The Great Geek Manual

Book: The Mongoliad: Book One
ISBN-13: 978-1612182360

Author: Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear
Series: The Foreworld Saga, Book 1
Publisher: 47North
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release: April 24, 2012
Length: 442 pages (Paperback)

Book Rating: B (85 / 100)

Verdict

If Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead had been written by Guy Gavriel Kay, The Mongoliad would have been the final result.

Fans of historical fiction are certain to count The Mongoliad as a staple of the genre, and hardcore Neal Stephenson won’t be disappointed, either. However, The Mongoliad suffers from the same shortcomings as most books of the historical fiction genre. It is a bit dry, due to the historical tone of the narration, a bit overly cerebral, due to the necessity of explaining the details of medieval living, and a bit slow due to the sheer volume of exposition required by those explanations. The overall effect is the The Mongoliad is not a heavy piece of reading, but that much is obvious simply by virtue of Neal Stephenson’s name on the cover.

Pros: Highly authentic historical detail. Frequent, inventive battle scenes.

Cons: Unpronounceable character names. Little-to-no suspense. Slow start. Story pacing drags a bit. Sudden ending leaves the book feeling incomplete.

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Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “The Blue Heeler” by Weston Ochse at Tales to Terrify.
• Listen to “Buried Eyes” by Lavie Tidhar at PodCastle.
• Listen to “A Clean Sweep Of It” by Thomas Canfield at Cast of Wonders.
• Listen to “Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes” by Tom Crosshill.
• Listen to “Our Drunken Tjeng” by Nicky Drayden at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “Ruminations in an Alien Tongue” by Vandana Singh at Lightspeed.
• Listen to ““Run,” Bakri Says” by Ferrett Steinmetz at Escapepod.
• Listen to “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains” by Neil Gaiman.

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Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “The Book of Locked Doors” by Yoon Ha Lee at Ceaseless Skies.
• Listen to “Counting Cracks” by George R. Galuschak at Escapepod.
• Listen to “Electric Rains” by Kathleen Ann Goonan at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “Giant Episode: Golden City Far” by Gene Wolfe at PodCastle.
• Listen to “The God Complex” by Neil John Buchanan at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive” by Stephen King at Tales to Terrify.
• Listen to “Hypergraphia” by Ken Lillie-Paetz at Tales to Terrify.
• Listen to “Inksucker” by Aidan Doyle at Cast of Wonders.
• Listen to “The Last Words Of Daniel Shupak” by Erich William Bergmeier.
• Listen to “Test Drive” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman at Drabblecast.
• Listen to “Yew Will Know Me” by M.R. James at Retro 19 Nocturne.

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Yesterday, I received a copy of The Mongoliad (Book One of The Foreworld Saga) by Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear in the mail from Wunderkind PR.

I was momentarily confused upon opening the package, as I had read articles on BoingBoing and io9 describing The Mongoliad as an experiment in interactive storytelling, but evidently, it’s a book, too. More to the point, it’s a book inspired by “Stephenson’s dissatisfaction with the authenticity of the medieval sword fighting scenes he had written into his Baroque cycle of novels” and written by some of my favorite authors.

Needless to say, I am highly intrigued. I’ll be posting a review of the book in the very near future.

Check out the Facebook page and website for The Mongoliad; they feature extras such as author interviews, fan cheat sheets, and interactive app downloads, and they promise more extras are on the way.
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Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “All You Can Do Is Breath” by Kaarron Warren at Tales to Terrify.
• Listen to “The Crucifixion of the Outcast” by William Butler Yeats at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “Giant Episode: Golden City Far” by Gene Wolfe at PodCastle.
• Listen to “Graffiti Sonata” by Gene O’Neill at Tales to Terrify.
• Listen to “Her Husbands Hands” by Adam Troy Castro at Tales to Terrify.
• Listen to “A Logic Named Joe” by Murray Leinster at Journey Into…
• Listen to “The Spacemice Incident” by Carl Frederick at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “The Speed of Time” by Jay Lake at Escape Pod.
• Listen to “Suicide Coast” by M John Harrison at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “When You Visit the Magoebaskloof Hotel Be Certain Not to Miss the Samango Monkeys” by Chris Schryer at Drabblecast.

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Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “All At Once” by Nathaniel Lee at Journey Into…
• Listen to “Atom Drive” by Charles Fontenay at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “The Dark And What It Said” by Rick Kennett at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “The Ever-Dreaming Verdict Of Plagues” by Jason Sanford at Dunesteef.
• Listen to “Harry and Marlowe and the Talisman of the Cult of Egil” by Carrie Vaughn.
• Listen to “The Haunted Author” by Marcus Clarke at 19 Nocturne Boulevard.
• Listen to “In My House of Crafted Cards” by David Thomas Lord at Tales To Terrify.
• Listen to “In The Stacks” by Scott Lynch at PodCastle.
• Listen to “Unreliable Witness” by Jo Walton at Drabblecast.
• Listen to “The Water Man” by Ursula Pflug at Escapepod.

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Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “Dali’s Clocks” by Dave Hutchinson at WorldSF.
• Listen to “The Eckener Alternative” by James L. Cambias at Escapepod.
• Listen to “The Ever-Dreaming Verdict Of Plagues” by Jason Sanford at Dunesteef.
• Listen to “Forever” by Robert Sheckley at The Drama Pod.
• Listen to “Jack In The Box” by R B Harkess at Cast of Wonders.
• Listen to “Jagannath” by Karin Tidbeck at Drabblecast.
• Listen to “A Suitable Present for a Sorcerous Puppet” by Garth Nix at PodCastle.
• Listen to “Sunlight Society” by Margaret Ronald at Clarkesworld Magazine.
• Listen to “A Tinker of Warhoon” by Tobias Buckell at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “We Dragons” by Tim Sevenhuysen at Ray Gun Revival.

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Audio Fiction and Podcasts

• Listen to “All the Young Kirks and Their Good Intentions” by Helena Bell.
• Listen to “Asteroid Monte” by Craig DeLancey at Escapepod.
• Listen to “Billions of Stars” by K. J. Kabza at Beam Me Up.
• Listen to “The Clockwork Atom Bomb” by Dominic Green at StarShipSofa.
• Listen to “The Derelict” by Felbrigg at Cthulhu Podcast.
• Listen to “The Ever-Dreaming Verdict Of Plagues” (Part 1) by Jason Sanford.
• Listen to “The Gravedigger of Konstan Spring” by Genevieve Valentine.
• Listen to “Incantation” by Jessica Reisman at Toasted Cake.
• Listen to “My Boogie Man” by Harley May at Cast of Wonders.
• Listen to “A Revelation of Cormorants” by Mark Valentine at Pseudopod.
• Listen to “Shadows Under Hexmouth Street” by Justin Howe at Ceaseless Skies.
• Listen to “Urchins, While Swimming” by Catherynne M. Valente at PodCastle.
• Listen to “Welcome Home to Our Fair City” by Captain Radio at Radio Revival.

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