Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Genghis: Bones of the Hills
    Genghis: Bones of the Hills
    Genghis: Bones of the Hills
    Audiobook17 hours

    Genghis: Bones of the Hills

    Written by Conn Iggulden

    Narrated by Richard Ferrone

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Best-selling author Conn Iggulden has earned sweeping critical acclaim for his Genghis Khan series, which captures the essence of the legendary warrior as no previous novels have. In this breathtaking volume, Genghis must act when trouble brews west of the Mongolian plains. Dividing his army and using his sons as generals, he sets out to accomplish two important goals-conquer those who resist, and determine which son should succeed him.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 20, 2009
    ISBN9781440708534
    Genghis: Bones of the Hills
    Author

    Conn Iggulden

    Born in London, Conn Iggulden read English at London University and worked as a teacher for seven years before becoming a full-time writer. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and their children.

    More audiobooks from Conn Iggulden

    Related to Genghis

    Titles in the series (5)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Poet of Kyrgyzstan

      Dec 1, 2020

      The Poet of Kyrgyzstan
      7 min read

    • Article

      Rise Of The MONGOLS

      Aug 10, 2023

      Rise Of The MONGOLS
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Visit To Harar

      Oct 14, 2019

      Sir Richard Burton was an extraordinarily brave explorer and scholar with a genius for language and disguise. A year before this trip to Ethiopia, he became the first European to enter Mecca. Burton would go on to elope with his childhood sweetheart,

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Fool Who Fished For A King

      May 1, 2020

      The Fool Who Fished For A King
      9 min read

    • Article

      What Lies Beneath

      Feb 18, 2020

      What Lies Beneath
      4 min read

    • Article

      Revenge Of The 47 Rōnin

      Aug 11, 2022

      Revenge Of The 47 Rōnin
      7 min read

    • Article

      Exploring The Congo River

      Sep 16, 2019

      In 1853, while David Livingstone tarried at Linyanti on the Chobe River, a messenger arrived saying there was a white man downriver who wanted to greet him. Livingstone was stunned, but wishing no competition from other European explorers, he refused

      3 min read

    • Article

      El Dios De La Guerra

      Aug 7, 2019

      El Dios De La Guerra
      15 min read

    • Article

      Major Long Talks to His Horse

      Feb 20, 2019

      Major Long Talks to His Horse
      6 min read

    • Article

      Saving Freyfaxi

      Jan 1, 2024

      Saving Freyfaxi
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Vikings Of Birka

      Oct 29, 2021

      I do not know her name, so I have given her one: I call her Hervor. Other famous skeletons have names. Think of Lucy the Australopithecus, named for a Beatles song, and Ötzi the Iceman, named for the valley he was found in. I could have named her Lag

      9 min read

    • Article

      Marco's Epic Journey

      May 3, 2023

      Marco's Epic Journey
      3 min read

    • Article

      A History of Killing Sparrows

      Oct 15, 2021

      A History of Killing Sparrows
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Real Berserkers

      Sep 3, 2020

      The Real Berserkers
      6 min read

    • Article

      Crushing Khwarezmia

      Jan 21, 2021

      Crushing Khwarezmia
      8 min read

    • Article

      In The Belly Of The Beast

      Aug 9, 2022

      In The Belly Of The Beast
      13 min read

    • Article

      Lord’s Work

      May 26, 2019

      Lord’s Work
      6 min read

    • Article

      Gah Men

      Nov 20, 2019

      Gah Men
      27 min read

    • Article

      Pirates Of The Caribbean

      Oct 13, 2021

      Pirates Of The Caribbean
      5 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of The Lost “Greek” Tribe Of Alexander The Great

      Jul 28, 2022

      ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN years ago, a mysterious Afghan pagan tribe, the Kalash, fled Islamic religious persecution to three secretive valleys in a remote corner of what is now north-western Pakistan. In 1998, when I was visiting Lahore, a Pakist

