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A review by towanda81
The Mongoliad: Book One by Greg Bear, Neal Stephenson, Erik Bear
3.0
This book has all the hallmarks of being written by committee. Superb world building and excellent characterization, but a lack of actual character development. We often came to characters in the book or relationships that were far more interesting than those on the main stage but they were quickly lost. The journey of Raphael and Andreas was interesting. The relationship between Ogedei and Gansukh or Lian's quest for escape was of more interest to me than the love story between Gansukh and Lian.
The female characters were poorly formed and boring. Cnan's motives were completely unclear and other than having the hots for the too-perfect Percival, I can't figure why she's there. Percival is the exact replica of the irritatingly lawful paladin in every tabletop game and no story character should be that wooden or perfect. Rafael, the half-Arab doctor is a great character but always seems to come in second to other characters.
I naturally adored the medieval alternate history and the setting descriptions were fantastic. But as a piece of storytelling, this was disappointing.
The female characters were poorly formed and boring. Cnan's motives were completely unclear and other than having the hots for the too-perfect Percival, I can't figure why she's there. Percival is the exact replica of the irritatingly lawful paladin in every tabletop game and no story character should be that wooden or perfect. Rafael, the half-Arab doctor is a great character but always seems to come in second to other characters.
I naturally adored the medieval alternate history and the setting descriptions were fantastic. But as a piece of storytelling, this was disappointing.