By Conn Iggulden
Intrigue and treachery roil the immense Mongol state because the heirs of Genghis Khan struggle for regulate of his unheard of empire—and of his powerful armies. heritage will activate the end result in their fight. yet just one guy, disregarded by means of the entire others, will boldly upward push to the problem with the braveness and imaginative and prescient to forge the longer term, and with the power to be referred to as . . .
CONQUEROR
The novels of Conn Iggulden convey the earlier to exciting lifestyles, from historic Rome to thirteenth-century Asia, Europe, and the center East. Now he promises the staggering tale of the increase of Genghis Khan’s grandson, a guy destined to develop into essentially the most impressive rulers who ever lived—the mythical Kublai Khan.
A succession of ruthless leaders has seized energy within the wake of the nice Khan’s death—all descendants of Genghis, yet none with the indomitable personality that led a humans to triumph. One grandson, Guyuk, decadent and cruel, seeks to consolidate his place via bribery and homicide, pitting strong factions opposed to each other and straining the loyalties of the tribes to the brink.
Next comes his cousin, Mongke, who gets rid of all attainable competition with breathtaking brutality and dispatches his more youthful brothers Kublai and Hulegu to far-flung territories, to check their mettle and their allegiance.
Hulegu monitors his barbarity with the savage destruction of Baghdad and his conflict with the Khan’s age-old enemies, the cult of assassins, who will strike deep into the guts of the state. however it is Kublai—refined and scholarly, regularly thought of too considerate to take power—who will devise new methods of war and conquest as he builds the dream urban of Xanadu and pursues the last word prize: the traditional empire of Sung China. His presents will serve him good while an epic civil conflict breaks out between brothers, the end result of on the way to actually swap the world.
Brilliantly researched and imagined, unforgettably advised, Conqueror is a powerful success from a captivating author on the height of his powers, a needs to learn for all fanatics of background and storytelling at the grand scale.
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Sample text
Bonny halted in front of his wife with his boots just short of the water, and for a moment he seemed about to hit her. Then he hesitated, and his gaze fell away from hers, and he scowled across at Shandy. He fumbled a clasp knife out of his pocket—Shandy stepped back, snatching at his own—but when Bonny had unfolded his blade he pressed the point into the tip of his own left forefinger and flicked the blade outward, throwing a couple of drops of blood toward Shandy, and at the same time he began chanting a nonsensical multi-language rhyme.
Beth and I will be jumping ship at the first opportunity. htm (41 of 185) [2/14/2004 1:05:00 AM] ON STRANGER TIDES - Tim Powers would slip—that's soaked into her wood. I've got an uncle who needs hanging. He turned back toward the fires and started walking again, and it occurred to him that he wasn't far from the spot where he'd seen the man with the torn pockets and the bound-up jaw; and the memory of it made him walk a little faster, not because the man had looked threatening, but because of what Davies had said when Shandy told him about it.
Someone was yelling. "Cap'n Davies! " Davies dropped his bottle into the sand. "That's Venner," he said thoughtfully. "How did that move go? " Shandy shut his eyes and pictured it. "Right. " As the two men trudged back toward the fires, Davies pulled a pistol out of his belt. "If Venner plays me square I can handle him," he said quietly. "But if he doesn't, I want you to hang back with this and make sure no—" He stopped talking suddenly and gave a weary laugh. "Never mind. " He put the pistol away and lengthened his stride.