Amazon.com reviews and web site posted below
I really liked the book and thought it read a LOT better than Da Vinci Code and actually, more believable! The final battle scene is so exciting I actually gasped at one point. What I most enjoyed about the book was finding out how high-tech the Templars were for the times. Very cutting edge with their homing pigeons and fancy ships, and all. Read it for the story and you'll get some fascinating history along the way.
This is a very entertaining read. The author knows more about Freemasonry and the Templars than Dan Brown, and it shows in the manner which he ties the subject matter together. Scots should really like this book even though it is an historical novel. Masterful. Would recommend Free From Restraint to anyone interested in the Knights Templar, Scottish history, hidden treasures etc.
I read the book and visualized it in my head as if watching a movie. If you liked the Da Vinci Code, you'll like "Free From Restraint" From Whence We Came.
Many lives taken at sea,rowers dripping with sweat, tales told at low breath from one to another.....Blood, Sweat & Tears. A book worth reading!
Via e-mail: Brother Red, "A great book. Shows a lot more insight into the Templars than the Da Vinci Code. I found it very entertaining and one of the few books about Masonry that I couldn't put down. I really liked this book it was fun to read."
Great work of history. Very enjoyable. This is a book worthy of both reading for enjoyment and studying for the history presented. This covers an era of the Masonic past for which little is publicly known of how the history was written.
Too often we simply accept that Jacques DeMolay was burned at the stake and do not think about what became of the Knights Templar who were not persecuted. This book covers it in excellent detail. It is a shame to have to label this a piece of 'fiction'. I understand why this must be done, but it is a shame.
Review by Jim Tresner, Scottish Rite Journal (Jan 2009)
Kittell, Lewis E. “Red”, 33°, Free From Restraint: From Whence We Came, Scotts Valley, Calif: CreateSpace, 2007, paperbound, 277 pages ISBN 978-1434832375 cover price $14.95 available on the Internet at the same price, www.freefromrestraint.com.
Ill. Brother Kittell is Chairman of the Historical Resources Commission of the City of Reno, Nevada. He has drawn upon years of study in history and Masonry to produce a novel which is a good read. Note that it is a novel; an art form in which Masonry is too infrequently present.
By definition, then, it would not be fair to say much about the plot line, save that it is deeply involved with the historic Knights Templar. It reads easily and well, and is challenging in some of its concepts.
In a note which accompanied the review copy. Brother Kittell wrote: “The historically-based novel you have just received is an effort to increase public awareness of the international fraternity of Freemasons by transcending the undocumented unknowns of the order’s evolution with a roadbed
of facts, logic, conjecture, and fantasy—as did once an ancient brother when creating the ritualistic legend of the third degree. My hope is that my fraternal brothers and curious readers who are not members of Freemasonry’s extended family will find it, if not else, thought provoking.”
Mission accomplished!
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