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86 reviews for:
The Mongoliad: Book One
Greg Bear, Neal Stephenson, Mark Teppo, Joseph Brassey, E.D. deBirmingham, Cooper Moo, Erik Bear
3.38 AVERAGE
86 reviews for:
The Mongoliad: Book One
Greg Bear, Neal Stephenson, Mark Teppo, Joseph Brassey, E.D. deBirmingham, Cooper Moo, Erik Bear
3.38 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Slow start, exciting middle, abrupt ending. Main characters were interesting. I'm guessing the authors consider the whole series as a cohesive story and just stopped book one when they reached a certain number of chapters.
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a fun read, and I'll definitely read the rest of the trilogy. This is an experimental "web-enhanced writing" (see http://mongoliad.com/ ) I don't really want the full web-immersed, multiple-version/chapter experience.. And so far, the multi-author effort seems to dilute Stephenson's sharp setup/amazing-turn-of-the-phrase fun that I enjoy in his other books.
Not quite as good as I was hoping for. But still, it is a Neal Stephenson project, so how bad could it be?
Wow. A very good book and an incredible start to a series. The authors managed to pull off something that I have seldom seem done and even more rarely seen done well. They present both sides of the story in such a way that you have no idea how the authors plan to make you, the reader, happy.
The pace of the book is good and I will definitely be reading any follow-up books in the series. I really enjoyed the book and almost gave it 5 stars, but the ending was a bit too TV season ending cliff hanger-like for my taste - even though it is a series.
The pace of the book is good and I will definitely be reading any follow-up books in the series. I really enjoyed the book and almost gave it 5 stars, but the ending was a bit too TV season ending cliff hanger-like for my taste - even though it is a series.
The first two thirds of it is a fun, medieval adventure with some excellent characters, a bit of swashbuckling humor, and dramatic, well informed fight scenes. As you get near last third or so, the problems of having multiple authors start to show, and there are chapters where I felt that Cna'n's character and her narrative voice change for the worse. I especially liked the 'clown' characters Kim and Zug. When we start to get their stories, I felt that I was seeing some of Neal Stephenson's sense of humor (although obviously I have no idea as to the extent which writer contributed to what scenes).
Just couldn't get into it. Lost it at a laundromat years ago, and didn't miss it.
Once again, I got stranded at the beach with nothing I felt like reading, despite extensive preparations. Luckily, while in the past this has meant scavenging of other people's reading materials or desperate quests for bookstores, now I have my Kindle. So I was able to download [b:The Mongoliad: Book One|12853147|The Mongoliad Book One|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1335306387s/12853147.jpg|18004624].
In the marketing of this book, [a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1314902446p2/545.jpg]'s name has been used heavily. Given that and the subject matter, and I was expecting something pretty strongly resembling a [a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1314902446p2/545.jpg] novel. Sadly, that is far from the truth. It's more a [a:Greg Bear|16024|Greg Bear|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1223822211p2/16024.jpg]. A whole long list of people collaborated. It's not that the story was dull--it wasn't--but the characters weren't nearly as well drawn as Stephenson ones, the plotting wasn't as sharp, there weren't nearly enough rambling departures to discuss interesting cultural or technological details, and the narration was far from as sharply funny as Stephenson can be.
This book might have been a four-star book if I didn't go in with such expectations. But I did. It was still an enjoyable story. But there was far too much sexualization/objectification of the women (in the way they were described and they way they all easily fell for their Assigned Heartthrob). The adventure story was fun. The characters were engaging for the most part. But it wasn't what I was hoping for. Every now and then something distinctly Stephensonian would pop up and you'd get all excited for a moment, but then it was back to the tepid adventure grind.
Here's a fun exercise: Get on a bus (or anywhere in public with a mix of all kinds of people) and pick out the ones that would be Stephenson protagonists. Hint: It's never the canonically (blandly) attractive one. It's the one that looks like they have a history and a story. If Stephenson were fully driving this boat, Percival would never be a central figure. It'd be Roger all the way.
In the marketing of this book, [a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1314902446p2/545.jpg]'s name has been used heavily. Given that and the subject matter, and I was expecting something pretty strongly resembling a [a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1314902446p2/545.jpg] novel. Sadly, that is far from the truth. It's more a [a:Greg Bear|16024|Greg Bear|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1223822211p2/16024.jpg]. A whole long list of people collaborated. It's not that the story was dull--it wasn't--but the characters weren't nearly as well drawn as Stephenson ones, the plotting wasn't as sharp, there weren't nearly enough rambling departures to discuss interesting cultural or technological details, and the narration was far from as sharply funny as Stephenson can be.
This book might have been a four-star book if I didn't go in with such expectations. But I did. It was still an enjoyable story. But there was far too much sexualization/objectification of the women (in the way they were described and they way they all easily fell for their Assigned Heartthrob). The adventure story was fun. The characters were engaging for the most part. But it wasn't what I was hoping for. Every now and then something distinctly Stephensonian would pop up and you'd get all excited for a moment, but then it was back to the tepid adventure grind.
Here's a fun exercise: Get on a bus (or anywhere in public with a mix of all kinds of people) and pick out the ones that would be Stephenson protagonists. Hint: It's never the canonically (blandly) attractive one. It's the one that looks like they have a history and a story. If Stephenson were fully driving this boat, Percival would never be a central figure. It'd be Roger all the way.