Genghis: Bones of the Hills
by Conn Iggulden
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Book Summary Information
Author: Conn IgguldenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-03-24
ISBN: 0385339534
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Book Reviews of Genghis: Bones of the Hills
Book Review: Exquisite finale to the trilogy
Summary: 5 Stars
Conn Iggulden claimed several days of my life reading the three novels comprising his Genghis adventure - and how I wish he would continue to more volumes.
Iggulden is simple the contemporary master of historical fiction. (Please note, these volumes are historical FICTION, not histories. Far too many people think that historical fiction is supposed to be a history volume. Wrong.)
In Genghis, Iggulden follows the rise of the eldest son of the khan (leader) of a small, but fierce tribe of Mongol leaders. After his father is ambushed and dies an agonizing death, Genghis's claim to the khanship is usurped and his family left behind to starve or be killed by lawless wanderers.
The first two novels detail the ascension of Genghis as he pulls together the constantly warring tribes into a single Mongol nation - that then attacks its eternal enemy, the Chin. Each book is rich in historical fact, legend and invention.
The third volume has Genghis, now the Great Khan, in Arab lands, avenging an insult to the Mongols from a satrap of the Shah. As you might expect from a man and people whose life from childhood to death revolved around war, there are extensive battle scenes which Iggulden handles with a perfect touch. You can smell the sweat, the horses, the blood, the death. You can feel the stoicism with which both Muslims and Mongols fight to the death.
Iggulden invents a family and tribal life for Genghis that embodies the few facts that are known and many of the myths and legends. There are the eldest sons ,Jochi, possibly a bastard product of rape, and Chagatai, Genghis's second, who are engaged in an increasingly savage sibling rivalry. Two wives sharing Genghis have their own conflicts. Genghis' generals, faithful onto death, have their own feelings to contend with.
It is, in all, a tour de force. Iggulden weaves in the Assassins (whom the Mongols did repeatedly attempt to quash), a Buddhist holy man, a vile Mongolian shaman, Arab princes, merchants and mercenaries, the Chin(ese), even some Russians whose lives were cut short.
Iggulden evokes an age when death was a constant companion to all. Not only death by natural causes and disease, but violent death, such as that suffered by the 163,000 captured by Mongols who were put to death by the sword as a lesson to the Muslim lands.
"Genghis" in its entirety is a compelling narrative of what life was like in the day of Genghis. It is, in a word, breathtaking and this third and final volume is the best of the lot.
Jerry
Summary of Genghis: Bones of the Hills
From the author of the bestselling The Dangerous Book for BoysFrom Conn Iggulden, #1 bestselling author of six historical epics and coauthor of the international sensation The Dangerous Book for Boys, comes a magnificent new work of fiction. Here, the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan, stalked by enemies seen and unseen and plagued by a divided family, leads a sprawling force of horsemen beyond the realm of their known world. He will bring a storm to Arab lands and face the armies of the shah in all their strength.
From the fierce cold plains of Mongolia to the Korean Peninsula, Genghis?s brothers, sons, and commanders have made emperors bow, slaughtering vast armies of fighting men. But as Genghis enters a strange new land of towering mountains and arid desert, he stirs an enemy greater than any he has met before. Under his command, Shah Ala-ud-Din Mohammed has thousands of fierce Arab warriors, teeming cavalry, and terrifying armored elephants. When Genghis strikes, the Arabs prove their mettle. On the verge of defeat, Genghis is forced to leave his own vast encampment, and the women and children in it, in the path of an enraged, savage enemy.
While the Mongols?men, women, and children?fight back, as secret assassins are sent into the night, another battle is taking shape. Two of Genghis?s sons, Jochi and Chagatai, are steeped in enmity. Warriors choose between them, and a murderer commits an unspeakable crime. Soon the most powerful man in the world, who has brought devastation to this land, must choose a successor. And when he does, it will touch off the most bitter conflict of all.
In a novel that ranges from the fertile lands of the Chin to the dust and rock of Afghanistan, Conn Iggulden weaves the epic story of history?s most enigmatic conqueror ?those who feared him, those who defied him, and those whose bones he left behind.
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