This had been on my "get around to reading it" shelf for a while, and when I finally did, I was a little disappointed. Not alternate history in the traditional sense, instead it is a story of alternate explanations for what really happened. The down side is that much of the book is about Masonic ceremonies and the missing treasure of the Jacobites...fascinating, but lacking in drama because we already know how the story comes out in the end. The most dramatic moments of the American revolution are used as a mere backdrop, which further distanced me from the story.I have always liked her purely fictional works, and I think the historical constraints interfered too much with her normal writing style. It's good, but could have been better.
Katherine Kurtz has been one of my favorite "return to" authors. She makes me think about the world in a different way. Sometimes, she takes me so completely into her worlds that it takes me a while to return to my own. In "Two Crowns," the world she creates is not of pure fantasy (as in her Deryni series) but rather of the Revolutionary United States. Scottish immigrants, patriots of the Stuart cause, have added the new colonies to their cause. George Washington, the Marquise de Lafayette, St. Germaine, are the key characters. Kurtz writes of Freemasonry being the impetus and the reason for the success of the Revolution.
What do You think about Two Crowns For America (1996)?
So apparently the Freemasons were operating behind the scenes to either offer a crown to the surviving Stuart or to George Washington, if he wanted it. In addition, they were responsible for the design of the American flag and the appearance of masonic symbols like the pyramid and the all seeing eye in the Great Seal.I felt it would have worked better without all the mystical mumbo jumbo and simply focused on the behind the scenes plotting and counterplotting. But still an interesting read although you have to wonder how much of the rituals in the Freemason ceremonies detailed in the book are based on fact
—bkwurm
Bonnie Prince Charlie, Free Masons, Founding Fathers--seasoned with just a soupcon of Kabalah. It's all good fun, and makes us look at some of the what-ifs of history. What if Washington had become king? What if Bonnie Prince Charlie had won at the battle of Culloden? The "young pretender" we meet in this historical novel is old and worn out with dashed hopes. His romantic young supporters don't see at first that the cause is lost, but they ultimately put their energies behind Washington. An enjoyable voyage in time.
—Laurie
