivanhoe, Tarzan, or Verne's novels, reading them entranced and feeling, for the duration of the novel, how grand it must be to live a adventurer's life ;-)

Fun to read
And delightful to hold. An old-fashioned story, with princes, cutthroats, barbarians, and swords (no sorcery, just a bit of medicine). A doctor and an old soldier set to reconquer an old empire. '"What a pair of swindlers", an enemy said admirinly' The book yields what you expect from it.

Gentlemen of the Road
I started to read this book with high hopes. It had been set as the 'monthly read' by our book club; also a very widely-read friend had recommended another Michael Chambon book which she had enjoyed.

It looked like an easy read - a fairly short adventure story. But I soon became bogged down in names of tribes and places and, above all, in endless fighting. I read the first 40 or 50 pages and could not go on. In that time there had been not one female character, just fighting men. I tried to read on but had absolutely no interest in it.

To my surprise my companions in the book club did not agree at all with my assessment of the book. One member said she had given up reading half way, but went back and read it again, this time finishing it and enjoying it. Another thought it an excellent historical novel. A third had looked up all the place names in a historical atlas and was fascinated by the descriptions. Everyone else had finished reading the book and found good things to say about it.

The one criticism we all agreed on was that the author sometimes uses sentences of such length that the reader has to start again to unravel the meaning. Even that was accepted by some members as showing that the author was attempting to use language suitable to the period he was writing about.