This was probably the best of The Mongoliad trilogy, though I didn't enjoy as much as I enjoyed the prequels included in the kindle editions of the three books. The trilogy follows four main events: the Khan's circus in Hunern, the Shield Brethren's quest to kill the Khagan, the happenings in the heart of the Mongol empire, and the election of a new pope in Rome. I thoroughly enjoyed the various Shield Brethren brothers and their individual personalities, as well as the brotherhood they, and their close friends, shared. Following Gansukh and Lian in the Mongol empire was sweet, and I liked Gansukh's character development. I even sympathised with Ogedei and his feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness of being Khan of Khans. Even after finishing the third installment of this series, I'm not entirely sure why the Rome perspective was included. It seemed, to me, to be totally irrelevant to the rest of the story, bar Percival's vision about the Grail which was also irrelevant and never resolved or explained. Though it was irrelevant, it was at least entertaining in this book and while I was reading what was happening there I wasn't constantly wondering what the point of it was like I was during book two. This is more of a 3.5 stars than 4, mostly because of there being so many loose ends. I may read the other 'side quests' if they reveal what might have happened to the Spirit Banner and Feronantus and Istvan, or how Gansukh and Alchiq track the group riding west, or even what happens to Ocyrhoe with her cargo. Overall, I did enjoy this book but I do find myself unsatisfied with the ending. This is a great ending to the trilogy. I loved how the disparate narratives occurring geographically far apart from each other finally began to show parallels with one another. The last 20 or so chapters, when the narratives started to come together were exhilarating. Unlike a typical, protagonist/antagonist story, I found my allegiance change from chapter to chapter. There are few real villains with each character being the hero of his/her own story, and the authors managed to give each of them satisfying ends. I would highly recommend this trilogy, especially after finishing the whole thing.
Do You like book The Mongoliad: Book Three (2013)?
Wow. I thought I'd be done after this book. But no, there are apparently another 2 in the series before everything finally wraps up, and since at least 50% of the text of this book was setting things up in book 4 and even 5, I now feel I have to read to rest of them. Sigh. This isn't so bad, it was enjoyable in fact, it's just sooo much text for something that really doesn't seem too important. It's kind of a like a Dickens-type serial where everyone was getting paid by the word and stretched things out. Much better than the Dark Tower 5-7 and I read through all that, so I can do this!
—lasselle
Liked the book. Reasonably satisfactory ending although it seemed to imply that there would be a book 4 although I cannot find any indication that there a book 4 will be forthcoming. But despite that, it was still a very entertaining read. My only "complaint" is that the parallel story set in Rome seemed completely unnecessary. Again, it seemed to be a setup for a sequel which does not seem to be forthcoming.Will certainly look for the other books set in this world.
—KillaBoySwag39
Creative characters and story perspective for the entire series.
—jhel
