From Publishers Weekly
The ruthless 13th-century warrior Genghis Khan, who built a vast empire in his drive for world conquest, is the subject of this workmanlike historical novel, a panorama of warfare, intrigue, sex and betrayal. In Sargent's ( The Shore of Women ) somewhat romanticized portrayal, the Mongol ruler is a schizoid figure capable of both monstrous savagery and saintly humility and forgiveness. We see Genghis Khan through the eyes of women who loved and manipulated him. His doting mother, Honelun, stirs his lust for vengeance by telling tall tales of his father's poisoning. His chief wife, Bortai, is bitter over his neglect of her. Another wife, Ibakha, rashly attempts to convert the ruler from worship of the sky-god Tengri to Christianity. Still another spouse, Ch'i-kyuo, a ladylike Chinese princess, has lesbian trysts with a Han concubine. Genghis Khan himself enjoys simultaneously bedding two additional wives, Tatar sisters Yisui and Yisugen, and we also read of his homosexual relationship with a friend whom he later orders to be hung. Sargent's flat prose is plodding and ridden with cliches, but it helps anchor the exotic excesses of the violent world she describes.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
Sargent, the author of numerous sf novels, has produced a neatly crafted work that manages to provide a panoramic view of the charismatic leader Genghis Khan while at the same time presenting the background mosaic of warring Mongol tribes in enough detail to keep the reader from getting hopelessly confused. A nice touch is Sargent's telling the conqueror's story from the viewpoint of the women in his life--mother, wives, and daughters. This technique makes it possible to introduce considerable domestic detail and prevents the novel from becoming a mind-numbing catalog of battles. Even so, the last 200 pages are so mired in accounts of conquests that they drag a bit, and the multitudinous characters--only a few developed in any depth--blur together. Still, the exotic setting and inherent drama of Genghis Khan's life make this an appealing novel to fans of historical fiction.
- Beth Ann Mills, New Rochelle P.L., N.Y.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
