The Black Rose

By: Thomas B. Costain

Narrated by: David Case

Walter of Gurnie, bastard son of an English peer, is forced to flee from Oxford for his part in the university riots of 1273. Inspired by Friar Bacon, he determines to travel to China. With his friend Tristam, he fights his way to the heart of the fabulous Mongol Empire, and returns famous, to find that he must choose between the first love he thought lost and the exotic flower that he found in the East.

Entertaining and informative

David Case does an inspired reading of
this interesting and romantic historical novel. I was in total suspense as to how things would turn out.

Another great story.

Loved it. Constain never let's you down. The narrator does a great job. I hope to acquire more books.

Lawrence of Arabia type of Epic adventure

great look at what English men would experience going through the crusade plagued lands and how Eastern ideas were regarded by Western minds.

Excellent!

Listen to it! A Great story and a Great performance/narration as well! As a first time Costain listener, this book exceeded my expectations considerably (and by the way, I've tries listening to a couple costume books after waking this one and have found them much less to my liking then this book!

I approached this title with hight expectations because George RR Martin listed Costain as one of the three greats of historical fiction in his opinion (in the introduction of any of the Accursed Kings books by Maurice Druon- this brief intro, which not only gives George's 3 favorite historical fiction authors, but his 3 favorite fantasy authors as well, and can be read for free through a previewing any of the books in that series on amazon. BTW if you haven't listened to that series, I definitely strongly recommend that series just as I strongly recommend The Black Rose!

Hauntingly great

I finished listening to, LIVING this audio book yesterday, and it's going to be a long time before I stop waking up in the middle of the night, and first things in the morning, repeating in my mind the dark-haired heroine's plaintive cry, "London? London?!" David Case (aka Frederick Harrison) doesn't simply read books he PERFORMS them and I, at least, FEEL every emotion the main character experience. I was ready to weep toward the climax praying everything (the most important thing in life) would work out as I fervently hoped in the end. The characters didn't feel like made-up people to me they were all written so real and, sublime icing on the audio book cake, splendidly brought to life by the narrator. IMO they don't write great sweeping and true-to-the-facts (no nauseating revisionist history) historical novels these days, and one that is also a totally engaging romance,