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cortjstr's review against another edition
3.0
This one doesn't have an ending. Not much of a beginning, either. I read it immediately after book one and can't feel sorry for anybody who took a break between the two volumes since you just have to remember what was going on.
danielwestheide's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this, even more so than the first part of the Mongoliad. This is an epic tale with lots of intrigue, swashbuckling, and mysterious characters. The three plot lines of the first book are continued, but at the same time, the authors introduce several new ones, most notably the imprisoned cardinals in Rome, who have to elect a new pope.
I found some of the new characters to be highly intriguing, especially the hunter Ferenc and the orphan Ocyrhoe, who team up in Rome, the latter being some sort of messenger witch. I really would have loved to learn more about these characters, just as with Cnán, the Binder, and Lian, the Chinese slave - but not explaining too much is apparently part of the concept and a big factor in making the Mongoliad such a page-turner for me.
While I found all the new plot lines to be very exciting, I really wonder how the authors want to bring them all together in the third and final book. My impression after reading this second book is that there would still be room for a couple of more parts in the Mongoliad series.
I found some of the new characters to be highly intriguing, especially the hunter Ferenc and the orphan Ocyrhoe, who team up in Rome, the latter being some sort of messenger witch. I really would have loved to learn more about these characters, just as with Cnán, the Binder, and Lian, the Chinese slave - but not explaining too much is apparently part of the concept and a big factor in making the Mongoliad such a page-turner for me.
While I found all the new plot lines to be very exciting, I really wonder how the authors want to bring them all together in the third and final book. My impression after reading this second book is that there would still be room for a couple of more parts in the Mongoliad series.
ferris_mx's review against another edition
4.0
If you love exquisitely detailed descriptions of renaissance (actually pre-renaissance) martial arts, this is for you! That's not my thing, but this was still perfectly servicable.
liveglavlove's review against another edition
2.0
The first Mongoliad was great - exciting, fast-paced, and engaging. I had high hopes for the second installment, but it was a major disappointment. Slow, boring, with too many added characters. There wasn't the cohesiveness of the first book, or the sense of urgency. Very disappointed.
tacanderson's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really enjoyable series. It's alternative history that is still very accurate but with all the sword play and fighting sometimes feels like fantasy. It's excellently written and I'm really enjoying the series so far.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
Uneven historical fiction who's only claim to a sf label is the name of some of the authors in this multi-author work. Bits of this one are certainly better than the first. But way too many characters and way to slow. The Binders are interesting - basically a matriarchal secret society that has a secret silent language. But the rest of it - is pretty much just whatever.
sobolevnrm's review against another edition
3.0
Not as good as the first... but free on Amazon Kindle Prime, so it was worth the price I paid.
lrn22's review against another edition
3.0
For some reason I hard a much harder time keeping track of the characters in this one versus the first one. I didn't really get it organized in my head until the last third so it made it less enjoyable to read than the first one.
djotaku's review against another edition
4.0
This is a very hard book to properly review. Unlike a typical book in a trilogy (or however many books it ends up being - at the time this book was published it was a trilogy), this book does not contain a story that begins and ends within the larger story. But as this book started I realized this would be the case. It essentially just continues exactly where the last one left off as if this was not a series of books, but rather one large book that's been split into publishable chunks of 300 pages each. (Although, to put the lie to my point, the final chapter does have a very satisfying final sentence for ending a book)
This book takes the groups we were following last time - Feronantus and his knights, Gansukh and Lian, Zug and Kim, and the Kagan - and adds another group: the Cardinals in Rome who have to elect a new pope plus a couple outsiders key to that story. I don't remember exactly how I felt about the different stories in the last book, but in this book each set of characters is in a place in their narrative that keeps it very engaging and fun. And so I gave this book a 4/5 because I found each of the storylines to be a lot of fun.
I know that Neal Stephenson and crew (for this is a book with a lot of authors) are obviously altering some of history to tell this story. Or, if there actually was a Christian military order who went off to kill the Great Khan, obviously we wouldn't know the details to this level. Which is to say that while I know part of this book is fiction, as a huge history nerd (although I can't remember details to save my life - thankfully at the college and above level it's more about motivations than details) I love learning about this portion of history I'm completely ignorant of. Throughout high school and college we just skipped over the middle ages as if nothing important was happening. And yet I learned via Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (which I think was the impetus to get me to check out this series) that Europe as we know it almost ceased to exist because of Mongol power. And it was only an accident of history that gave us the white-European dominated last 800 years. So learning about the Khazars - a Jewish steppes people that once had a huge empire, but at this time (in the book) just have one city left is pretty incredible. As are a million other details that Stephenson and crew include.
This book takes the groups we were following last time - Feronantus and his knights, Gansukh and Lian, Zug and Kim, and the Kagan - and adds another group: the Cardinals in Rome who have to elect a new pope plus a couple outsiders key to that story. I don't remember exactly how I felt about the different stories in the last book, but in this book each set of characters is in a place in their narrative that keeps it very engaging and fun. And so I gave this book a 4/5 because I found each of the storylines to be a lot of fun.
I know that Neal Stephenson and crew (for this is a book with a lot of authors) are obviously altering some of history to tell this story. Or, if there actually was a Christian military order who went off to kill the Great Khan, obviously we wouldn't know the details to this level. Which is to say that while I know part of this book is fiction, as a huge history nerd (although I can't remember details to save my life - thankfully at the college and above level it's more about motivations than details) I love learning about this portion of history I'm completely ignorant of. Throughout high school and college we just skipped over the middle ages as if nothing important was happening. And yet I learned via Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (which I think was the impetus to get me to check out this series) that Europe as we know it almost ceased to exist because of Mongol power. And it was only an accident of history that gave us the white-European dominated last 800 years. So learning about the Khazars - a Jewish steppes people that once had a huge empire, but at this time (in the book) just have one city left is pretty incredible. As are a million other details that Stephenson and crew include.
vailynst's review against another edition
3.0
Notes:
A+ for Narration by Luke Daniels
Some parts are better written than others. This installment was not as interesting as the first and a few of the actions felt overly zealous/out of place.
A+ for Narration by Luke Daniels
Some parts are better written than others. This installment was not as interesting as the first and a few of the actions felt overly zealous/out of place.