Genghis Khan, 13the century was a master among men. Born in what is now Mongolia desert in a red tent & rising to conquer areas like none before him or after. His methods were different than those before him as his armies grew & spread, his own bloodline & that of his peoples created many ethnicities that are noted today. This is a fictitious history of such as told through the works of his taken wives & individuals around him. Light amusing with a swift brush of harshness, in most cases, it touches on his life, actions & thought processes in the manner of a wisp of gossamer silk. This is a fast read that once again without the grit like another more historical fiction might give rise for someone interested in reading up more about Genghis. He chose his third son to be Khaqan of the Khans which was fair & foul & who married a Persian princess. Putting this son in charge probably saved a lot of lives but their reign of terror continued & spread. This tale then continues on down. A grandson of Genghis marrying a direct relative of Polish King after disseminating Kiev rus & Poland to continue on to Hungary & Bulgaria. This woman became the third historian to take over the writing of the fantasy secret history of the Mongols.

I really wanted to love this book because it was about Genghis Khan told from the women who knew him. The premise sounded interesting, but it was very slow moving. There was not much of a plot. This made it hard for me to connect with the story. Thus, it had great potential but it was not executed well.

I loved the use of Genghis Khan as I really hadn't read many books that use him and his time period as a setiign. This was a wonderfully done story with interesting characters.

Just could not keep my interest😕

2.5 🌟 stars
I had a lot of trouble with this story. Yes, the author paints some beautiful imagery of exotic courts and landscapes from a time gone by, but I found the plot wanting. Though there were war scenes that gave a feel for how the Mongol invasions affected the lives of the nations they invaded, half way through I had to throw in the towel and concede defeat.

I really wanted to like this tale of the height of the Mongolian control of Eurasia and the key women at the rulers' side but the extreme details, many about things not relevant to the action, defeated me. For me, it was too padded with scene-setting detail and too long.

Thanks to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for providing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

A richly woven story of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. This epic novel, full of excitement and adventure, love, passion and cruelty reveals the harsh realities of life not only for women of that time but the Mongolian people as a whole. This novel is a real page turner and highly recommended.

I was drawn to read this because I wanted to learn more about the Mongol Empire and in particular Genghis Khan who is considered a brilliant military strategist who conquered vast lands whilst retaining his nomadic culture.

This novel does speak of the ‘mighty Khan’ but the focus is mostly set on the fate of three different women who were kidnapped by the Mongols over the space of the 13 Century. Each woman has detailed how she was captured and how she adjusted to life with the Mongols, and in turn how they were able to bring any influence to bear or not.

It is a powerful piece of fiction writing and the characters of the women sing out loudly and it is fascinating; the language is poetic and quite beautiful and conjured the vast steppes and horizons vividly.

I was enraptured for about two-thirds of the book and then, sadly, it seemed to drag on and (for me) lost its impact and I found that I was just wishing for it to finish. Perhaps this says more about me than the book – maybe I just lost focus. Whatever!

This is a powerful, well written, well researched story which I have no hesitation in recommending particularly if you watched the television programme on Genghis Khan.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

<i>The Sky Worshipers</i> tells the story of three women in medieval Asia whose lives become merged with the destiny of Genghis Khan. All three women have been captured and taken from their native people, to end up married into the Khan's family. Chaka, a Chinese princess, is kidnapped during a festival and married to Genghis Khan himself. Reyhan is a Persian princess who is abducted while bathing, and is married to Genghis’ son. Krisztina is a Polish princess taken as a captive and then wed to Genghis Khan's grandson.
The women's fates are knit together not only in the events and court surrounding Genghis Khan, but also in their writing of a manuscript chronicling the history of the Mongols and their growing empire.

I was really excited about this one, because of the fairly unusual setting.
There were definitely things that I liked about the book, but nothing that I loved or that really impressed me. There were also plenty of things about the book that I did not like - leaving me unsure of how to rate it. I think I would settle at 2.5 stars, which I have rounded up to 3.

