Hello everyone!
Last night they aired Top Gun on television here, and while I can honestly say I'm not as big of a fan of that movie as some people (-cough-dad-cough-) I DO enjoy several scenes from that movie. Among them would have to be the bar scene, where Tom Cruise can't really sing to save his life, but you know; although the top would have to be 'You're gonna do WHAT?!?' because, come on.
I don't think anyone else can squeal as much!
But anyway.
Back to books tonight and I'm finally writing down my review of another Conn Iggulden masterpiece (though not, as yet, Bloodline. It's coming people, I promise). I went and finished Conqueror from his series about Genghis Khan and his legacy, and ordered my notes so that I actually see how they make sense now.
So, without further ado, I give you Conqueror. Or, in other words, Kublai Khan.
Like I may have mentioned before in other blog posts, I have a special kind of relationship with Iggulden's books, because I thoroughly enjoy most of them. Although to be frank, I should probably sit down and actually finish some of those I started out of his collections before saying anything else on the topic.
I don't have any such compulsion or problem with the Conqueror series, however, as it was the first of his I read and the one I fell in love with the most.
In a previous post I wrote about Empire of Silver, the book exactly before Conqueror, and briefly, may I say that what happens in it is this: Tsubodai treks west and nearly reaches the coast of France, Ogedai Khan, son of Genghis, dies, and the army returns to choose a new leader.
Which is where we actually pick up in Conqueror, though not necessarily quite the same spot.
See, a couple of years have passed now, as we get to understand in this first part of the book, and Guyuk, Ogedai's son, isn't quite khan yet, to his frustrations. He's weak, however, and while not exactly proven, Iggulden writes out a suspicion that he might have been homosexual. All in all though, his sexual orientation doesn't make him an idiot - that's just how he was born, sadly, and his mother is losing her mind over it, trying to ensure the khanate for him.
Meanwhile, Batu, son of Jochi, pays a visit to a cranky old man named Tsubodai, who retired to the plains now and who tells him that he doesn't need advice: he needs to do what he feels is right, and stand by his word. Words are iron in the line of Genghis, after all.
He also hisses at a cold wind for Genghis to leave him the hell alone, but that's beside the point.
Anyway, Batu doesn't declare for Guyuk, which, after Guyuk becomes khan, sends the other man after his cousin with the entire army behind him.
It might have ended badly if not for the fact that Sorhatani, Guyuk's aunt, sends her son Kublai to warn Batu and the two of them concoct a plan to get rid of the khan. They ambush him while he's off trying to enjoy himself with hunting and a pleasant young man, and Batu kills Guyuk. This leads to Mongke, Kublai's older brother, to declare himself khan, and to purge the capital of all things Chinese with any means necessary (for those faint of heart: skip through the scene where he takes a stick and beats the crud out of his advisors while sending them running out of the city). Afterwards, it's expansion time, and he sends his brothers out: Hulegu to the west of the homeland, Kublai to the east, with Arik-Boke in the homeland proper.
This is where we then move on to the second part of the book in which we follow the brothers and their progress.
Hulegu is roaring through the Persian region which had already seen a Genghis Khan ride through it, which means he's got a reputation to keep as he keeps fighting off insurgents. He also manages to dismantle the Assassin's fortress of Alamut, purging the sekt and starting a blood feud. Oh, and, also, he raises a white silk tent in front of Baghdad, sending every one of the people inside the city scurrying since they have good memories. Once the tent goes up, it's time to surrender - but Hulegu honestly massacres most of the population inside the city anyway, just because he can.
Meanwhile, Kublai is making his way through China into the Sung territory, becoming more of a strategist and warrior than scholar with each passing battle. The tumans he leads are always outnumbered, but he keeps on winning, because the Mongol war machine is on the move and NOTHING can stand in its way. We get to revisit some old Mongol enemies with the last Chin emperor (who ran to the Sung but who now ends up dead during a battle anyway) and see Kublai establish a payment system with silver for his warriors, thus leaving cities pretty much intact. At this point it's clear he wants to rule here, not just destroy the place.
Mongke thinks that Kublai needs his help though, and so heads to the Sung to hlp his brother. Unfortunately, along the way, he ends up dead (previously, Hulegu was also almost poisoned, but managed to save himself, but the Assassin's found a better target then), and the army needs to return home to Karakorum to elect a new khan.
The news does in fact reach Kublai, but instead of turning back, he declares himself khan of the nation on enemy soil, taking China as his empire and promising war on his brother Arik-Boke should the younger man declare.
Which, as we learn, he in fact does.
So by part three, we know this is going to be a bloody civil war between brothers and the entire family of Genghis, not something the old man would have tolerated, but there you go.
Kublai vows to return to the Sung territory, but for now he needs to deal with his brother, and so starts a campaign back towards Karakorum, risking everything and managing to get a great deal accomplished before Arik-Boke figures out his "scholar" brother is actually a threat. And I don't think he ever viewed Kublai as a threat, for some reason, not even when he was defeated. Just goes to show how some men are basically idiots.
Kublai cuts Karakorum off from Hulegu and Batu both, then beats the living daylights out of Arik-Boke and his forces in the field. This prompts the younger man to send an order back to Karakorum to kill the women and children of Kublai's warriors who are in the city (luckily, the captain who receives this order is a little less idiotic and doesn't follow it).
Batu arrives with the rest of Kublai's forces (which he tactically kept back from the fighting so he could swing either way, for one khan or the other) when it's obvious Kublai's winning, and Kublai becomes the ruling khan.
Arik-Boke, meanwhile, gets killed for his efforts and for his idiocy because that's how you do it.
After this is all over, Kublai decides to give Karakorum, the Mongol nation's capital city and Ogedai's triumph, to his general to rule, while he will remove to Xanadu, the capital he's building in the Chin area for himself. Thus, in Xanadu, he will be a bridge between the Mongols and the Sung.
And that is where we leave him.
Unlike with previous works (Caesar and Genghis), Iggulden didn't follow the rest of Kublai's life to his death, instead leaving us with a man at the height of his physical and imperial power just about to embark on a grand journey as the Great Khan. It's a rather optimistic ending as opposed to the others which ended with death, and I kind of liked it. It was painful to read about Genghis dying.
Above all, though, we learn two things from these books: that no one can change the world forever, and the only thing that matters is what we do while we're still alive.
Which is worth remembering, isn't it?
If you have yet to read any of Iggulden's books I highly, highly recommend this particular series if you want to start off with something that'll bang across your reading radar. It has grand vistas, sweeping battles, impossible situations and life-risking moments, but it also has characters you can't help but fall in love with.
Riding with the Mongols, even with the help of books, is something else, after all.
xx
*image not mine
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