Pagan's Vows: Book Three of the Pagan Chronicles (Pagan)

Features

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Cover Type: Paperback with 336 pages
• Published by: Candlewick September 13, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0763627542
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0763627546
• Book Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 9.1 ounces

From School Library Journal
Grade 7-9–Life in a medieval monastery is rife with venomous characters and underhanded dealings in this unfocused series offering set in 1188. Squire Pagan Kidrouk and his master, Lord Roland, have entered the Abbey of St. Martin to train as monks. Life consists of memorizing Latin passages, praying, and staying out of trouble. Pagan begins to hear whispers of a bribery scheme involving the cover-up of a church official's pedophilia, and when he begins to unravel the threads of the scandal, he changes the course of not only his own life, but also the lives of several others. It's important to have read the two earlier books in order to put these characters into context and understand their actions. The story rambles for quite awhile until it becomes more cohesive and eventful. The prose is somewhat choppy due to the use of short fragments rather than complete sentences. Also, Pagan's sarcastic thoughts are often placed in parentheses within these fragments, further interrupting the flow. The characters sometimes change their behaviors without explanation and some loose ends remain unresolved. Avi's Crispin (Hyperion, 2002) or Nancy Springer's I Am Mordred (Philomel, 1998) are better choices.–Kristen Oravec, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Strongsville, OH
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Gr. 8-10. Two twelfth-century crusaders from the Holy Land, Lord Roland and his 17-year-old squire, Pagan, become novices at the Abbey of St. Martin in France. With his ready tongue, quick wits, and earthy vocabulary, the irrepressible Pagan seems an unlikely candidate for monastic life. Out of devotion to his master, he tries to conform to the order's many rules, but when he unearths a deception in the monastery, he cannot ignore it. Before the end, his investigation has uncovered blackmail, led to a murder, and revealed that one of the monks has sexually abused children at the monastery. Pagan makes a lively protagonist--ill suited to his new role, yet bound by love, loyalty, and determination to stay with Roland. Jinks succeeds in creating a medieval setting that feels distinctly different from the modern world in spirit as well as in period details. This quirky, witty medieval novel, originally published in Australia, is the third in a series of four, but it stands on its own. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Pagan's Vows (Audio Cassette) (This review is for the paperback version) "Monks, monk, monks. Monks everywhere, as far as the eye can see. Rows and rows of them, crammed together on their chapter-house seats like bats in a cave. Like crows around a corpse. The rustle of their black woollen sleeves, as they point and nudge and whisper. The coughing and gurgling of old men with clogged lungs." Lord Roland and his squire Pagan, fresh from battle in the Crusades, have renounced the sword and are seeking to become novice monks at the Abbey of St Martin. Pagan isn't sure he wants to be a monk and soon finds that neither humility nor blind obedience comes easily to him, but he is equally sure he doesn't want to leave his beloved master. He also discovers that even a supposedly holy place can swarm with danger and corruption. Pagan himself tells the story, writing in the present tense, which usually gives me trouble. I normally find it both stilted an unnatural. However, for this story it feels absolutely right. Although I can imagine that many young readers might take a while to become accustomed to Catherine Jinks's spare, distinctive style, I took to it (and her warm, wry humour) straight away. As can be seen from the above quote (the book's first paragraph) her writing abounds in unfinished sentences, which most writers normally use sparingly. But here the oft-used effect serves to underline Pagan's irreverence, which is my only quibble. While I personally found this trait highly entertaining (indeed, almost endearing) I have difficulty believing that someone raised in a monastery in those days would be quite so irreverent, especially at only 17 years of age. One of his favourite expletives is "Christ in a cream cheese sauce", which would certainly be accounted as blasphemous in those days. But what does it matter when Jinks provides such an entertaining, "unputdownable" read? I'm very pleased to learn that the Pagan books are to be republished, though 5 January 2004 (the projected date for the first book, Pagan's Crusade) seems rather a long wait.