Out this week: The Iron King by
Maurice Druon (Harper Collins £14.99). Druon’s novel has been translated from the French into
English by Humphrey Hare; and the book also includes a Foreword by George R R
Martin.
“’Accursed! Accursed! You shall be accursed to the thirteenth
generation!’
The Iron King – Philip the Fair – is as cold and silent, as handsome
and unblinking as a statue. He governs his realm with an iron hand, but he
cannot rule his own family: his sons are weak and their wives adulterous; while
his red-blooded daughter Isabella is unhappily married to an English king who
prefers the company of men.
A web of scandal, murder and intrigue is weaving itself around the
Iron King; but his downfall will come from an unexpected quarter. Bent on the
persecution of the rich and powerful Knights Templar, Philip sentences Grand
Master Jacques Molay to be burned at the stake, thus drawing down upon himself
a curse that will destroy his entire dynasty…”
In his Foreword, Martin says that fantasy and historic fiction often
overlaps and that The Iron King was “…the
original game of thrones.”
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