Genghis: Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden

Rating: 7 out of 10
Summary: The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan, stalked by enemies seen and unseen and plagued by a divided family, leads a sprawling force of horsemen beyond the realm of their known world. He will bring a storm to Arab lands and face the armies of the shah in all their strength.

From the fierce cold plains of Mongolia to the Korean Peninsula, Genghis’s brothers, sons, and commanders have made emperors bow, slaughtering vast armies of fighting men. But as Genghis enters a strange new land of towering mountains and arid desert, he stirs an enemy greater than any he has met before. Under his command, Shah Ala-ud-Din Mohammed has thousands of fierce Arab warriors, teeming cavalry, and terrifying armored elephants. When Genghis strikes, the Arabs prove their mettle. On the verge of defeat, Genghis is forced to leave his own vast encampment, and the women and children in it, in the path of an enraged, savage enemy.

While the Mongols—men, women, and children—fight back, as secret assassins are sent into the night, another battle is taking shape. Two of Genghis’s sons, Jochi and Chagatai, are steeped in enmity. Warriors choose between them, and a murderer commits an unspeakable crime. Soon the most powerful man in the world, who has brought devastation to this land, must choose a successor. And when he does, it will touch off the most bitter conflict of all.

In a novel that ranges from the fertile lands of the Chin to the dust and rock of Afghanistan, Conn Iggulden weaves the epic story of history’s most enigmatic conqueror —those who feared him, those who defied him, and those whose bones he left behind.

My Thoughts: This is the third book in the Genghis series by Conn Iggulden. My reviews of the first and the second novels.

Bones of the Hills, the third (and last novel) about Genghis Khan by Iggulden, was great–lots of action, lots of political, military, and strategic plotting, as well as more focus on Genghis’ family especially his sons and the problem of an heir.

The main focus and conflict is Genghis’ rage and revenge against the Shah, who has an empire covering what is modern-day Afghanistan, bits of Iran too I think. It begins when the Great Khan sends ambadassadors and men to the Arab city of Otrar, demanding tribute and submission. The governor of Otrar repeatedly rebuffs Genghis by killing these “diplomats” (actually spies) and makes basically the “worst military decision in history” (I quote Iggulden) by offending Genghis, and the Mongol ruler sweeps down with his entire nation and sets fire and destruction and Doomsday on the Shah’s lands.

I was unaware of the fact that the Mongol Empire was so large (larger than the Roman Empire and Muslim Caliphate, or “largest continuous empire”), stretching from present-day Korea in the east all the way to the Caspian Sea in the west, touching Russia in the North and parts of South-East Asia and India. Seems like Iggulden made an effort to keep pretty factual with the events and plotting, and I enjoyed learning so much about Mongol history.

As this is the last novel about Genghis, it includes his death and plants the seed for a new series Iggulden will write about his descendents, most notably his grandson, Kublai Khan. I will definitely be following that series, and will also try Iggulden’s other books about Julius Caesar.

Great ending to a decently entertaining series.

Treasure Keeper by Shana Abe

Rating: 5 out of 10
Summary: With such novels as Queen of Dragons and The Dream Thief, Shana Abé has created a unique and vividly imagined world that exists side by side with our own—a realm populated by a race of supersensual men and women whose power to change shape permits them unlimited acts of pleasure…and ever-present danger. Now the survival of the drákon rests in the hands of a young woman with untried and unexpected powers—and the powerful Alpha male she must break everydrákon law to save.

The drákon are at war, surrounded by an enemy they have every reason to fear. The sanf inimicus are no ordinary human beings but the most dangerous of hunters. They’ve sworn to exterminate the shape-shifters whose presence they now can detect, and they’ve already claimed a prize prisoner: Lord Rhys Langford.

It’s a blow the drákon clans feel from Darkfrith, England, all the way to the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania. But it strikes no one harder than Zoe Cyprienne Lane. A mere seamstress’s daughter, Zoe isn’t even in the same league as Rhys. In fact, as an unwed male in the Alpha line, according to drákon custom, he owns her. So nothing could be more outrageous—or personally ruinous—than the mere notion that she might set out on her own to find her childhood friend…and first true love.

But the unexpected is exactly what Zoe intends to do. For years she’s been hiding two extraordinary Gifts that have set her apart from other drákon females: the power to become invisible and the power to feel others’ emotions.Now, guided by a link to Rhys—his presence and touch as electric as if he were beside her in the flesh—Zoe uses both Gifts to infiltrate the sanf inimicus. And for Rhys, whose time is running out, Zoe is his last lifeline to a world—and a love—he never thought he’d regain. Only together again, hunter and huntress, can they save the drákon from the traitor in their midst who would destroy them all.

