Customer Reviews

Kublai Khan

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm almost finished this book in less than a week and I have enjoyed every page. It is a fascinating story and brilliantly written. Not knowing a thing about Kublai Khan it was very satisfying to learn about the completion of the Mongol conquests of Central Asia, the Middle East and China, with the final debacle in Japan. The book reads like an adventure novel with mind bogglingly vast distances and numbers of people involved. Learning about the history of many countries there is often reference to the Mongols, so to read about it from their perspective really fills out the picture. There are many vignettes which give a personal insight into the characters involved in these exploits and Man sometimes describes sites, such as the ruins of Xanadu, as they are today. I thoroughly recommend this wonderful book to any reader

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, as the topic is fascinating.

However, there were times where I lost interest mostly do to the approach and writing style of the author. His scholarship is average, and he tries to create storylines that suit him for each chapter that make the book feel disconnected.

However, despite all that, there are interesting stories in the life of Kublai, and even this author can't help but capture those. So, it is better to read this book than no book about Kublai at all. However, I certainly won't pick up another John Mann book in the future and there are probably better Kublai books out there.

Wasn't impressed by this book at all! The author needs to brushup on his writing skills before publishing books!!!!