2017-01-29
At times I was disappointed with this book.
After Iggulden spent so much time in the last one building up the character of young Genghis Kahn – and making him sympathetic – there was surprisingly little personal development here. We had a couple of scenes with him and his sons, but little more.
I also struggled to understand why we followed Temuge for so much of this story around Baotou, when he didn’t actually do anything other than follow Khasar and feel scared a lot.
However, the way the writing co-ordinated simultaneous viewpoints for the attack on Badger Pass was masterful. Additionally, it’s clear that we’re no longer supposed to focus only on Genghis, but also his brothers, and there was enough to leave me intrigued as to what they’d do next.
Once I finally accepted that I was better able to relax and enjoy it. Iggulden writes with such an easy manner that it was hard to put down, and in the end I’m glad I continued. In the meantime, I’m still interested enough to see how this series develops, so I’ll be returning to it again soon enough.
Rating: 4/5