When the king of France and the pope conspire against the Knights Templar, it's up to one renegade knight to avenge his slain brothers in this sprawling historical adventure.
Acclaimed author, screenwriter, and video game designer Jordan Mechner began his career by creating the blockbuster games Karateka and Prince of Persia. He became the first game-creator-turned-screenwriter to adapt his own work as a major motion picture with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Mechner has published his game development journals from the 1980s as a book, The Making of Prince of Persia. Templar includes the first book of the trilogy, Solomon's Thieves, previously published separately in paperback by First Second. Mechner was born in New York and attended Yale University. LeUyen Pham and Alex Puvilland have not only illustrated Templar, but also Prince of Persia, the graphic novel, with Jordan Mechner and A.B. Sina. Alex works for DreamWorks Animation as a visual development artist, and LeUyen is the illustrator of over forty books for children, including the Freckleface Strawberry series by Julianne Moore, the Alvin Ho Series by Lenore Look, and her own All the Things I Love About You.
"With Templar, Jordan Mechner combines true flair for classic adventure with a firm grasp of medieval history, for an unforgettable tale of love, gold and glory. And Pham and Puvilland bring their strong individual style to bear on 14th century France with gorgeous art that is both clean and lush at the same time. Put them together and you've got yourself a winner. Michael Curtiz should have been so lucky." --David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, creators of HBO's Game of Thrones "The creative trio of Mechner, Pham, and Puvilland got their high-adventure story rolling with Solomon's Thieves (2010). What wasn't apparent in that first volume of the planned trilogy was how deeply into historically weighty territory the story would cut . . . [That history] constitutes a searing, sobering counterweight to the story's high-wire derring-do and jovial camaraderie. Add to all that a nifty Ocean's Eleven-style caper, outstanding artwork, and enough romance to get the heart invested, and you have an epic adventure comic for the ages." --Booklist (starred review) "A wholly engaging and entertaining mix of medieval history, political intrigue, and cinematic thrills in a swashbuckling heist adventure . . . Mechner's (Prince of Persia) tight plot never misses a beat, and the book is a definite page-turner. His passion for the subject is reflected in the story's adherence to actual events and settings, ably visualized by husband-and-wife illustrators Pham and Puvilland, whose art lends itself well to the stirring narrative. It's a rollicking good time and a real gem of a book, well worth the wait and price." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A 480-page graphic novel and one of the most perfect representations of what the term means . . . The enormous work has a strong protagonist with complex and even conflicting goals, a wealth of secondary characters with their own goals and stories, and a rich background in a troubled world. It even comes with a selected bibliography and a discussion of further reading. Not many other graphic novels go to that length. Mechner gives a human face to one of the most whispered-about and objectified organizations in Western history: the Knights Templar." --Jeff Provine, BlogCritics.org "Templar is a beautifully executed historical thriller written by famed game designer Jordan Mechner (who created Prince of Persia) and drawn by Leuyen Pham and Alex Puvilland . . . A classic caper story filled with glorious and horrible swordfights, skullduggery, torture, romance, banditry, piety, bravery and treachery. I came to this not knowing much about the Templars and caring about them even less, but found that once I picked the (massive) book up, I couldn't put it down. This is some great and exciting storytelling." --Cory Doctorow (author of Homeland and Little Brother)
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