UNTIL THE SUN FALLS

by Cecilia Holland ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 20, 1968

This time popular historical novelist Holland plods along with the Mongol hordes as they mop up some Russian cities and nibble at What is now Poland and Hungary in the 13th century. Along about half way through the burning and long-bow larrupping the following briefing takes place: ""Now. The attack on Pereislav will be under Baidar's and Mongke's command. . . . I will ride with Batu. Quyuk goes with Baidar and Mongke, and Kadan with Batu and me. Buri with Quyuk. Tsant goes with Batu, Kaidu with Baidar and Mongke."" And the rest of you anagrams come with me. By the time the reader has spotted the complete Mongol line-up, he is dimly aware that the hero, Psin, brutal in battle, firm but frolicsome with his women, has outwitted as general several city-defending enemies, beaten to a pulp/been beaten by his son Tsant, a chip off the old yurt, and contemplated, very briefly, the place of other rulers in the world of the divine Kha-Khan. Miss Holland does manage, better than in her other novels, to suggest a period mores. Her Psin, who has no regard for human life yet can respect the ego of a captured slave, is conceived beneath a light overcast of what just might have possibly been the Mongol ethic of a war-society. The pace is slow, the cast of characters overwhelming at first, but one does catch the sanguinary progress of primitive men-of-war, steppe by steppe.

Pub Date: Jan. 20, 1968

ISBN: 0595007996

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1968

Categories: FICTION