      14 min read

    • Article

      Kill Or Be Killed: The Charming Cut-throats Of The Wild Frontier

      Jul 27, 2023

      THE PAKISTAN AIRLINES FOKKER FRIENDSHIP, a small turboprop, weaved through the high snow mountains of the Hindu Kush an hour after we left Islamabad. The mountain people were isolated from the rest of the world for several months each winter by heavy

      13 min read

    • Article

      The World’s First Superhero

      Oct 28, 2021

      In 321 BC, a very strange procession set out from Babylon. Alexander the Great was on the move. He had died two years earlier, in 323 BC, at the age of 32. Over the course of a few brief years, this astonishing soldier and statesman had transformed t

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Sea King

      Jul 6, 2022

      The Sea King
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Life Indecently Full Of Fun And Games

      Nov 25, 2021

      ANNE GLENCONNER CALLS Oh What a Lovely Century, “a wonderful journey through twentieth century history”. It is not a journey you will find in most accounts of the period, but the young, moustachioed, army officer on the cover of this book seems to ha

      3 min read

    • Article

      Crapshoot In Cassino

      Dec 29, 2020

      Crapshoot In Cassino
      16 min read

    • Article

      History behind MIDDLE-EARTH

      Oct 6, 2022

      History behind MIDDLE-EARTH
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Anabasis of Godspeed

      Mar 1, 2023

      Then proceeded to BAGHDAD and AMMAN. Godspeed was almost afraid of butterflies. They sickened him during the breeding season when they swarmed around any source of water in the viceregal district where he was born. The day was hot and everything was

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Genghis

    4/5

    285 ratings17 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Fun historical novel about Genghis which covers from the height of his empire to his death.
      I read the other two previous ones earlier (the first one about a year ago).
    • 4/5
      The third volume in the series is brings Genghis to the west and sees him head to head with the armies of Islam. Well written and thought it out we see the generals and Genghis growing and learning. Tsubodai is an amazing character. His ability to work around the enemy and use their own tactics is unparalleled. The stories in general seem to kind of gravitate towards him. Well, without him the Mongols might not have achieved all they did. Conflicts from within and from the outside put all the characters in precarious situations. I found myself seriously mad at the Khan for his treatment of Jochi. But what can you do. You cannot blame Genghis for feeling the way he did, but the overall treatment of his son, regardless of his lineage is sad to watch as it unfolds. This is a great series. I will be glad when they are done, not because I am tired of reading them...but because I have an entire shelf of Iggulden books to devour.
    • 4/5
      Another great chapter to one of the greatest conquerers of all time. No pity for his enemies, and a thorough strategy to overcome odds and a very mobile nation that can respond to any threat.
    • 3/5
      Not as engaging as the first two in the series. Genghis is insulted by a Shah on the western border of his growing empire and once again proves that to underestimate him is to die. Curious to see how his legacy is upheld by his successors, but worried that this book will mark a downward slope in the series.
    • 3/5
      Having lived in Central Asia for 3 years, I was disappointed with Bones of the Hills. While the battle descriptions and drama between Genghis and his sons was well written and compelling, this book was far more fantasy and less historical fiction. Describing the Turkic and Persian people of Central Asia as "Arabs" was not only inaccurate, it was unnecessary. Would the reader really be turned off if the "souks" of Central Asia had been written as "bazaars" as they are known in Turkic and Persian. Labeling all the people and rulers of Central Asia as "Arabs" bothered me every time. It was as if you wrote a book about Scotland, and the author labeled the people living there as Irish or English. Berbers and Bedouins don't live in Central Asia, they live thousands of miles away in North Africa. For me the draw of historical fiction is to educate and entertain at the same time, this novel did little of both. A missed opportunity...
    • 4/5
      The third book in the series, this one slows down considerably, and keeps the reader far less engaged than the first two. It's still really good storytelling, I just got the impression that the author had decided to make x number of novels, and each one to cover y period and events, and he just wasn't that excited about this particular time in the history of Genghis.

