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His childhood experiences created the man he would become, who would not bend or allow fear or weakness in any form. He cared nothing for possessions or wealth, only that his enemies fall.” I don’t know why the ending to this book series was rushed and so many interesting events cut out… but I hope whatever the new project/time period Conn is embarking on makes it worth it! Courage cannot be left like bones in a bag. It must be brought out and shown the light again and again, growing stronger each time. If you think it will keep for the times you need it, you are wrong. It is like any other part of your strength. If you ignore it, the bag will be empty when you need it most.” If I had to find a criticism, it was that the point of view was ... loose. It floated somewhere between third person limited and third person omniscient. I guess it was omniscient, but it would switch focus from being in one character's head to being in another's at really odd points and it was jarring from time to time. Especially when it jumped from one of the main character's heads to some minor character you don't see much of. I really don't care, though.
Like any other genre, HF has its own pitfalls to avoid. One such pitfall is focus on the period of time to the detriment of the characters. In this story, the author present a well balanced story. As stated above, the reader is firmly grounded in the place and time while at same time, the characters are bold, vibrant and multi-dimensional. The reader is presented with a vivid picture of not only Genghis but his four brothers, his parents (especially his father), his wife and his major enemies. This results in a well rounded story that allow for full immersion.C. F. Iggulden is the pseudonym of successful historical fiction writer Conn Iggulden. Darien is the author’s first attempt at a fantasy series, and a YA series at that. Having never read any of his previous work, I went into Darien knowing nothing other than this was a novel from a well-established writer. It was a shame, then, that it read like a first draft. The book certainly has plenty of endless battles and plenty and discusses war strategies. The most famous and gruesome battle, described in detail by Iggulden, is the one fought at the Badger Mouth. To combat the Mongol advance, the Chin had assembled approximately half a million soldiers (versus the Mongol's 100 thousand) and stationed them at Badger Mouth. However, the Chin appeared to have been overly confident in their numbers and mainly in their defensive position: Genghis eventually circumvented their defenses by sending part of his men over the peaks surrounding the pass, something the Chin thought impossible, allowing him to encircle the much larger army. As a result, he slaughtered thousands and the enemy’s soldiers and practically destroyed its army. This book is generally about Pericles, Statesman and supreme Leader of Athens against their fearsome enemies of Sparta, until the outbreak of the plague, and during this leadership he's assisted at first by Ephialtes and later on by Myronides, and always not far behind Pericles there's his friend, the awesome and once banished Strategos on land and sea for Athens, Cimon. En la India, el sultanato de Delhi, dinastía de origen turco y religión musulmana, dominan una gran parte del subcontinente indio, tras derrocar hacia el 1215 al Sultanato gúrida, que ocupaba el territorio desde el Jorasán en Irán, hasta el norte de la India, con su base de poder principal en Ghor (Afganistán) y Lahore (india). A su desintegración sus territorios se repartieron entre Jorezmitas y el Sultanato de Delhi. Unbelievably good; this marked the first time I finished reading Iggulden’s work, and it’s VERY promising that this will become one of my favorite series.
Conn Iggulden isn’t exactly an unfamiliar name to me; despite the fact that he’s most well-known for his historical fiction works, Iggulden’s blurbs have been featured on some of my favorite fantasy books such as The Faithful and the Fallen series by John Gwynne and The Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb, to name a few. For years I’ve been interested in reading his books, and from what I’ve gathered, his Conqueror series seems to be the most often regarded as his best works by his readers. And so here we are and my god, I seriously didn’t expect it to be this great. To have only one city as the central point of the story is not uncommon in fantasy. We learn that Darien is a city ruled by a young king who is essentially only the pawn of the twelve powerful families. The city seems to have belonged to a huge empire in the past which gave the book series its title (Empire of Salt), but we sadly don't learn anything more than that. Equally unsatisfying for me was the fact that we don't get to know the twelve families in more detail since they seem to be of much importance for Darien and later on in the story. This was even more frustrating since the German book does feature the subtitle "rule of the twelve" which let me to believe we would learn a lot about politics and power dynamics in Darien. This is the sequel to The Lion and is the fourth in the Athenian series that begins with The Gates of Athens and Protector. I recommend them all if you’re interested in Ancient Greek history. I enjoyed reading Iggulden’s version of life in the China of that time, how the Mongol and Chinese mixed and related to each to each other. Moreover, reading this book started me into a new interest in reading military fiction that extends into today. Following on from The Lion, Pericles is now a leading figure in Athens, becoming strategos in the Pelopennesian War against Sparta. He is responsible for the project which developed the Acropolis and built the Parthenon, and for the walls which protected Athens from Spartan invasion, although not from eventual defeat. Pericles achieved so much more than is portrayed here but the book would have been twice as long and much more complex if everything had been covered.
So much hadn’t been covered yet that I was excited for the next instalment as I reached the end of this book. To my dismay Conn Iggulden suddenly just wraps up the story like a tv series that has had its funding for the next season cut!
The best part about the whole thing was that I was dragged by the heels out of my terrible reading funk. It didn’t even take the whole book to do it, just this particular quote, which might just be the best historical fiction line I’ve encountered… Nothing that spoiled the read for me but random thoughts that popped up as I read. There is very little history about Darien and although there are twelve noble families we don’t meet them all here. Personally, I think Iggulden has the right idea by not introducing everyone at this point. We only meet with those nobles that play a role in the story and this helps to keep the story succinct and prevents the need for history lessons (although I would have liked a little bit more information on, for example the Sallets). Together with his greatest rival, mark Antony, Octavian will stop at nothing to avenge his father’s death. The Conqueror Series Genghis: Birth of an Empire Temujin, the son of Khan, was raised in a clan of hunters who migrated across the rugged lands. However, this is just the beginning of struggle for Khan. He sends off emissaries who end up dead after immense torture. His trade routes are faced with violent rebellion. Khan: Empire of SilverWorst of all was the thought that the world might be so badly organised that a cure could exist and still not reach those who needed it.’ Darien is clearly meant to be the first in a series and not a stand-alone. What this means is that the book introduces the reader to people and places that are going to develop over more than one book. The plan at present is for a trilogy.
En el ámbito musulmán, el imperio Seljucida que había suplantado a los abasidas, hace tiempo que ha colapsado en multitud de estados, muchos gobernados por dinastías de origen turco u otros poderes locales: Imperio ayyubi (de Egipto a Siria) o los Jorezmitas en el solar iranio y su ámbito de influencia, los propios seljucidas que subsisten en Anatolia.
In general the action and pace were fine particularly as the book went on; I was happily caught up in the story. This was not a book I would have put down and I enjoyed reading it. My reservation is that the plot lines seem quite well telegraphed. It was apparent to me quite early on the general direction of the story. As I got further into the book I did work out a number of the general storylines. I'd go for 3.5/5 on this one though others will enjoy it even more than me. Character wise Mr. Iggulden writes believable protagonists and antagonists, when a new character is introduced, everything is revealed(or almost everything), then you start to like the said characters, only to find that, they were just part of the embellishment (Daw, I really liked him........dang........😵😵😵😵), I was really into his heroes(????) and villains (????......as I have said, you never know who is who and what is what).......
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