What this book, and this series, really, really, really needed was an editor. What it felt like, and I'm pretty sure was, is a group of authors who storyboarded some general plot points, then each of them could do whatever they wanted with their own story line and just coordinated with someone else where their storylines met. Each storyline had about half a dozen main characters and multiple other characters, which means the reader is supposed to keep track of 50-ish "main" characters.

Because it was written as a web series and then collected and published as books, it's written as a continuous stream. But I read them as books, which meant years between book 1 and book 2 and several more years between book 2 and book 3. At no point is there any sort of recap or anything to help the readers reconnect with characters from one volume to the next, which is another useful thing an editor would have done. ( )

According to others, The Mongoliad is is a work of historical fiction that tells of the 13th century Mongol invasion of Europe. But the dialogue is so fantasy like, after three starts and stops, I could not get into it. Lets put this book into the category of DNF (did not finish).

According to others, The Mongoliad is is a work of historical fiction that tells of the 13th century Mongol invasion of Europe. But the dialogue is so fantasy like, after three starts and stops, I could not get into it. Lets put this book into the category of DNF (did not finish). ( )

Stephenson, Neal, Joseph Brassey, Greg Bear, Erik Bear, Nicole Galland, Cooper Moo, Mark Teppo (2013). The Mongoliad: Book Three (The Foreworld Saga). Las Vegas: 47North. 2013. ISBN 1612182380. Pagine 804. 5,01 €

Anche qui non ho molto da dire, rispetto alle recensioni che ho fatto al primo e al secondo volume della saga: una lettura piacevole, e poco più.

In questa terza parte si arriva a uno scioglimento, anche se molti fili restano penzolanti, ed è abbastanza evidente che gli autori si stanno lasciando aperta la possibilità di scrivere uno o più seguiti, gemmazioni, prequel, serie e di sfruttare – come si dice adesso – la franchise.

Tra i personaggi storici, è molto divertente il modo in cui è tratteggiato Federico II di Svevia; tra quelli non storici ma (quasi) credibili, il papa eletto Padre Rodrigo Bendrito, una specie di Albino Luciani ante litteram.

L’avanzata mongola – che nella storia raccontata sui libri di scuola si arresta per motivi in larga parte ignota – qui è interrotta dalle azioni dei nostri eroi, una via di mezzo tra il mucchio selvaggio del western e un’accolita di cavalieri jedi. Non si tratta quindi di una riscrittura integrale e ucronica della storia, ma di una sua piccola variante, di uno scarto in un universo parallelo in cui i sentieri che si dipartono nello svolgimento temporale canonico ritornano prima o poi a ricongiungersi alla strada principale (è la solita vecchia storia dell’ergodicità). Più che un Contro-passato prossimo alla Morselli un «para-passato remoto.»

* * *

Continuano a essere fastidiosissimi gli errori di latino. Ad esempio:

Quoniam fortiduo mea at refugium meum es tu. [2121; corsivo mio]

E, già che ci siamo, suppongo che quella che viene chiamata porta Flamina [7811] sia un refuso per Flaminia, che sia chiama peraltro Porta del Popolo. E quanto a the rounded dome of St. Peter’s Basilica [10531], nel 1241 non c’era nessuna cupola!

* * *

Ho imparato una nuova parola in inglese, che per la verità avevo già incontrato ma – avendone intuito il seno dal contesto – non ero andato a guardare sul vocabolario. Il Kindle, che ti dà la possibilità di raggiungere la definizione del lemma con un solo gesto sullo schermo, ti priva di ogni ragionevole alibi. Eccola:

widdershins:
adverb
chiefly Scottish
in a direction contrary to the sun’s course, considered as unlucky; anticlockwise:
she danced widdershins around him
Origin:
early 16th century: from Middle Low German weddersins, from Middle High German widersinnes, from wider ‘against’ sin ‘direction’; the second element was associated with Scots sin ‘sun’

* * *

Come al solito, un piccolo florilegio di citazioni (riferimento alle posizioni Kindle):

[…] the palate of memory. [2037]

[…] the one whose hips are lower is the one who wins […] [2557]

They were prisoners, surely, but they were not broken men, not like some of the others who were so filled with bitterness and resentment that the very idea of rebellion was violently loathsome. But they were wary of being hopeful. It was a dangerous emotion, the kind that could get them killed. [2709]

“No,” she said, “the man with the huge sword speaks true. Were I as well-endowed as he, I would make sure to sheath such a weapon in every town I conquered. ’Tis only the basic rule of rapine, is it not? Take what isn’t yours. At sword point no less.” [3066: femminismo ante litteram in Vera!]

Gansukh waited a moment for Chucai to continue, but he wasn’t terribly surprised when the Khagan’s advisor said nothing. This was a not uncommon gambit on Chucai’s part: to start a conversation, and then let it peter into silence. He had infinite patience: as a hunter, he could probably outwait even the most cautious deer; as a veteran of the Khagan’s courts, there was no one more skilled than he at making silence excruciating. The more he learned from Lian, the more Gansukh had understood the merits of Chucai’s techniques. People were more likely to believe something they felt like they had a hand in creating. Order a man, and he will dutifully comply; let him possess an idea as his own, will he not leap to implement it with great enthusiasm? [5235]

“A man earns those things that he carries with him his entire life. Both his victories and his secrets. What he doesn’t earn haunts him, always.” [9256]

[…] I’m the most dedicated atheist alive.” [9458: è Federico II che parla] ( )

This final installment of the Mongoliad trilogy takes us to the conclusion of three separate plotlines--Feronantus's company has their final showdown with the Khan of Khans, the knights of Hunern finally take action against Onghwe Khan, and we get to see the resolution of the actions of Father Rodrigo in Rome. So yes, that means big battle scenes in a way that only Stephenson and friends can do. The events of these plots manage to resolve themselves in a satisfactory and somewhat historically-accurate way, it's hard to say as much for the actual characters--I found myself wishing that there was some sort of epilogue to show where the surviving characters ended up. As it was, the ending felt a little abrupt. I was also disappointed that the events in Rome never integrated into the other plotlines; this really might as well have been a completely separate novel as the characters never interacted and the historical backdrops were barely related. Despite these complaints, I did enjoy the characters and action of this book and am glad I read the entire series. ( )