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A review by threebluesocks
The Mongoliad: Book One by Greg Bear, Neal Stephenson, Mark Teppo, Joseph Brassey, E.D. deBirmingham, Cooper Moo, Erik Bear
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I, more the most part, didn't really find this enjoyable to read. Though some aspects of the worldbuilding were interesting and likely informative (I do not know enough about 13th century Asia to tell if the information was accurate, but everything seemed fairly believable), the plot and characters were relatively weak and made it difficult to get invested in the story. The problems with this book come primarily from strange choices with pacing and a lack of distinctive characterization.
The journey that Cnan and her knights go on was the less interesting half of the book, in my opinion. Though their goal is a straightforward and challenging quest established fairly early on, the only progress made is traveling physically closer to their destination. Though I knew this was only the first book in a series and was not expecting this group to complete their journey, I really wish more progress was made than this. Additionally, the knights that accompany Cnan are very similar and lacking in characterization. Long journeys are often used to introduce small or major problems that allow different characters to show off their strengths and suffer for their weaknesses, either helping or hindering the group and allowing readers to become invested in the group's fate, but this did not seem to be capitalized on in this book. Throughout much of the journey, the knights are fairly interchangeable, and I only felt I was beginning to learn about them in the last couple chapters. Even Cnan, who gets the most characterization of the group, feels flat. There's a lot of potential in her character, and I hope it was explored in the sequels, but this first book doesn't do a great job of setting up her or her knight companions.
On the other hand, Gansukh's and Lian's palace adventures are far more interesting, and I would have been happy to read a whole book of them interacting and scheming. The characters in the palace are given strong personalities that are easily distinguishable from one another, they build alliances and rivalries, and solve problems through their preexisting skillset and using lessons they learned from each other. The chapters that focused on their story felt very tense and seemed to be building towards something; I was always disappointed when we switched away from their POV.
The chapters with Kim and his Pile of Bones friend and the chapters with the leftover Shield Brothers at their camp felt very out of place, and didn't impact our main adventuring group much. I'm assuming they have ramifications explored in the sequels, but I think they may have been more impactful had they been saved for book two.
Overall, this book seems to struggle to maintain tension, and I had a lot of trouble getting invested in the characters or their struggles. Switching between two major POVs (Cnan/the knights and Gansukh/Lian) often caused confusion since chapters often end on cliffhangers before switching POVs, and it takes a bit to remember what cliffhanger the other group left off on. There was a lot of action in this book, but it often felt slow and meandering anyway since all of the characters seem compelled to give constant exposition in their internal monologues. I will say, though, that the actual fight scenes were incredibly fun to read, and the one-on-one encounters did a good job of making me genuinely worry for the characters.
A huge warning for anyone planning to read this book: it is written as though it is the first section of one very long book rather than like book one of a series. There is no clear climax or ending, and the characters do not complete arcs. I do not have plans to read any more of the series, but some of the other reviews for this book imply that the later books improve on many of this one's flaws, so take that into account if you liked the premise of this book, but found it a bit slow and lacking in plot/character development. This book has the tone of a big, long exposition, and that's likely the role it plays in the series.
The journey that Cnan and her knights go on was the less interesting half of the book, in my opinion. Though their goal is a straightforward and challenging quest established fairly early on, the only progress made is traveling physically closer to their destination. Though I knew this was only the first book in a series and was not expecting this group to complete their journey, I really wish more progress was made than this. Additionally, the knights that accompany Cnan are very similar and lacking in characterization. Long journeys are often used to introduce small or major problems that allow different characters to show off their strengths and suffer for their weaknesses, either helping or hindering the group and allowing readers to become invested in the group's fate, but this did not seem to be capitalized on in this book. Throughout much of the journey, the knights are fairly interchangeable, and I only felt I was beginning to learn about them in the last couple chapters. Even Cnan, who gets the most characterization of the group, feels flat. There's a lot of potential in her character, and I hope it was explored in the sequels, but this first book doesn't do a great job of setting up her or her knight companions.
On the other hand, Gansukh's and Lian's palace adventures are far more interesting, and I would have been happy to read a whole book of them interacting and scheming. The characters in the palace are given strong personalities that are easily distinguishable from one another, they build alliances and rivalries, and solve problems through their preexisting skillset and using lessons they learned from each other. The chapters that focused on their story felt very tense and seemed to be building towards something; I was always disappointed when we switched away from their POV.
The chapters with Kim and his Pile of Bones friend and the chapters with the leftover Shield Brothers at their camp felt very out of place, and didn't impact our main adventuring group much. I'm assuming they have ramifications explored in the sequels, but I think they may have been more impactful had they been saved for book two.
Overall, this book seems to struggle to maintain tension, and I had a lot of trouble getting invested in the characters or their struggles. Switching between two major POVs (Cnan/the knights and Gansukh/Lian) often caused confusion since chapters often end on cliffhangers before switching POVs, and it takes a bit to remember what cliffhanger the other group left off on. There was a lot of action in this book, but it often felt slow and meandering anyway since all of the characters seem compelled to give constant exposition in their internal monologues. I will say, though, that the actual fight scenes were incredibly fun to read, and the one-on-one encounters did a good job of making me genuinely worry for the characters.
A huge warning for anyone planning to read this book: it is written as though it is the first section of one very long book rather than like book one of a series. There is no clear climax or ending, and the characters do not complete arcs. I do not have plans to read any more of the series, but some of the other reviews for this book imply that the later books improve on many of this one's flaws, so take that into account if you liked the premise of this book, but found it a bit slow and lacking in plot/character development. This book has the tone of a big, long exposition, and that's likely the role it plays in the series.