Conqueror by Conn Iggulden

Conqueror is the 5th and final book of Conn Iggulden’s Conqueror series, which covers the Mongol Empire from the birth of Genghis Khan up until the reign of his grandson; Kublai.

Guyuk Khan, Genghis’ grandson through Ogedai, is khan when the book opens. Guyuk was not a strong leader, and the book intimates that the empire may have fractured and descended into civil war had he not died when he did. Guyuk’s death brings his cousin; Mongke, older brother of Kublai, to the throne, and that is where the story really starts.

While in the previous book it was implied that Kublai and Mongke’s mother; Sorhatani, really wanted the throne to go to Kublai, she was happy for any of her sons to ascend to power, so accedes to Mongke’s leadership.

Mongke is a warrior first and foremost, and a proud Mongol, this leads him to drive all of the Chin scholars and scribes from the capital of Karakorum, and may also provide some of the conflict between he and Kublai, as the younger brother is scholarly and adopts many Chin customs and manner of dress. Mongke then gives his brothers some measure of power, and in the cases of Hulegu and Kublai sends them away from the Mongol homeland, so as to lessen the chances of conflict, he only keeps the youngest brother Arik-Boke, close.

From this point on the story really divides into 2 separate stories. Mongke’s part is considerably lessened and the book focuses on Hulegu and Kublai. The warlike Hulegu finishes what his grandfather started by extending Mongol control into the middle east, even taking and sacking Baghdad. The khanate Hulegu established in what is now Iraq lasted until 1338 ending with the death of his great great great grandson Muhammad Khan.

While Hulegu is occupied in the middle east, Kublai goes into China to overthrow the rulers of the Sung territories. Genghis had also tried to take over the Sung territories in China, but had died before being able to do so. Kublai’s scholarly ways were seen as a weakness by his brothers, but they along with wise counsel from the Buddhist monk Yao Shu and generals like Uriang-Khadai (in reality the son of the great general Tsubodai, but not mentioned as such for narrative reasons in Conqueror), prove a great strength during the campaign. Unfortunately Mongke’s untimely death and a grab for power by Arik-Boke, cut Kublai’s largely successful campaign short.

I knew that Kublai Khan would eventually become the Khan, as it’s been largely recorded in history, and he is seen as one of China’s great rulers, reigning for over 33 years, and at the height of his powers the empire covered one fifth of the world’s inhabited lands. What I was unaware of before reading the Conqueror series was that there were 3 khans in between Genghis and Kublai. I had always thought that power passed seamlessly from Genghis to his grandson. I was also unaware that Kublai was himself a warrior and general when he was younger, before Mongke died, and he had to wrest power from his younger brother to prevent a civil war and extend the empire as much as he did.

Throughout the series Conn Iggulden has filled in the many blanks surrounding the Mongol Empire to create a fast moving, fascinating picture of an ingenious, although sometimes brutal people. The differences between the various tribes of the Mongols that made up the Golden Horde and would rule the eastern world were often mirrored in the relationships between Genghis and his sons and then later his grandchildren. Women too played a part in these books. Genghis’ mother Hoelun, played a big role in Wolf of the Plains, as did his first wife; Borte. The mother of Kublai; Sorhatani, put the wheels in motion for her son’s ascension to the throne in Empire of Silver and in Conqueror and Kublai’s wife; Chabi, is a strong lady who has significant influence over her husband.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed expanding my knowledge of the Mongols through this series, although at times Iggulden does play a little fast and loose with history for reasons of not spoiling a good story, and he puts in a few too many repetitive battle scenes for my liking. If you want your history entertaining and don’t mind not being pedantically accurate in every detail then the Conqueror series is a good look at a part of history not often covered by many of the historical novelists around today.

Lords of the Bow

Lords of the Bow is the 2nd of British author Conn Iggulden’s Conqueror series about the lives of the Mongol warlords Genghis, Ogedai and Kublai Khan, it follows Wolf of the Plains, reviewed here in August 2010.

The action picks up some years after the end of Wolf of the Plains and opens with Genghis taking over the last of the Mongol tribes yet to join him, that of the Naimans. He spares the life of the tribe’s shaman; the ambitious and scheming Kokchu.

The majority of the book concerns itself with Genghi's attack on the Chin empire, concentrating on his siege of the empire’s capital city; Yenking (Beijing). Before entering China the Mongol warlord takes over the Western Xia kingdom and accepts a Xia princess as tribute. He marries the girl and prefers her to his first wife; Borte. The girl is charming and clever as well as being attractive, it is highly likely that she and her offspring could cause trouble for Genghis, his brothers and sons in the future.

