Really hard to find, have been vaguely looking for years as it was one of the last Neal Stephenson books I haven't read (thanks internet archive!)

I agree with most of the other comments, it's a pretty fine book but not amazing. I'll probably read at least the next one bc it's a relatively fun, relaxing (if you can that with battle scenes) book. Bc it was designed as a book of collaboration, I think it did an ok job with the different threads but 8 books is too many, unless it gets a lot better ( )

2.5 stars

While I flew through this book and, therefore, obviously enjoyed it, its flaws prevent me from giving it a high rating. Perhaps surprisingly, given the pedigree of some of the authors involved, chief amongst these flaws are some passages of startlingly bad writing. I mean, sentences or paragraphs that I would re-read thinking I must have misread them the first time around they were so badly constructed. I really should have kept notes as there were several. I remember one being something like “They outnumbered our numbers.” Wow, really?

Many of these read like editing problems - or, rather, a lack of editing. Any half-decent editor should surely have picked up these clumsy sentences. I’m not sure how the seven named authors worked together but I suspect that is the major issue, more care being taken in constructing the storyline and making sure the styles matched as closely as possible than actually ensuring the writing works. Perhaps all the glaring faults can be attributed to one of the authors and the others felt unable to cut him out. There was also some glaringly anachronistic language. I know that, unless it were written in Latin, Old French and Mongolian it can hardly be accurate, but some sentences and words just jumped out at me as inappropriate. For instance, there is the constant use of the word “ass” in its modern American meaning, sometimes in quite rapid succession. Again, this is just bad writing; grab a thesaurus and use alternatives: backside, posterior, rump. Actually, I am beginning to suspect that this and the terrible writing may be able to be laid at the door of the same member of the authoriat.

The book actually reads as though it is the write-up of a Roleplaying campaign - albeit rather a dull one - and the descriptions at the back of the dramatis personae, complete with ink line sketches, further reinforces this. (Spotting whether authors are roleplayers is actually something of a hobby of mine; you can often spot the tell-tale signs).

The characters are engaging enough, although not especially well drawn - and some of the shield-brethren have the air of cardboard cut-outs with a single defining characteristic to distinguish them. Again, something that made me think of extras in an RPG.

Not unexpectedly from a book from Neal Stephenson (although I have no way of knowing whether he wrote these particular sections) there is the occasional, sometimes heavy-handed, infodump, but I still felt that the world was under-explained, the setting unclear perhaps because the authors could picture it but failed to get that across to the reader. I couldn’t tell whether this was straight historical fiction, or history with a slant. At times I found myself wishing it was written by Mary Gentle and then, not only would we get her superb writing, but the wonderfully fleshed out reality of the historical setting would be shot through with fantastical anomalies that both enhanced it and made the reader examine it more closely.

All this said, the first volume of this series was an enjoyable read and I will probably continue with the series. The setting seemed to solidify somewhat toward the close, perhaps due to the style becoming more uniform or maybe simply because of to the gradual build up of detail, and I am intrigued to see how the arc of the two stories will intersect. As well as, perhaps, to find out whether the events are broadly historical or introduce elements that would never be found in the most detailed history of that time.
( )

I'm a huge Neal Stephenson fan and put off starting this series for some time (years) because I knew it would be different. Not different in the way that all Stephenson works are a bit different, I worried it would differ enough from his other works that I just wouldn't like it. Once I let go and embraced this as a not-quite-Stephenson piece of historical fiction, I was pulled into the story. The battle scenes are long and technical, not my forte but the descriptions are such that I can actually envision the action. My interest is more the characters and the historical context. I love that we have viewpoints within the Mongol camp and female characters that are more than victims/cheerleaders/sperm receptacles. The reach of this empire, touched on but mostly glossed over in my Western history classes, is vast and I'm taking time as I read to research the areas and time covered in the book. I know what we're heading toward and look forward to learning how these characters get there. I will read at least the next two volumes in this series, I'm not sure if I will make it through all nine. ( )

Greg Bear, Erik Bear, Mark Teppo, Neal Stephenson, Joseph Brassey, Cooper Moo, E.D. deBirmingham (2012). The Mongoliad: Book One (The Foreworld Saga). Las Vegas: 47North. 2012. ISBN 9781612182360. Pagine 443. 4,38 €
The Mongoliad

amazon.com

Non stiamo parlando di un libro serio. Stiamo parlando di una fantasia geek di un gruppo di appassionati di armi marziali soprattutto occidentali (e non è una contraddizione in termini). Capita che questi appassionati siano anche autori di libri di fiction e di computer games (l’unico ben noto a me, e di conseguenza a voi affezionati lettori di questo blog, è Neal Stephenson, di cui abbiamo parlato più volte, ad esempio qui, qui e qui) e che quindi, inevitabilmente direi, costruiscano una storia a partire dai loro giochi a fil di spada.

Ne traggono prima un sito, in cui il romanzo si sviluppa interattivamente o quasi: mongoliad.com. Poi il sito diventa un libro, o meglio una serie, il cui secondo volume è annunciato per fine settembre.

Il che fa sì che questo primo volume resti incompiuto come una sinfonia di Schubert o come l’autostrada Salerno-Reggio Calabria, senza nemmeno la foglia di fico di suggerire una fine provvisoria. Sapremo aspettare.

I paraphernalia offerti dal sito sono abbastanza divertenti (la cosa migliore è l’enciclopedia compilata dai fan) ma del tutto irrilevanti.

Gli stessi autori si prendono in giro, come ben illustra questo finto trailer di Neal Stephenson:

Necessariamente, un romanzo ambientato nel 1241 richiede almeno qualche frase in latino. Ma uno si aspetterebbe che gli errori non siano inevitabili, e che autori tanto perfezionisti da ricreare le scene di combattimento interpellando esperti da tutto il mondo si avvalgano dell’opera di un editor o almeno di un correttore di bozze. E invece no, ed ecco che scappano strafalcioni che ai miei tempi avrebbero meritato un brutto voto:

“Ego audio Domine. Animus humilis igitur sub ptoenti manu Dei est. Mundus sum ego, et absque delicto immaculatus. Verbum vester in me caro et ferrum erit.” [3842]

Ma persino in un romanzo leggero leggero come questo qualche piccola frase memorabile si riesce a trovare:

“Warriors fight, Gansukh; that is their purpose in life. But eventually, there is no one left to fight, and they must learn how to think.” [829]

“There is no justice. Your Christian God looks down on all and sees every sparrow, but cares nothing for the children. He is a god of birds.” [1505] ( )

According to others, The Mongoliad is is a work of historical fiction that tells of the 13th century Mongol invasion of Europe. But the dialogue is so fantasy like, after three starts and stops, I could not get into it. Lets put this book into the category of DNF (did not finish). ( )