I simply did not feel that the writing of this book was... well, good enough. There was a lack of strength and depth to the writing, and I never felt close to the characters. The writing does a ton of telling, rather than showing, what is happening. It lacked nuance or tension.
For example, the three women are constantly alluding to how their captivity with the Mongols is so difficult and heartbreaking, but I didn't get a sense of this in the book. They had difficult lives, yes, and we do see some violent scenes illustrating just how little freedoms women of their day had. But somehow none of this felt real or impactful.
I wanted to see intrigue, complex relationships melding with politics, maneuvering, and the dynamics of just how these women wavered between their status as powerful Mongol queens and also foreign captives.
It's there - but barely, heavily buried in the story to the point that I never felt it at all. I simply gathered that this must be happening, based on the facts that I knew.

The writing and characterizations felt wooden and distant, and the events of the story also lacked tension, or stakes for me, leaving it to fall flat.

Also, I felt that the bordering story of the women's manuscript being discovered 100 years later was completely superfluous. If it had been included as 1 chapter or prologue in the beginning, and 1 epilogue at the end, that would have been fine.
However, once the story of these three women ended, we are given not just a wrap-up epilogue but instead <i>nine chapters</i>. Nine chapters that begin an entirely new storyline complete with conflict and a new cast of characters. This felt so unnecessary and bizarre that it struck me as ridiculous. Solidifying this for me was when, concluding these nine chapters, the chapters of epilogue are then themselves given an epilogue.

All this being said, the book is not horrible, and I think it was a quite ambitious debut from Deemyad. There's a lot in her first book to suggest that, with more experience and teaming up with a great editor, that her future novels could be quite good.

An aspect of the book that I loved was that the three women are each from different cultures, backgrounds, countries, religions, and even races - yet are drawn together in their attempts to write a historical chronicle. They must keep their manuscript secret, as women, suppressed and barred from many freedoms in their world, would be severely punished and most likely put to death if they were discovered to be working on such a thing.
It's such a great plot!

Another side note that I enjoyed about this book was that it was set in unusual backdrops, not often featured in historical fiction. I was very happy to see the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, located in present-day Uzbekistan, featured in the story. I have visited both cities myself, and am still astounded that they are not more famous, being some of the most marvelous places I have ever traveled.

This book had so many elements of a great story, I really do wish I had enjoyed it more. But sadly, I never felt connected with the story or the characters at all.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing an advance ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. I had been looking forward to reading this book for a while. I binge watched all 5 seasons of Resurrection Ertugrul last summer and already had a pre-conceived idea about the Mongol empire from watching that. If you liked that series, you will love this historical fiction! It is well researched, fact-based, and full of twists and turns. Also, the Seljuk Turks and Ogodei Khan appear in both TV series and this book. I appreciate that this book is clean, without expletives, intimacy, or terribly graphic scenes. The author did an excellent job researching the history and important people before writing this. There is adventure, love, action, empathy, and wisdom in this story. The interaction of Mongol, Turkish, and Persian civilizations is well described here. The instances of peace between different religions showed a different point of view that Western history paints. I particularly enjoyed the descriptive writing and human touch of the princesses' descriptions. A map (of the time) and a family tree/diagram would have helped me orient myself and keep the many characters clear in my mind. The short stories of civilian life and suffering included in their journals was also moving. I will definitely order this for my school and encourage its use in world history.

Set in the 13th Century, The Sky Worshippers portrays the life and times of Genghis Khan and his progeny. Told from the viewpoint of several different women who were captives turned royal in the Mongol Court, this story tells the horrors of this time without being a book solely about war and bloodshed.

I enjoyed reading this book and learning about Mongolia and its rulers during this time period. I had very little previous knowledge about Genghis Khan other than the fact that he was a ruthless warrior. I know know much more about him and his people. I recommend this book to anyone interested in this time period or who has an interest in conquerors. It is a relatively clean book with only a handful of curse words scattered throughout the story. The violence is strong given the nature of the story. There are no graphic sex scenes found in the book.

A beautifully written historical fiction set at the time of the Mongol Empire. In 1398 a manuscript is discovered relating to the previous century. This manuscript is written by three different women over the course of the thirteenth century. The book tells the story of these three women, all of them captured by the Mongols, how they are affected by their captors and how they in turn have influence over the Mongols. The impact of their stories is felt as the concluding chapters revert to 1398 and the characters react to the message of the women.
This is a well-researched story, I learnt so much about the Mongol Empire. It is very atmospheric and the historical period is brought to life through the language which is very descriptive and often poetic. I found the first half of the book fast paced and really engrossing the later chapters sadly seem to lose some momentum and the pace of the story slowed quite a bit.
Overall this was an interesting and enjoyable read.