To get around the problem of the story focussing on events and characters that the audience is probably aware of the outcome of Iggulden goes elsewhere. Two of Genghis’ brothers; Khasar and Temuge, are central in this volume. The brothers are a total contrast. Khasar is tall and strong, none too bright, the typical Mongal warrior, preferring to let his bow and blade do the talking. Temuge is the youngest of the brothers, physically the weakest and never excelled at the martial arts as did the other three. Khasar sees the Chin as weak and deserving of conquest by the nomadic northern raiders, whereas Temuge sees the benefit in their civilisation and wishes to add these elements to the Mongol lifestyle.

Genghis fractured relationship with his oldest son; Jochi, is described. The warlord does not believe Jochi is his son, he is the product of a violation of Borte by a Tatar when she was held captive by the Mongol’s old enemy. For this reason Genghis favours younger son Chagatai over Jochi and this has the possibility of seeing the oldest son pitted against his brother and father in the future. Something that could be exploited by the devious Kokchu.

The book moved at a fast pace and the research into the Mongol’s lifestyle and the lengthy sometimes brutal siege of Yenking was obviously exhaustive. My only real negative critcism is an overly long middle section regarding Khasar and Temuge’s journey as ’spies’ to the Chin city of Baotou. It gave the reader an insight into the characters of the brothers, but didn’t really seem to serve any other purpose. The pretext for the mission was to find out more about China’s Great Wall and procure a mason to help the Mongol’s break through it, but this could have bee accomplished with far less pages than it took to tell and without the unnecessary, to me, story of Tong leader Chen Yi.

It ends on a less final note than Wolf of the Plains, which had a standalone feel to it, but as there is a sequel already available that’s not really a problem. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to Bones of the Hills quicker than I did Lords of the Bow.

Wolf of the Plains

If Bernard Cornwell is considered the King of the burgeoning historical fiction genre aimed at a male audience, then rising star Conn Iggulden could be thought of as the Prince of it.

After cutting his teeth with the Roman themed Emperor series (still in progress) about Julius Caesar, Iggulden decided to move away from the well mined Roman, English and European histories and instead focussed on the greatest conqueror the world has ever seen: Genghis Khan.

Wolf of the Plains is the first in a planned 6 book series about the Mongol Empire (the first 4 books are out in print). The first book covers the early life of Temujin; the Mongol tribesman who would be known to the world as Genghis Khan.

Temujin was the 3rd son of the Yesugei, the khan of a tribe that called themselves the Wolves. The early parts of Temujin's life are relatively well known, how the tribe cast him and his family out after the death of his father, and that they barely managed to survive, how he was later captured and tortured by a tribe (in the book it is the Wolves) escaped and eventually united the tribes, before going on to conquer China.

Wolf of the Plains fills in the gaps, making the largely unknown Yesugei and his strong willed wife (Genghis' mother) Hoelun into real people, and explaining how Temujin became the warrior he was, and what motivated him. Iggulden does play a little with historical fact, but most, if not all, historical fiction authors do that to varying degrees, the main omission here is Temujin's eldest brother, and Iggulden explains in the author's notes why he neglected to even mention the man. When reading a fiction book about a well known historical figure it's hard to build up any real sense of tension, because the reader is often aware of how events unfolded. In Wolf of the Plains Iggulden sometimes focusses on characters less well known to the general public. Temujin's wife; Borte, his younger brothers; Khasar, Kachiun and Temuge or the Naiman swordsmith, and one of Temujin's mentors, later leading general; Arslan. These characters became real and gave the novel the tension it needed, because I was unaware of them or their personal histories. The book ends with Temujin having become the khan of 3 tribes, explaining his plans to unite all the nomadic, warlike tribes of the Asian steppes and intending to attack the Chin empire, taking the title and name of Genghis Khan.

It was an enjoyable, informative and gripping read, for me the pages and the time flew by as I immersed myself in the story. Iggulden writes exciting, realistic and enhtralling fight scenes, he is an atmospheric writer, I could feel the icy wind sweeping off the steppes and see the Mongol riders racing across the plains.

One small quibble was the character of Temuge, and this may be a personal thing. He's the youngest of the brothers, also the smallest and the weakest, while he can never hope to match his older siblings with a bow or on horseback, the writer indicated that he may have or would develop talents in other areas, but never quite followed through, and this for me was frustrating. It may be resolved more satisfactorily in the sequels: Lords of the Bow. I'm sure I'll find out because I do intend to read Lords of the Bow.