Buy Against Walls

‘Total and instant immersion… thoroughly compelling and powerful.’
— Dmitry Kosyrev (Dmitry Chen), author of The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas, in the Asian Review of Books

            See review: “Against Walls” by Bryn Hammond

 

Amgalant series

‘Amgalant’ means unity.

This story is about the unification of the steppe under Tchingis Khan (Chinggis, Genghis). From the shattered condition of the Mongol tribes before him, up to 1206 when Tchingis is acknowledged khan over the different peoples of the steppe.

Amgalant likewise follows Temujin, the boy who becomes Tchingis Khan,
from an outcast life of poverty to the achievement of his dreams.

The forty years from 1166 to 1206 saw great drama on the steppe, although settled societies off the steppe scarcely noticed. That remains true to this day.
Temujin’s rise to instatement as Tchingis Khan is the heart and guts of the Secret History of the Mongols, more important to its Mongol creators and audience than
the off-steppe conquests afterwards.

The Secret History of the Mongols is a gorgeous source for a novelist,
rich in human interest and incident. Amgalant follows this source
with humble fidelity to the history and faith in the art of the original.

Amgalant One
Against Walls

In the steppes of High Asia, the year 1166…

‘What is a Mongol? – As free as the geese in the air, as in unison. The flights of the geese promise us we don’t give up independence, to unite.’

The hundred tribes of the Mongols have come together with one aim: to push back against the walls that have crept onto the steppe – farther than China has ever extended its walls before. Walls are repugnant to a nomad. But can people on horses push them down, even with a united effort?

This story begins when nobody has heard of Mongols – not even most Chinese,
who think the vast Northern Waste at its weakest and are right.
A spectacular history starts obscurely…

 

Amgalant Two
Imaginary Kings

In the steppes of High Asia, the year 1188…

Jamuqa rode his trophy mare, off-white, black-pointed, on a Tartar seat,
high arches of ornamental silver fore and aft. He wore a winterfur of snow leopard,
near white with black whorls. The effect was kingly and fantastic:
he might be Irle Khan himself, the king of ghosts, in his eerie splendour.

Aged twenty, Temujin has been named Tchingis, khan over the Mongols.
But only a third of his people accept a kingship based on dreams and omens.
His own sworn brother Jamuqa challenges his title, and comes in the guise of
a mock king against him.

The steppe has been without a great khan for three hundred years – fragmented
in the face of giant China. Are dreams and omens enough to unify its peoples?
What makes a true king?

 

Also available in the Amgalant Four-Set
— for those who prefer a less epic size of novel

Where to buy

ebooks
Here’s my Payhip storefront where you can buy the ebooks directly from me, in epub, mobi or pdf

Or use this universal link page to find my books in ebook shops

Smashwords
Apple iBooks US, UK, or your country
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Amazon US, Amazon UK, or your marketplace

paperbacks

Amazon AU, US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP
Bookshop.org
Amazon AU, US, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP
Barnes and Noble
Paperbacks are distributed through Amazon Extended Distribution. In an unfortunate effect, royalties to me are far greater if you buy at Amazon itself. 

 

Contacts

email me
bryn at amgalant dot com

In case of random acts of sponsorship, I have a Paypal.me/BrynHammond

Facebook page

On Twitter I’m Jakujin

On Mastodon I’m @bryn@wandering.shop

On Instagram I’m amgalant_bryn

I am active on Goodreads. I keep my research shelves there — see the sidebar

 

‘Voices’ is my craft essay.

A historical novelist explores the Secret History of the Mongols.

If the Secret History is a communal memoir, who told its secrets? Did Temujin — Chinggis Khan — tell his own story? Whose voices are heard within the text?

Voices from the Twelfth-Century Steppe has two strands. It practices interpretation of the Secret History of the Mongols from an oral and written arts standpoint (‘literary’) — how does this differ from historical investigation? It exhibits ways a historical novelist engages with a primary source — how does this tend to differ from a historian?

Voices is a case study in close source work by a creative writer. Entangled with this, a case is made for arts criticism of the Secret History. Its artistry is integral to its sense.

Reviews

Dmitry Kosyrev (Dmitry Chen), author of The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas, in the Asian Review of Books

‘Expect no easy ride. Author Bryn Hammond evidently thinks that the best way to teach you swimming is to throw you into the deep end. But if you don’t drown instantly, and if you brace yourself through the first 10-20 pages of Against Walls, there is a good chance that you’ll stay in the magic waters of her world until the end of the story.

There are several ways of luring a reader into an unknown universe of distant places and distant times. The simple way is to summon somebody from, say, the Europe of the times and let the reader marvel at all the exotica through that traveler’s eyes. That makes easy reading, but seldom shakes one to the core. Total and instant immersion is, on the other hand, a cruel, risky, but rewarding way to do it: a lot of readers will scuttle away, but those who remain will be all the author’s.

And that’s what’s good and terrible with Against Walls, namely a total and terrifying realism… I happen to know this world: I’ve been to Mongolia three times and, recently, in Russia’s Altai, which is about the same. I know that Bryn Hammond did a miracle of transporting the reader there, but I’ve no idea how she did it (that’s a real compliment from one writer to another).

Hammond has a style of her own which is hard to describe: not light, not sweet at all, but thoroughly compelling and powerful.’
#

Patricia Bjaaland Welch, author of Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery

on Against Walls

‘Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Bryn Hammond is to the history of the Mongols as Colleen McCullough is to Roman history… This book is a must as it literally ‘sings’ with details that makes steppe (and especially, Mongol) history come alive.

