The Tiger Queens: The Women of Genghis Khan - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

     I wasn't sure if The Tiger Queens would be my kind of story. Genghis Khan? Mongol hordes? But the author immediately captured my imagination. Life on the Mongolian grasslands, the customs of the different clans, and the roles women played in their civilization--all are revealed through the eyes of women. There's plenty of intrigue, danger, and family drama. The author's descriptions are beautifully written and bring the book to life. She must have done an amazing amount of research.
     The saga begins with a prologue, then Part One, Chapter One: 1171 CE, Year of The Iron Hare. You can read the entire prologue and the beginning of Chapter One on the author's website. 


Book Beginning (Prologue):
Our names have long been lost to time, scattered like ashes into the wind. No one remembers our ability to read the secrets of the oracle bones or the wars fought in our names. The words we wrote have faded from their parchments; the sacrifices we made are no longer recounted in the glittering courts of those we conquered. The deeds of our husbands, our brothers, and our sons have eclipsed our own as surely as when the moon ate the sun during the first battle of Nishapur.

The Friday 56 (from Page 56 in my trade paperback copy):
We faced each other and clasped hands while our mothers wound a single piece of blue yarn around our shoulders, a reminder that we were now bound together. Together, we dropped to our knees nine times to honor the Golden Light of the Sun, the Eternal Blue Sky, the rivers that were the lifeblood of the Earth Mother and the revered mountain Burkhan Khaldun, the khan of all mountains.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Amazon Link: The Tiger Queens: The Women of Genghis Khan
Length (Trade Paperback): 454 Pages
Author Website: Stephanie Thornton

Synopsis (from Amazon):
      In the late twelfth century, across the sweeping Mongolian grasslands, brilliant, charismatic Temujin ascends to power, declaring himself the Great, or Genghis, Khan. But it is the women who stand beside him who ensure his triumph....
      After her mother foretells an ominous future for her, gifted Borte becomes an outsider within her clan. When she seeks comfort in the arms of aristocratic traveler Jamuka, she discovers he is the blood brother of Temujin, the man who agreed to marry her and then abandoned her long before they could wed.
      Temujin will return and make Borte his queen, yet it will take many women to safeguard his fragile new kingdom. Their daughter, the fierce Alaqai, will ride and shoot an arrow as well as any man. Fatima, an elegant Persian captive, will transform her desire for revenge into an unbreakable loyalty. And Sorkhokhtani, a demure widow, will position her sons to inherit the empire when it begins to fracture from within.
      In a world lit by fire and ruled by the sword, the tiger queens of Genghis Khan come to depend on one another as they fight and love, scheme and sacrifice, all for the good of their family...and the greatness of the People of the Felt Walls.

                            

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