From conquerer to Kahn (Wolf Of The Plains - Conn Iggulden)

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	Wolf Of The Plains - Conn Iggulden
Date:	12/06/09 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good historical novel in a very readable format

Disadvantages: not for everyone - lots of gore

There are few names that reach across history and still have the capacity to cause a shiver of fear and apprehension but Ghengis Kahn is certainly one of them. Lets face it, these days not many people actually know why he has that ability to create this feeling and to most he probably does little more than conjure up images of a tribe of men riding across the plains of the Steppes creating chaos and a considerable amount of bloodshed. But the problem with history, particularly of this period, it was written by the people with the ability to write, and in this particular case, most of the evidence of Ghengis Kahn's life comes from the documents left by the victims of his most famous victory the Chin empire and surprisingly enough - they didn't like him very much!

Wolf of the Plains by Conn Igullden chronicles the life of the young boy Temujin up until the point that he unites the mongol tribes just prior to the attack of the Chin empire. At the end of the book, Temujin looks out across a huge sea of people, never have so many been seen together on the Plains and he is Kahn (king) of them all, the mongol word for ocean is Ghengis so it was at this point that he took on the infamous name. But the journey to that point is so politically entwined and full of action that you can do little else but marvel at what he achieved.
Temujin was born the second son of the kahn of a mongol tribe called the wolves and the book opens with almost a romantic image of a group of brothers growing up in this harsh environment, but the first story isn't that of any great battle, one of the brothers had spotted eagles nesting high above the plain and eagles were of great benefit to the tribes for hunting. So the brother scaled the mountain, to collect the young eagles from their nest. Iggulden hooked me completely at this point as the description of their 2 day climb is so far removed from anything anyone would even consider attempting now and was completely engaging.

Then due to a change in circumstance, their father, the kahn dies and they are cast out from their tribe, if this hadn't happened, I very much doubt that Temujin would have received any of the infamy that he has. As a family left alone on the plains, with no tools for hunting would not survive the first winter, but they did and believe me what happened next is well worth buying, or borrowing the book to find out.
My real problem after reading the book was to admit to myself that, given the harsh period that he was in where bloodshed was very much a way of life. I actually liked him, he is a man of honour, he would give people a way out, but only once and in his early life every act of violence that he committed had a just cause. His first kill was his elder brother Bekter (possibly half brother the parentage was in doubt) but not for any reason relating to power, it was to ensure the survival of his family as in the days just after being cast out of the tribe they were close to starving but Bekter was finding food and eating it alone then still partaking of his share of the pittance the others had found.

As with any historical novel, it is essentially written to read as a piece of fiction and there have been characters omitted completely or changed slightly to ease the flow of the story but it has been very thoroughly researched and given the passage of time and the evidence available it is probably pretty close to as accurate as you are going to get in the present day, I have since watched some of the sky history channel documentaries about him and they match very closely to the book. But the real genius of the book is how the action and the historical story bind together to create a real page turner.
This book isn't for everyone, some of the violence is narrated in very explicit detail and there is plenty of action and gore. My husband was chatting to one of his work colleagues who mention that he was reading the series to which hubby said 'my wife is as well' which received a somewhat shocked response that it is not a girly book and it isn't, but anyone with a sense and interest of history who can admire military achievement should read this, Ghengis Kahn united a nation that had been warring since the beginning of civilisation then went on to defeat a large part of the known world.

The story continues in this series of books with the 'Lords of the Bow' and 'Bones of the Hills' all of which are very widely available in bookshops and libraries.
Thank you for reading.

Mary

Summary: the life of Ghengis Kahn