Knights Templar: A Secret History
After I finished writing Thor: Viking God of Thunder, Osprey Publishing asked me to write a Templar conspiracy title for their Dark Osprey line. Knights Templar: A Secret History is due for release later this month, and pre-orders are open on your favorite online retailer. The first review I’ve seen tells me the finished product lived up to my intentions, which is always nice to know.
I had a lot of fun writing this book. As well as poking about in the dark corners of history, I was able to spend time reviewing the history of the Templar conspiracy phenomenon and add a brand new one of my own devising. I deliberately refrained from making up any historical facts – that would be too easy – but I really let myself go when drawing conclusions from them. It was something like kitbashing, a modeling term for the process of assembling parts from different kits in a way the designers never intended and producing an entirely new plane, tank, or whatever.
This isn’t my first book on the Templars. The Colonial Gothic Templars sourcebook was a similar exercise on a smaller scale, geared to the needs of the game and focusing on Templar activity in the North American colonies during the Revolutionary War era. This new book suffers no such restrictions, and I trace the Templars – and the Holy Grail – across the Atlantic and back again as they engage in a three-way secret war with the Vatican and the Freemasons. Are the Templars using the European Union to create a global state ruled by a heretical religion? Read the facts and judge for yourself.
Just pre-ordered the Kindle version through Amazon, and I’m looking forward to it. I was confused for a moment, because there’s another “Graeme Davis” on Amazon whose books are similar enough that I thought they were yours. 🙂
It’s confusing, right enough. There may actually be as many as three others on Amazon alone.
One (the owner of graemedavis.com, for which I will never forgive him) is an academic specializing in medieval German, with titles like the edge-of-your-seat thriller “The Word-Order of Aelfric.” Given WFRP’s medieval-German(ish) setting I like to imagine him being constantly annoyed by freshmen intent on telling him all about their characters’ exploits in The Enemy Within.
Another writes Viking history. I’m hoping for some extra sales for “Thor: Viking God of Thunder” from any of his loyal readers who assume that I’m him. My college buddy Ant Allan suggested that I should approach him and propose a Viking book “by Graemes Davis.”
The third (if he is truly the third) writes popular analyses of Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code, and other publishing phenoms for readers whose lips got tired partway through Chapter Two. Definitely some potential there for confusion sales of the Templars book.
And all this after my parents went to such trouble to give me an uncommonly-spelled first name to mitigate my all-too-common surname. It is fun (and occasionally deeply irritating) to hear Americans try to pronounce it. Especially telemarketers. “Gray-mee” is the most common first attempt, but I’ve been addressed as “Mister (pause) Jer… Jer… Jerome Davis?” more than once.
A couple more reviews from Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17288805-knights-templar?from_search=true
And here’s one from Weirdmage’s blog: http://weirdmage.blogspot.com/2013/10/review-knights-templar-secret-history.html
And one from the Bad DM’s blog: http://baddm.blogspot.com/2013/10/knights-templar-secret-history.html
Here’s one from Roleplayers’ Chronicle, written by Aaron T. Huss. He completely understands what I was trying to do with the book. http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=40440
And from RPG.net, here’s a mini-review and the story of how one GM used the book in his campaign: http://www.rpg.net/columns/abitofhistory/abitofhistory55.phtml
New on Amazon.com. Up to 4.7 stars overall! http://www.amazon.com/review/R39CK82O6Q7DEF/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1782004092&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=283155&store=books
Amici italiani! Ecco una bella recensione (in lingua) del mio libro sui Templari (purtroppo disponibile solo in inglese per ora). Se Google Translate può essere attendibile, il recensore capisce bene le mie intenzioni per il libro.
http://alessandrogirola.me/2014/03/14/knight-templar-a-secret-history-di-graeme-davis/
Here’s another review, from SF Crow’s Nest: http://sfcrowsnest.org.uk/knights-templar-a-secret-history-by-grame-davis-book-review-2/
And another review from Reviews from R’lyeh: http://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2015/08/your-templar-primer.html
Here’s a new review from the Karavansera blog: http://karavansara.live/2014/02/03/templars-a-quick-fix/#more-2344
One from RPGnow.com: “… a fascinating read, and like the best fiction, leaves that nagging thought that it just might be true.”
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=98312&products_id=120177
Here is a brief interview about the book, from a blog called The Templar Knight: https://thetemplarknight.com/2018/01/10/knights-templar-a-secret-history-graeme-davis/