The Mongoliad: The Foreworld Saga, Book 1

By: Neal Stephenson, Erik Bear, Greg Bear, Joseph Brassey, Nicole Galland, Cooper Moo, Mark Teppo

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

In the late 19th century, a mysterious group of English martial arts aficionados provided Sir Richard F. Burton, well-known expert on exotic languages and historical swordsmanship, a collection of long-lost manuscripts to translate. Burton’s work was subsequently misplaced, only to be discovered by a team of amateur archaeologists in the ruins of a mansion in Treiste.

From Burton's translations and the original source material, the epic tale of The Mongoliad was recreated. The story chronicles the journey of a small band of warriors and mystics as they fight to save Europe from the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century. It also exposes the secret workings of powerful clandestine societies that have been driving world events for millennia.

This fascinating and enthralling first novel in The Mongoliad trilogy fuses historical events with a gripping fictional narrative. Co-written by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, E. D. deBirmingham, Mark Teppo, Joseph Brassey, Erik Bear, and Cooper Moo, The Mongoliad: Book One is an unforgettable epic.

©2012 Greg Bear, Neal Stephenson, E. D. deBirmingham, Mark Teppo, Joseph Brassey, Erik Bear, and Cooper Moo (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Not the Best

Having listened to Conn Iggulden"s books on the subject, I was expecting a good interpretation of the mongol story by other authors, perhaps with a fantasy twist.
The research may have been good. But the writing was at best mediocre; there was no actual character development; and the reading was also mediocre. As a final insult, the book just ended, without polish or attempt to bring it to any conclusion. Maybe there was a planned next in a series; but if so, I will never know. Overall, my recommendation is to read or listen to Iggulden's far superior books and not waste the credit.

A Find!

???The Mongoliad??? came as a surprise to me. Originating as a ???cloud??? collaboration from a team of noted authors, this alternate history saga of ???The Foreworld??? has apparently been going on in multimedia format for a while (see the mongoliad website). But this book, the first of a trilogy (a trilogy that is apparently already close to complete, which is always a good thing), stands alone as a novel. Describing the newly published book in an Amazon interview, coauthor Mark Teppo says that ???the three volumes of The Mongoliad have been polished, re-structured, and re-edited into the definitive edition of the narrative ??? [that] is the authors' preferred text. ??? We're old school that way. It's done when you put it on the shelf.??? Good news for readers everywhere!

The prose style of this adventure epic combines history-based fiction with the world-building of fantasy and science fiction, with the wordsmithing genius of Neal Stephenson definitely an influence. The first couple of chapters were a little muddled, but once I got the sense and rhythm of the story, the many characters and their strange names fell into place and it became amazingly easy to follow. Feeling the lack of maps, I confess I scanned the Wikipedia entries on the ???Mongol invasion of Europe??? and ???Mongolian Empire??? to gain some context, and found them useful. It???s a fascinating and fast-moving tale, if gruesome and full of cruelty. The Mongols were not kind to the people they conquered or to the cities they overran, usually wiping out both with chilling completeness. They left few survivors in their wake, and the fact that western and Mediterranean Europe (including France, Spain, Italy, the Low Countries and even the British Isles) were spared their onslaught is, I suspect, going to be a big piece of the mosaic this trilogy will create.

Regarding the narration, as I think most people who have listened to the ???Iron Druid??? books will agree, Luke Daniels can read to me anytime.

Expectations

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I found it to be written a little too much like they are expecting it to be a screen-play. I would have liked less predictable story lines and more developed characters.

What was most disappointing about the authors’s story?

How predictable it was. The foreshadowing was a little too complete. The book contains a grand concept delivered so simply that I was left wanting a lot more depth.

What about Luke Daniels’s performance did you like?

His performance was the only thing that kept me listening on a very long drive.

Do you think The Mongoliad needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Well yes, the series is obviously incomplete.

Any additional comments?

I love the concept of the book. Many of its individual characters are very interesting, and I still think on their personalities and choices. I feel that some of the ethereal themes of the book were squeezed out of the way so it would appeal to the masses who watch Game of Thrones.

Slow Building, but worth the wait

If you could sum up The Mongoliad: The Foreworld Saga, Book 1 in three words, what would they be?

Act 1

Any additional comments?

I suspect that if Neil Stephenson had written this alone, this would have only been part of a single massively long book. While this tells a continuing story, don't expect much of an ending, its more of a cliff hanger to the next book. I'd advise if you read this, plan on reading the next book as well right away. For Stephenson fans, this won't be a big deal as the long long journey is the fun.

Absolutely Fantastic

What a brilliant, engaging story! Such an involved, intricate plot and the characters are just fabulous. I bought the next book as soon as I finished this one and pre-ordered the third straight after that. Just a fantastic book, I can't wait for the third!

It's...Okay.

Like most people, it was Neal Stephenson's name that drew me to this book. Then I read the description and it sounded like a great story, it however, falls short of that. It's not bad and it's not great, it's just okay. The story is interesting and has kept my interest despite the characters not having a lot of depth or development.

I don't mind the writing by committee so much, however, there are a few things about the writing that really stand out to me. One, the authors often use turns of phrase, idioms, common phrases, slang, whatever you want to call them that are common today but seem out of place for the mid 13th century. Not being a historian, I have no idea what common phrases were used in the time this story is set, but many of the phrases used by the authors feel out of place. The other thing that stands out to me is that the characters are pretty well learned and knowledgeable, and most of them speak multiple languages. Again, I'm not a historian, so maybe this was commonplace during this time, I don't know. It just seems kind of convenient.

The one huge thing about this book, and most other reviewers have commented on this, is the fact that the book just stops at the end. No story lines are tied up, wrapped up, or even sufficiently put in a decent position to be paused, the book just stops. I've already started listening to book two, and as I suspected, book two basically picks up where book one left off. It seems like, and I'll have to confirm this once I start book three, that they wrote one book and for some reason or another the decision was made to cut it up in multiple books after the fact.

Luke Daniels narration is pretty good, not great, but it is good.

Overall I liked the story enough to move right into book two. Ultimately it's a fictional tale and in that respect it's fun and entertaining.

Can't wait for the next installment

Wow, grabs you from the start and keeps hold of you. I honestly couldn't stop listening.

The book is fun and informative, great characters and break-neck pace. You won't be sorry you listened,

Disappointing

I enjoyed listening to a story set a generation after Genghis Khan, but otherwise this story fell flat. I didn't feel very connected to the large number of characters spread over several settings, and many of them never did connect to each other.

At the end of the book the story did not end in any way. Not even slight resolutions in any of the storylines. Yet it really wasn't compelling enough for me to find the next book in the series.

The narration was fine and the writing wasn't bad. It just was... meh.

Tightly Written

Base on the first book, The Mongolid series is tightly written and I cannot wait to start the next book. One would think because of so many authors contributing in the writing process, the story would had been very frustrating and loose, but it is well written, as if all of the collaborators agreed to limit themselves and stay on the plot.

The best way that I can describe this series is a Chinese film maker, making their debut in the States, like Ang Lee and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or more like Yimou Zhang and Hero.

The Mongoliad feels like an ancient Chinese' tale that have been handed down for centuries.

The pace of the storytelling is a bit slow, but it really works. It would be interesting to have all of the authors for an interview to know who wrote which parts and how they put the project together.

I can never get enough of Neal Stephenson.

The interplay between characters and scenes was great. Neal Stephenson has some great writers working with him here.