      I took a little break when I finished it, reading something else in-between, so that tells you how much "I couldn't wait" for the story to continue. I have since, however, picked up the fourth in the series.
    • 4/5
      Iggulden further develops his series to paint Genghis and his followers in a mixed light - with the capability of greatness and destruction at the same time. Where the first two works painted Genghis' exploits as against a heavily armed and repressive enemy, this work instead shows how the Mongol Empire evolved into a destructive and terrifying force in its own right.
    • 4/5
      The third book in the Conqueror series. An older and wiser Genghis Khan has nearly broken the Chin (China) when people to the West in the Persian society of Khorosan refuse to submit. He fights his was through Korea, all the way to the territory of Shah Ala-ud-din Mohammed in central Asia. There Genghis meets his match in the Shah's thousands of warriors and armed elephants.Genghis is also dealing with the infighting amongst his son's and must make a decision on an heir before his nation is divided into factions. Revenge also burns for the murder of his younger sister until justice is finally served.A well told conclusion to the series that provides an intriguing insight into the life of this important historical figure.
    • 5/5
      Can't get enough.
    • 5/5
      The third book in this series does not disappoint. Iggulden takes characters from the pages of history and breathes new life into them. Through his words, we see life for the Mongols as close to how they saw it as we can get.
    • 3/5
      The third book in the Conqueror series is again first rate historical fiction though considering quite how impressive the first two were, this is the weakest offering. Still, that is only because Wolf of the Plains and Lords of the Bow were quite so impressive that Bones of the Hills is a poorer relation. In its own right, the concluding part of the tale of Temujin is a gripping, fast paced, and emotionally involved epic. Genghis Khan's incursion into the settled world had seen China defeated but not eliminated. This book charts the events that took place when his eyes were cast west and the mighty Persian society of Khorosan. I'll state up front that I had real difficulty with Iggulden's continued description of these as an Arab people. Historical fiction should not make such obvious mistakes. Right from the start with the description of Pashtuns as being Arab, this was a problem. I would have thought given the current western interest in the Afghan region, this was easy to spot as an error and why an editor did not fix this is beyond me. Even the Shah of Khwarazem himself was not an Arab in reality. With this unnecessary faux pas in mind, Bones of the Hills is still awesome. The battle scenes are often a little reminiscent of those from Lords of the Bow but what is excellent is the way Iggulden adapts the conflicts to meet the Shah's tighter discipline and more advanced tactics. The Mongols had conquered at will before but now they faced up to some of the mightiest armies in the world and to Iggulden's credit he does not portray his characters as all-conquering heroes and at times they are lost. Iggulden recognises the skill of the Persians - after all these were the people who had kept an empire alive right next to the most powerful nation on Earth in the Abbasid Caliphate - and Ala-ud-Din and Jalal-ud-Din are given as much character as many of the Mongols are themselves. The battlefields are so different from those of the Orient, and their features are described effectively. The winding path up to the stronghold of the Old Man of the Mountains is a world away from the plains the first battles of Wolf took place on and Iggulden's battles reflect those differences. Despite this being the defining campaign of Genghis Khan's lifetime, the book is really about Genghis as a father. The loyalty of Jalal-ud-Din to his father Ala-ud-Din is a clear and stark contrast to the relationship between Genghis and his eldest son Jochi. Iggulden portrays Jochi as a hugely sympathetic character, a man who was as strong and with more potential even than his own father but who was denied the ability to take up his father's place because Genghis believed Jochi to be illegitimate. The conflict between father and son is seldom exercised in physical form but it is the most cruel and heart rending element of the entire series. In reality it is Ogedei who succeeds Temujin as the head of the Mongol forces and Iggulden gives the second son Chagatai short shrift. Chagatai went on to found a reasonable dynasty of his own so perhaps Iggulden's character portrayal is a little too unsympathetic. Other characters though are extraordinary. The development of Tsubodai into the foremost general of his age, one of the few generals that history recognises in spite of a great leader above him, Tsubodai's generalship skills are drawn by Iggulden alongside a person who understands the motives and expectations of his