Empire of Silver

By: Conn Iggulden

Narrated by: Stephen Thorne

Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's Summary

The eagerly awaited 4th novel in the bestselling Conqueror series, continuing the life and adventures of the mighty Khan dynasty.

Genghis Khan is dead, but his legend and his legacy live on. His son Ogedai has built a white city on a great plain and made a capital for the new nation. Now the armies have gathered to see which of Genghis' sons has the strength to be khan. The Mongol empire has been at peace for two years, but whoever survives will face the formidable might of their great enemy, China’s Song dynasty.

The great leader Tsubodai sweeps into the west: through Russia, over the Carpathian mountains and into Hungary. The Templar knights have been broken and there is no king or army to stop him reaching France. But at the moment of Tsubodai's greatest triumph, as his furthest scouts reach the northern mountains of Italy, Tsubodai must make a decision that will change the course of history forever.

©2010 Conn Iggulden (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

A good continuation of an epic story

The story is slow to start when compared to the thrilling third installment in the series but it does finish strong.

a good story, well read and very enjoyable.

A good story, well read and highly enjoyable. I would listen to it again just for fun.

Informative

This book is neither 'boring', nor does it have 'too many names', as another reviewer would have you believe. It is an informative and interesting follow-up to the first three books in the series and provides a satisfying end to the story, as well as a view of the future of 'the Nation'. Of course, it lacks the central figure of Genghis Khan and thus a focal point. Like the Mongol Empire itself, the various strands of the story diverge. The book is therefore probably not suited to listeners who like a one-layered, plot-driven story. My own criticism is that it is not as well written as the first book in the series in particular. It is, however, superbly read by the inimitable Stephen Thorne whose work I have admired since his rendering of Mary Stewart's 'Merlin Trilogy'. In my view the whole series allows the reader a view of the Mongols which is refreshingly different from that normally found in Western history books, and 'The Empire of Silver' is both worth hearing in its own right, and as a conclusion to the earlier three.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Good, but could have been five star!

Good follow on book from the Genghis Khan trilogy. I think it would be pretty hard to top the first three which are excellent. I wouldn't recommend this book without reading/listening to the first three in sequence though. The book is intended to stand alone in it's own right, but would I think confuse the reader/listener a little. The characters are more real having read the previous books.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Bizarre accents......

The third reader in this series and they get progressively worse. The Chinese characters in this are voiced with accents that can best be described as comical, at worst borderline racist! The stories themselves however remain strong.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Unexciting 4/10

Conn Igguldens new book Empire of Silver is far from the firs and simple brilliant book Lords of the Bow (i recommend this) one of the problems is that there are just too many names that all sound the same so following the story is a bit complex and distracts from the story. I found myself having to go back to his other books just to remind me what character is how. The author moves from death, advancer and epic campaigns to the complex and just boring problems with running a empire. There is just not enough adventure. Yes there are some battles but the majority of the book is all dialogs slow and just a bit boring. a pity as I love the rest of Conn Igguldens books but this has to be the worst one yet

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Just amazing

Well written, and well performed.
First audio book I have tried and now completely hooked.

Chapters out of sync AGAIN

For the second time in this series, all of the chapters are out of sync which can make it extremely difficult to pick back up from where you stopped last.