![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(Books) The Three Palladins
Oct. 1st, 2009 06:40 amMy most recent finished book is Harold Lamb's "The Three Palladins."
It's a historical adventure novel set during the early career of Ghenghis Khan (still Temujin as the story opens), and focusing on how his three main lieutenants came to serve him. The central character is Mingan, a Chinese prince who falls afoul of the Emperor's heir due to a prophecy that Mingan's star will rise, while the ruling dynasty's star will fall.
As with Mr. Lamb's Cossack stories, this novel takes place in a world where almost every seemingly supernatural event has a natural explanation. That exception is the ability to predict the future, never in the hands of the protagonists, but remarkably accurate nonetheless.
It's fast-paced adventure, originally written in 1922 (my edition is from 1977.) The time period shows in the fact that there's exactly one named female character, Temujin's love Burta. She gets some business early on that establishes her as a match for him...then spends most of the rest of the plot either captured or off-screen. But if you can put up with that, it's a good read.
It's a historical adventure novel set during the early career of Ghenghis Khan (still Temujin as the story opens), and focusing on how his three main lieutenants came to serve him. The central character is Mingan, a Chinese prince who falls afoul of the Emperor's heir due to a prophecy that Mingan's star will rise, while the ruling dynasty's star will fall.
As with Mr. Lamb's Cossack stories, this novel takes place in a world where almost every seemingly supernatural event has a natural explanation. That exception is the ability to predict the future, never in the hands of the protagonists, but remarkably accurate nonetheless.
It's fast-paced adventure, originally written in 1922 (my edition is from 1977.) The time period shows in the fact that there's exactly one named female character, Temujin's love Burta. She gets some business early on that establishes her as a match for him...then spends most of the rest of the plot either captured or off-screen. But if you can put up with that, it's a good read.