enemy. This skill is seen elsewhere in the series but not in a person granted dignity and strength. This is the eastern view of wisdom and Iggulden reflects it brilliantly. The western view of the wormtongued villain is not the only portrayal of cunning in history. Tsubodai's character reflects the symbol of intelligence and ruthlessness in a man of great honour. This character is a real treasure to read. Ultimately though this is only a good, not a great book. It is torn between the descriptions of the battles against the Shah and the internal battles bewteen father and son. Though the link in the relationship between the Shah and his first born and the Khan and his first born underlie much of the book, the focus is not all that effective. The battle against the Hashashins for instance, the quelling of rebellion and the destruction that took place in Afghanistan that still impacts today are underplayed far too much. The internal politics were superb in books 1 and 2 but book 3 loses its way marginally. The role of women and the challenges of leadership are again excellently exposed in Bones. The death of Temulun comes in a raid by the Khwarazem against a camp of women and children and this is rightly cast as a terrible act though it is just one of many in the world of the Conqueror series. As a leader, Genghis has to make horrific decisiosn and he does not shy away from them. The survival of his nation is at stake against a formidable foe and these decisions are reflected in the deaths of named characters whose lives are almost discarded by the decisions Genghis makes for the good of the wider community. This plays into Iggulden's understanding of the people and the times. Despite the shortcomings of the book, this is still terrific historical fiction because it generates emotional attachments to the characters involved. This is not some faceless horde of monsters, it is a group of people who have to make tough decisions and who forge relationships with one another. The series as a whole is magnificent and it is because of Iggulden's fantastic blending of realistic people with the historical events of the times. As a whole, this series is a must read for anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
    • 3/5
      Typical I picked up the third book in a series without knowing it was a series.The characters as dictated by history are really too unpleasant to make the story very enjoyable. But they come close to life and the story helps to explain the way mongols behaved. In most of my studies were were focused on a society (like that of Russia) invaded by the Mongols and one tends to accept their mystification at the Mongol behaviour.This helped me to understand the mongol motivation, but it is just too much to be enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      In his third book of the series, Conn does not disappoint. If you enjoy historical fiction filled with adventure, exotic settings, family feuds, and great military battles this book is for you.Genghis Khan and his Mongol army continue to mercilessly conquer new lands, as an aging Genghis Khan deals with the feud between his two older sons, and the Arab armies of the Shah- the Mongols strongest enemy yet. The story is well written, well paced, and filled with believable characters. Definitely worth the read.
    • 4/5
      In the last book of this series we read about Ghengis Khan adventures in the arab lands.Provoked by the defiance of a sha ghengis turns his armies toward the hot deserts of arabia and soon finds that he bit off more than he can chew and what started as an act of reprisal soon turns into a fight for survival. And in all this chaos the wedge between his sons deepens more and more...The book is a good finish for the series even if you feel like ghengis compromises on his iron bound principles that held him aloft in the first two books quite a bit. As in the other two books [[Iggulden]] finishes with a chapter where he explaisn his historical sources and which parts have been fictional.
    • 5/5
      This is as close as historical fiction gets to fantasy. The world the Mongols came from is hard to believe and their lifestyle equally bizarre. The book is well written and you can almost smell the horses. The battle scenes are brutal and vivid. It's a great read and a good way of learning/imagining a bit of history. This is the third book in the series and it follows Genghis as he invades and fights in new territories. A cracking read.
    • 5/5
      Outstandingly good. Iggulden sure knows how to draw you into a story. The action is fast and bloody and the pure power of Genghis is thrown out of the pages and right into you. Excellent read pick up his books!
    • 4/5
      I read this book over the Christmas break and enjoyed doing so. There is a good pace to the narrative and the events, particularly the battle scenes, are described vividly. The trilogy was a very plausible narrative about the origins and the life and times of Genghis Khan and like the Emperor series was highly enjoyable.