As a Hong Kong bornt chinese, Genghis Khan and his descendants were a must on the curriculum but not in too much details. It is fascinating to read the "Genghis Khan" series of Conn Iggulden. I have never heard of the books until one of my friend from the US sent me disk of audio books in which was the exciting 4th book, The City of Silver was among them. I didn't recognized their English names fo the characters, and I thought it was just purely fictional, but really good. Then I discovered the series and finished all 5 books in one week. By far, the most interesting ones are the first and the last, Conqueror. Although the books are fictions, but its based real historical facts, albeit the chronological order and the characters may have been manipulated to suit the flow of the stories.We had only a glimpse of the intelligence of Kublai Khan in our text books, but in this last book and that much is obvious. He is the perfect student of his life long mentor Yao Shu, but he himself has innovative ideas all of his own. His reign as the first Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty is full of merits, because he recognizes and respects the people's culture and his own liking for the literature and ways of life of the people he rules. That is most impotant, when you are a minor number of foreigners ruling over 200 million subjects. You can't kill them all, mot even if Genghis is alive.This final book, has all the trappings of a great historical novel, the story telling is great, the plot intriquing and most of all, it never strays too far from real facts, the battles, the cities Mongol warriors blundered and destroy, add that to a twist of the author's own imagination. I bet Conn's reference book " The Secret Lifes of the Mongols" is a good read too.

Best of the series, ruthless!!