Book Review: Katherine Kurtz

Posted by Paula Stiles Jul 9, 2006

Katherine Kurtz is not, strictly speaking, an historical fiction writer. She's a fantasy writer best known for her series "The Deryni Chronicles". But she also does a series of fantasy anthologies called Tales of the Knights Templar, the modern-day "Adept" series (with Deborah Turner Harris) about a Scottish laird who was a condemned Templar in a previous life and a two-part series, also with Harris, about the Scottish wars with England and the legendary establishment of the Templars as Freemasons in Scotland: The Temple and the Stone and The Temple and the Crown.

The latter two novels weave history with a fantasy background. William Wallace's death is the willing human sacrifice of a sacred king that renews Scotland and empowers her against evil forces. In a particularly creepy series of scenes, John Comyn is first possessed by an occult evil, then killed by Robert the Bruce in self-defense after Comyn tries to murder him with sorcery. One can scoff at these over-the-top shenanigans and the underlying theory about the Templar connection to the Freemasons. But Kurtz and Harris do their homework in both the history and the fantasies of the period. The beauty of fantasy is that you can do a story in a slightly alternate historical world and make some good points about contemporary cultural beliefs that we can't nail down historically.

Sir James George Frazer's now mainly discredited myth of sacred kingship, for example, still neatly sums up how the Scots felt about Wallace after his death. The vicious, sorcery-fueled rivalry between Comyn and the Bruce is a good metaphor for the backstabbing and conspiracies among the nobility of their day. Kurtz and Harris also bring a genuine sense of horror to the evil in their stories, even if they bash pre-Christian religions a wee bit too much.

Kurtz and Harris also portray their Templar characters vividly. The Temple is their true focus in The Temple and the Stone series. One of their best creations ever is Arnault, a calm, experienced Templar brother with a lot more under the hood than most around him realize. All of the occult trappings aside, Arnault is an excellent portrait of a late-13th century Templar prodhomme, one of the unsung brethren who preserved the Temple's history and secrets during the Order's existence.

So, if you're looking for a better-researched alternative to Braveheart and you like fantasy, check this series out.