In the steppes of High Asia, the year 1166…
"What is a Mongol? – As free as the geese in the air, as in unison. The flights of the geese promise us we don’t give up independence, to unite."
The hundred tribes of the Mongols have come together with one aim, to push back against the walls that have crept onto the steppe – farther than China has ever extended its walls before. Walls are repugnant to a nomad. But can people on horses push them down, even with a united effort?
This story begins when nobody has heard of Mongols – not even most Chinese, who think the vast Northern Waste at its weakest and are right. A spectacular history starts obscurely…
Against Walls is the first in a trilogy that gives voice to the Mongols in their explosive encounter with the great world under Tchingis Khan. Both epic and intimate, Amgalant sees the world through Mongol eyes. It’s different from the world you know.
Praise for Against Walls -
"Genghis Khan was one interesting character in history and Brynn Hammond knows this character and the time period well. Methodically researched and lovingly written, Against Walls is definitely for those readers who like the Mongols and find the era fascinating. "Both epic and intimate" describes the book to a tee." - On Top Down Under/Dark Hints Book Reviews
“…Why? It’s Confucius. Know your enemy, and Cutula took his research seriously, but often enough they came against a baffler and then the answer was, it’s Confucius.”
That made me laugh. Then, like Cutula, I blame it on Confucius, too. 'When you see a worthy person, endeavor to emulate him. When you see an unworthy person, then examine your inner self. "Kudos to the author for the enjoyable read and for spurring on my interest and my imagination with her excellent writing and passion for her subject." - Amazon Review
About The Author
Bryn Hammond has written some astonishingly good historical novels. Her Amgalant series brings to life the twelfth-century Steppe as no scholarly history could hope to do. Yet Hammond has immersed herself in her sources; her books are born of painstaking research and breathe a discipline of imagination rarely encountered in historical fiction.
Amgalant began when I explored into The Secret History of the Mongols, a 13th century text, and knew I had found my perfect subject. I've always loved ancient/medieval epic and romance, and I've always been drawn to the cultures of tribal peoples, whose history we know too often through hostile or simply alien states - Rome, China. With Amgalant, I want to do justice to The Secret History, its art, its honesty.
When they came to write this, their first book, the Mongols had two traditions to hand: oral epic - ubiquitous on the steppe - and stone inscriptions from past 'states on horseback' as the Chinese called them. The one lent poetry, the other concepts of how to tell a history. I argue that both traditions went towards our faulty hero. It isn't glorification. It's art, and it's analysis.
Bryn lives in Ulladulla, New South Wales, Australia.
