{"product_id":"the-saddle-and-the-sword-john-shubin-9798183944617","title":"The Saddle and the Sword: The Wild Ride of Sviatoslav the Brave, the Last Pagan Prince of the Rus","description":"\u003cp\u003eHe slept on the bare ground with his saddle for a pillow, ate his meat off the open coals, and owned nothing he couldn't carry on a horse. When he meant to make war, he sent his enemies three words first - I am coming at you - and then he came. Before he was thirty, Sviatoslav the Brave had torn down the Khazar Empire, humbled Byzantium, and made himself the most feared warlord between Kiev and Constantinople.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut this is not only the story of his conquests. It is the story of how he built himself - long before anyone knew his name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Saddle and the Sword follows the last pagan prince of the Rus from a fatherless boy at the head of his mother's army to a leader that hard, dangerous men would follow to the edge of the world. It answers the question every young man is really asking: how do you become someone worth following when you have nothing yet?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSviatoslav's answer is carved into the way he lived. He put himself under harder men and refused to flee the forge. He built a brotherhood instead of buying a payroll. He kept his hand open and his word unbroken until both became a kind of power. He stood at the front, where it cost something. And he never wore a face that wasn't his own - not even for the mother he owed everything.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEach chapter tells one episode of his life as a cinematic story, then draws out a single hard rule - the Code of the Saddle - that a man can use today, from exactly where he stands: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBegin before you're ready.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNever live softer than the men you want to follow you.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGenerosity is a weapon; a closed fist empties the hall.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYour name is built one kept word at a time.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eA short life lived upright beats a long one lived bent.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is narrative history with the blood left in - heroic but honest, grounded in the Primary Chronicle, Leo the Deacon, and the Arab geographers, with the real cost of conquest shown rather than scrubbed. For readers drawn to the Stoics, the Spartans, and the Vikings - for any young man ready to stop waiting and start building.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe empires Sviatoslav tore down are dust. The man endured. Learn how he was made - and how you might be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e John Shubin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798183944617\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/24\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 118\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.34lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.30d","brand":"John Shubin","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49084248981759,"sku":"9798183944617","price":8.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-saddle-and-the-sword-john-shubin-9798183944617","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}