My Thoughts: Getting a little ridiculous at this point–the biggest problem glaring at me was the fact that this whole “sanf inimicus” plotline has been stretched across 3 books, when it really only has enough oomph and actual substances to last maybe one. It’s become drawn out and diluted to the point that they don’t even feel like actual antagonists, just something annoying buzzing through the storyline.

I really liked the first novel in this series, The Smoke Thief, and with each subsequent one, I have liked them less and less… and now it feels as if Abe is just grasping for something to keep writing about. I skimmed several chapters in this one and didn’t miss too much.

An Update

I feel like I have been reading quite a bit lately, but I’m not finishing anything. I hate it when this happens, when I keep getting distracted by a new book and not finishing the 52 other ones that I’ve already started. And for some reason I don’t like to review books that I don’t finish. But perhaps I shall now in order to have something to post about…

Books I am currently reading:

-The Treasure Keeper by Shana Abe
-Genghis Khan: Bones of the Hills by Conn Iggulden
-The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Rating: 8 out of 10
Summary: Is a summary really necessary?

My Thoughts: Again, been on a Harry Potter marathon this week. I re-read the sixth book first (in preparation for the movie), then continued with the seventh book, and jumped back to the first. Also watched the fourth and fifth movies.

It was interesting reading Sorcerer’s Stone right after having read the last two books in the series. Rowling’s first Potter novel was a little simplistic, which is kind of nice, and definitely expected. There is a lot less Doom and Gloom and End of the World going on, and more focus on Harry’s school life and friends and little daily obstacles. You can see clearly how much Harry’s world has changed and also how Rowling has evolved as a writer.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Rating: 8 out of 10
Summary: The war against Voldemort is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.

And yet…

As in all wars, life goes on. Sixth-year students learn to Apparate — and lose a few eyebrows in the process. The Weasley twins expand their business. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Classes are never straightforward, though Harry receives some extraordinary help from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

So it’s the home front that takes center stage in the multilayered sixth installment of the story of Harry Potter. Here at Hogwarts, Harry will search for the full and complex story of the boy who became Lord Voldemort — and thereby find what may be his only vulnerability.

My Thoughts: In preparation for the movie coming out July 15th, I’ve gone on a bit of a Potter binge this past week. I wanted to refresh my memory on what exactly happens in the 6th installment, and all I could recall was that I hadn’t really liked the 6th book… I think it’s because I rushed through it too quickly and somebody gave away the ending to me which upset me very much at the time.

Anyway, I read over it again with a fresh perspective and really enjoyed it. I really like the Harry Potter series, and am looking forward to the new movie as well.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Rating: 7 out of 10
Summary: Who is Jenna Fox? 

Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a year-long coma, and she’s still recovering from the terrible accident that caused it. Her parents show her home movies of her life, her memories, but she has no recollection. Is she really the same girl she sees on the screen?

Little by little, Jenna begins to remember. Along with the memories come questions–questions no one wants to answer for her. What really happened after the accident?

Acclaimed author Mary E. Pearson presents an unforgettable look at one human life and a glimpse into a possible future that may be closer than we think.

My Thoughts: Can’t remember where I heard about this book, I think it was another book blog. 

It started a little slow, perhaps because I feel sort of impatient about the kind of premise that Pearson used–girl wakes up, doesn’t remember anything, tries to figure out the mystery of her life and her True Blue Identity. The Amnesia Story. I feel like it’s something I’ve read a lot already, and it’s not always been done well. 

It began to pick up when Pearson started throwing in the scientific and ethical dilemmas–the first clue being the biotechnology company Jenna’s father owned and got rich off of through an invention called Bio Gel, which can keep human organs viable indefinitely. Pearson’s description of the near future was also very interesting–where antibiotics no longer work due to our chronic overuse of them to cure little problems, and an epidemic of an incurable virus, transgenic crops that have spread to the point where native plants are all but extinct, and the subsequent backlash against research and science that results in an extreme bureaucracy of all sorts of suffocating regulations on medicine and technology.

Identity is another large theme, along with soul, humanity, memory. 

There were some small inconsistencies on Pearson’s part, but nothing big enough to detract from the main focus of the book. Gets you thinking.

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Rating: 7 out of 10
Summary: The sea has taken everything.

Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle Daphne—a girl from the other side of the globe—is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.

Together the two confront the aftermath of catastrophe. Drawn by the smoke of Mau and Daphne’s sheltering fire, other refugees slowly arrive: children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives—all of them hungry and all of them frightened. As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down. . . .

Commentary: Pratchett has a very distinct style, something you can recognize straighaway even without having read many of his books (I’ve read maybe like 1 or 2 Discworld novels). At times I felt like it didn’t exactly fit with the story of Nation, but it was a good read nevertheless.

I like the world that Pratchett invented, and recognized a lot of the aspects of the island culture of Mau. Good read, several comedic parts, philosophical parts.