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| Neal Stephenson speaking at Google, (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In a way, Mr. Anderson is crowdsourcing his latest work,
with the first book of The Mongoliad Trilogy recently published with
co-authors Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, E.D. deBirmingham, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey
and Cooper Moo. Or perhaps he has seen
the commercial success of Game of Thrones, and is creating the script writing
team for the series. (His books would be
rather complicated to turn into a movie.
A Lord of the Rings series would be more appropriate. The Baroque Cycle would have to be a series.)
I continue to view him as the most creative and inventive
author writing today. This first volume
is set in the medieval era and focuses on conflict between Mongols and Western
Europeans. As with many of his prior
books, a big list of characters is introduced, with multiple plot lines that
experienced Anderson readers know will eventually converge. Based on volume one I would characterize this
as action fiction. A thinly veiled Knights
of the Round Table plans to take on one of the sons of Ghenghis Khan (Ogedei– Khagan-or Khan of Khans) with the goal
of causing a retreat of the Mongols from what otherwise seems likely to become
the complete occupation and sacking of all of Europe.
Protaganists from Volume I. are Cnan, a member of a clan
named The Binders, a kind of stealthy gypsy band, and Gensukh, a Mongol
warrior, sent from his officer position in the field by his father, to the
court of Ogedei Khan, overlord of the Mongols.
Cnan ends up entangled with the knights, using her tracking and hiding
skills as a scout and occasionally as a one-woman diversion.
While there is action, the first segment of the series
clearly is stage setting. Keep the book
handy; you will need to refresh your memory as to the legion of characters and
chapter endings before opening Book 2.
I haven’t read anything by Stephenson that I wouldn’t
recommend. The Mongoliad is no
exception.
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