Acclaimed scholar and writer, James Reston Jr., sometimes writes fiction, sometimes non-fiction, and sometimes he combines both; and it is in this book that he successfully infuses both elements of writing ability: his mastery of medieval history with his ability to write a thrilling narrative. The author has lectured widely in the United States and overseas on the millennium and the Crusades, citing their relevance to modern issues. He has been a fellow at the American Academy in Rome, a scholar in residence at the Library of Congress, and is currently a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

This book begins as a dual biography of Richard I, King of England, known as the Lionheart, and Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt, Arabia and Mesopotamia. It then continues, re-creating the collision of the Christian holy wars and the Muslim jihad at the end of the twelfth century, events popularly known as the Third Crusade. The blood-soaked “crusader movement” stretched over a period of 200 years, unleashing an unprecedented frenzy of violence. It was initiated by Pope Urban II in 1095 and reached its zenith with the Third Crusade (1187-92); it was the largest military endeavor of the Middle Ages and brought together into conflict two of the most iconic and fascinating figures of the last millennium. Reston depicts Richard the Lionheart in his full complexity as well as breaking new ground by openly discussing the Western leader’s homosexuality. Reston’s portrait of the Kurd, Saladin, brings to life the highly cultured leader who fulfilled the Muslim dream of uniting Egypt with Syria and re-taking Jerusalem, turning the latter into a hero of epic proportions in the Muslim world. Reston also devotes a good deal of text theorizing how the personalities of these two leaders affected the course of events in the Third Crusade, and he briefly touches on their fates after the end of the campaign.

Reston’s prose is lucid, fine, at times poetic, and dripping with the blood of a history that embarrasses the heart of Western Christianity to this day; such that in the Spring of 2000, in his visit to the Holy Land of Jerusalem, the late Pope, John Paul II, issued a sweeping apology for all sins committed by the Roman Catholic Church in the name of religion - the Crusades were specifically mentioned.

Some have accused Reston of treating Christians in his work pejoratively, and ‘siding with the Muslims’, yet he asserts, in defiance, that he has not manifested any bias whatsoever. In spite of this, others have accused him of being more concerned with ‘telling a good story’ and venturing into the ‘hyperbolic’ at times, albeit with his engaging and vivid style. Because of this, his book may have a limited use for academics. The author’s book entitled Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors is a continuation of his devotion to the genre of historical-religious wars, and was released in October of 2005. Warriors of God is soon to be made into a major motion picture from Phoenix Pictures and MGM.