The Mongoliad (The Mongoliad Cycle) - Softcover

Stephenson, Neal; Bear, Erik; Bear, Greg; Brassey, Joseph; Galland, Nicole; Moo, Cooper; Teppo, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1612182380 ISBN 13: 9781612182384

Publisher: 47North, 2013

Synopsis

The final book of the Mongoliad trilogy from Neal Stephenson and company tells the gripping personal stories of medieval freedom fighters to form an epic, imaginative recounting of a moment in history when a world in peril relied solely on the courage of its people.

The shadow of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II hangs over the shattered Holy Roman Church as the cardinals remain deadlocked, unable to choose a new pope. Only the Binders and a mad priest have a hope of uniting the Church against the invading Mongol host. An untested band of young warriors stands against the dissolute Khan, fighting for glory and freedom in the Khan’s sadistic circus of swords, and the brave band of Shield-Brethren who set out to stop the Mongol threat single-handedly race against their nemesis before he can raise the entire empire against them. Veteran knight Feronantus, haunted by his life in exile, leads the dwindling company of Shield-Brethren to their final battle, molding them into a team that will outlast him. No good hero lives forever. Or fights alone.

About this title

About the Author:

Neal Stephenson is primarily a fiction author and has received several awards for his works in speculative fiction. His more popular books include Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, The Baroque Cycle, and Anathem.

Erik Bear lives and writes in Seattle, Washington. He has written for a bestselling video game and is currently working on several comic book series.

Greg Bear is the author of more than thirty books, spanning the thriller, science fiction, and fantasy genres, including Blood Music, Eon, The Forge of God, Darwin’s Radio, City at the End of Time, and Hull Zero Three. His books have won numerous international prizes, have been translated into more than twenty-two languages, and have sold millions of copies worldwide.

Joseph Brassey lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and two cats. He teaches medieval fighting techniques to members of the armed forces. The Mongoliad is his first published fiction.

Nicole Galland is the author of I, Iago, as well as The Fool's Tale, Revenge of the Rose, and Crossed: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade. An award-winning screenwriter, she is married to actor Billy Meleady and, unlike all her handsome and talented co-writers, spends no time at all hitting people with sticks in Seattle.

Mark Teppo is the author of the Codex of Souls urban fantasy series as well as the hypertext dream narrative The Potemkin Mosaic.

Cooper Moo spent five minutes in Mongolia in 1986 before he had to get back on the train—he never expected to be channeling Mongolian warriors. In 2007 Cooper fought a Chinese long-sword instructor on a Hong Kong rooftop—he never thought the experience would help him write battle scenes. In addition to being a member of The Mongoliad writing team, Cooper has written articles for various magazines. His autobiographical piece "Growing Up Black and White," published in the Seattle Weekly, was awarded Social Issues Reporting article of the year by the Society of Professional Journalists. He lives in Issaquah, Washington, with his wife, three children, and numerous bladed weapons.

From Booklist:

The third and final volume of the Mongoliad saga is nearly as long as the first two volumes combined, but it’s as fast paced and page-flippingly exciting as its two forerunners. For the uninitiated, The Mongoliad—a mammoth epic set in a sort of alternate-reality version of the thirteenth century, around the time of the Mongol invasion of Europe—was originally an online serial. It was restructured and rewritten for its print appearance (which its seven authors, led by Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear, now consider to be the “definitive edition”), and what you get in book form is, in places, substantially different from the serialized version. But the broad strokes are the same: a small group of warrior-monks, the Shield-Brethren, desperately fight to repel the Mongols before the invaders eradicate their way of life. The Mongoliad grew out of its authors’ (particularly Stephenson’s) interest in the history of sword fighting and the Western martial arts, but it’s more than that; it’s also a ripping good alternate-history saga, a story of devotion and determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Setting the epic in an alternate version of the thirteenth century allows the authors to step outside of recorded history and let their imaginations run wild, to create characters that could not have existed in the “real world” and relate events that never actually happened. It’s not absolutely necessary to have read volumes one and two, but that would definitely help, as there is an assumed familiarity with the story’s characters and with what has gone before. But there’s plenty of time to pick up the essentials as you go along, even if this is your first trip to the Mongoliad. --David Pitt

About this edition

• Publisher: 47North
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1612182380
• ISBN 13: 9781612182384
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 716