Review: Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy

My interest in Genghis Khan and his world started when I read Tiger Queens by Stephanie Thornton, and only increased after reading Conn Iggulden's Conqueror series. I have had a few non-fiction books about Genghis on my Kindle for a while, and decided to kick off with Frank McLynn's biography of Genghis, Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy.

I think this was a good place to start with a non-fiction exploration of Genghis, as it was largely a stick-to-the-facts biography. However, I will warn potential readers that it is fairly dry in places. While parts of it were (at least to me) very interesting, other sections were long lists and explanations of battles that got difficult to wade through at times, although this is sort of to be expected in a biography of Genghis.

I will say it got better as it went; the first section, which talks about the unification of the tribes, was the hardest going for me as there were a lot of tribe names and players to keep track of. Later in the book, where the Mongols are conquering specific areas (even if multiple cities), it was easier to keep track of what was going on.

And it is not all war all the time; there were some interesting discussions of family dynamics, politics and culture that I really enjoyed.

Overall, I got enough out of this book to make it worth the read, and I am looking forward to continuing my exploration of Genghi's life with Jack Weatherford's books.