WIJFR: The Mongoliad: Book One

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It is the spring of 1241. The Mongol takeover of Europe is almost complete. The hordes commanded by the sons of Genghis Khan have swept out of their immense grassy plains and ravaged Russia, Poland, and Hungary … and now seem poised to sweep west to Paris and south to Rome. King and Pope and peasant alike face a bleak future – until a small band of warriors, inheritors of a millennium-old secret tradition, conceive of a desperate plan to kill the Khan of Khans. Their leader, an elder of the order of warrior monks, will lead his elite group on a perilous journey into the East. They will be guided by an elusive and sharp-witted young woman, who believes the master’s plan is insane. But this small band is the West’s last, best hope to turn back the floodtide of the Mongol Empire.

I received “The Mongoliad: Book One” (by Neal Stephenson, Erik Bear, Greg Bear, Joseph Brassey, E.D. deBirmingham, Mark Teppo, and Cooper Moo … whew!) as a Christmas gift and finally got around to reading it.

“The Mongoliad” apparently started as a social media experiment, a serialized subscription service by Stephenson and his fellow co-authors. Each chapter was published online with related materials (graphics, etc.) and encouraged community discussions. When the story was complete, the “definitive” text was then published in three volumes in the traditional way.

The Foreworld Saga includes “The Mongoliad” along with other stories called SideQuests. Other books covering different eras are also planned.

The history of Foreworld is much like the history you know, but with tiny differences. The unifying thread is an order of western martial artists rooted in the traditions of Athens and Sparta but adapting over the millennia to changes in culture, religion, and weaponry.

In this first book of “The Mongoliad” we are introduced to the major players on both sides of the conflict: Cnán the Binder, who has agreed to lead the knights of the Ordo Militum Vindicis Intactae (Shield-Bretheren) deep into the Mongol territory in the East to kill Ögedei, the Khan of Khans; Gansukh, a Mongol warrior who has been sent to the palace city of Karakorum to learn the ways of the royal court and also prevent Ögedei from drinking so much so that the Mongol empire may live on. And of course there are many other minor characters weaved into the narrative which come and go and yet still have a part in the overall plot. I could tell the serial was not initially intended to be split into three volumes as Book One ends rather abruptly and leads right into Book Two (which I’ve started).

This kind of historical fiction is quite a departure from “Snow Crash” and Stephenson’s other earlier work, but seeing how “Anathem” was also a completely different kind of story (and he was a major contributor behind the recent CLANG kickstarter to bring accurate swordfighting to video games) I guess this sort of thing is going to be the major theme of his upcoming works.

I just have to wonder, though, if the archer Raedwulf is somehow related to Enoch Root? Probably not, but that’s the first thing I thought of.

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