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A review by gilmae
The Mongoliad: Book One by Greg Bear, Neal Stephenson, Mark Teppo, Joseph Brassey, E.D. deBirmingham, Cooper Moo, Erik Bear
3.0
uhhh, it was all right.
Written by a committee, albeit like it was an agile software project, but still. A committee. It's committee-ness showed in a couple of places, the way it meandered around like no one knew quite what they were attempting to achieve apart from have a handy dandy excuse when loved ones and insurance agencies realised these people were hitting each other with great big fuck up hunks of metal and screamed, "Why are you allowing that person to hit you with a great big fuck off hunk of metal, you idiot?!?"
I think they spent a little too much time on the old sword-hitting verisimilitude and mocking book trailers via the medium of a book trailer, and forgot to do some of the important stuff like, you know, having something to say. Or, say, how about this - why should I care about these characters. Cause here's a hint, I don't. Almost. I don't care about the knights and their cockamamie scheme, either part of it. I don't care about the other gladiators. I really don't care about Cnan and how Percival makes her lady garden tingle. That last part is an interesting one, because I do care about Lian and Gansukh. That's because Lian and Gansukh get introduction and characterisation - possibly due to there only being two of them, not a dozen or so, and I can fix who they are in my mind. Hence I have a handle upon which to affix empathy, unlike the others who are mostly just names with little behind them. Istvan is a revenge driven homocidal maniac, Yasper is an alchemist. Can't remember who Percival's friend was, and Percival is just a faceless 21st century impression of what medieval Occitan troubadours thought chivalry should be. And Cnan is am empty suit of clothes.
So, it's all right, and inevitably I'll buy the rest of the series. I sure as hell won't subscribe to the multimedia content based on this novel, which I suspect is self-defeating - I bet there's a bunch of the missing context and meaning hidden back there behind the paywall.
Written by a committee, albeit like it was an agile software project, but still. A committee. It's committee-ness showed in a couple of places, the way it meandered around like no one knew quite what they were attempting to achieve apart from have a handy dandy excuse when loved ones and insurance agencies realised these people were hitting each other with great big fuck up hunks of metal and screamed, "Why are you allowing that person to hit you with a great big fuck off hunk of metal, you idiot?!?"
I think they spent a little too much time on the old sword-hitting verisimilitude and mocking book trailers via the medium of a book trailer, and forgot to do some of the important stuff like, you know, having something to say. Or, say, how about this - why should I care about these characters. Cause here's a hint, I don't. Almost. I don't care about the knights and their cockamamie scheme, either part of it. I don't care about the other gladiators. I really don't care about Cnan and how Percival makes her lady garden tingle. That last part is an interesting one, because I do care about Lian and Gansukh. That's because Lian and Gansukh get introduction and characterisation - possibly due to there only being two of them, not a dozen or so, and I can fix who they are in my mind. Hence I have a handle upon which to affix empathy, unlike the others who are mostly just names with little behind them. Istvan is a revenge driven homocidal maniac, Yasper is an alchemist. Can't remember who Percival's friend was, and Percival is just a faceless 21st century impression of what medieval Occitan troubadours thought chivalry should be. And Cnan is am empty suit of clothes.
So, it's all right, and inevitably I'll buy the rest of the series. I sure as hell won't subscribe to the multimedia content based on this novel, which I suspect is self-defeating - I bet there's a bunch of the missing context and meaning hidden back there behind the paywall.