It is pure magic when one finds a book that travels that difficult path between fact and fiction but author Hammond has not failed us. Her characters are based on solid research and in-depth reading of the original historical documents: her facts are sound. They are the foundation upon which author Hammond has built a story that that is so realistic and so true that it literally pulls you into the Mongol world body and soul…

I haven’t read such an enjoyable and intelligent historical fiction series since Colleen McCullough’s works and I thought I would never find her equal. Now I have. This series deserves far more notice than it has been given.’

on Imaginary Kings

‘This series has to rate as one of the finest series of historical novels ever written. By this, I mean that the author has taken no liberties with the raw material we have as sources on Chinggis Khan’s life, but having grounded herself in the period and culture, has enriched the story with dialogues and events that ring with truth. I can only imagine that she sleeps in a towering library of steppe history, drinking black milk and roasting sheep by the day, and visited by the ghosts of Temüjin, Börte, Hülegü, Gür Khan, and every person who figures in this tale by night, waking at dawn to record the words they have said, the smells of their fires, the grains of sand they have tread, the neighing of their horses, the rub of leather on skin, their thoughts, their doubts, their hopes…. These are books so compelling that one is tempted to race through the pages yet has to hold back to savour every detail of every conversation for fear of missing an insight into these figures who become alive under author Hammond’s pen.

The only series I have found remotely comparable in depth of knowledge and enjoyment is fellow Australian’s Colleen McCullough’s series on ancient Rome.’

#

Laury Silvers, author of The Sufi Mysteries

on Against Walls

‘It’s a wild ride–there are horses and epic grandeur–yet you feel everything for all the characters and outcomes in a way that only small domestic stories can provide. How Hammond juggles this I do not know. But it’s kind of like War and Peace set in the early days of Chengiz Khan. Only when you come up for air will you realize the achievement that his book represents. How closely Hammond must know the primary sources for this period and people that she can so thickly imagine their worlds and bring them to life!

The longer this book lives in my memory the more I realize the literary depth of the work. It is literary fiction. Hammond’s history is on point and there is an academic review of the book to prove it. But the history is a living, palpable, feeling thing because of the richness and deftness of Hammond’s writing and humane comprehension of the past.’

#

Simon J. Cook, author of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lost English Mythology 

on Of Battles Past

‘Simply the best historical novel I have read for many a long year. Bryn Hammond ranks with Mary Renault. Superbly researched, wonderfully written. Addictive. If you like good historical fiction this is as good as it gets.’

on Voices from the Twelfth-Century Steppe

‘Bryn Hammond has written some astonishingly good historical novels. Her Amgalant series brings to life the twelfth-century Steppe as no scholarly history could hope to do. Yet Hammond has immersed herself in her sources; her books are born of painstaking research and breathe a discipline of imagination rarely encountered in historical fiction.

In this scholarly meditation, Hammond reflects upon the relationship of her own craft to that of the academic historian. Focusing her discussion around The Secret History, the primary Mongolian source for the history of Genghis Khan, composed in the thirteenth century, Hammond asks what it means to discern different voices in what is essentially a communal history constructed from an oral account. What does the novelist as creative writer bring to this text? What might she hear that eludes the careful ears of the academic historian?’

Reviews of Amgalant first editions:

“Amgalant was difficult to start, but the payoff for sticking with it is immense. Amgalant far exceeds any of the historical fiction I have read in detail and effort. This is a book that is meant to be read slowly and carefully so the reader can absorb the wealth of information contained in the pages. Amgalant belongs on the shelf with the best of the epic historical fictions.”
— Joseph Spuckler on One: Against Walls
Full review at Goodreads

“Perhaps most important in understanding another people, is understanding their culture. This is where Hammond takes Tribal Brawls above and beyond most histories and beyond any history of the Mongols I have encountered. History tends to tell the “what”. Culture tells the how and why… As someone with a history degree I usually don’t promote historical fiction as a way to learn history. The Amgalant series is different. There is plenty to learn from reading this series. Extremely well done.”
— Joseph Spuckler on Two: Imaginary Kings
Full review at Goodreads

“The end result has a solidity and believability (is that a real word?) that draws you ever onwards to just one more page. Such writing only comes from someone who has invested themselves body and soul in a piece of work and the author’s enthusiasm and commitment shines out through every page.”
— A. Hopcraft ‘Alan’
Full review at Amazon UK

“Bottom line, Amgalant One is a riveting start to an epic trilogy that brings one of the most important figures in world history to life. Readers who might fear that this is a book for scholars can feel assured that this was tons of fun and full of imagination and memorable characters.”
— ACP
Full review at Amazon US

“Three things impressed me most: Hammond’s ability to create believable characters in everyday situations; her use of “modern” language suitable to these characters that works much better than contrived archaisms; the interchange among civilizations and nomadic peoples and the effect these relationships have had within history.”
— Gary Inbinder
Full review at Goodreads

“What’s extraordinary about this novel is the way the narrative feels both modern, as if the story is being related by your history-buff friend from 2012, and perfectly historical, as though your friend is also a time-traveler from some era around the middle of the thirteenth century.”
— Libbie Hawker
Full review at Goodreads

“A story of much psychological insight underlined by the author’s unique and stylish expression. Bryn Hammond’s writing is one that paints rather than tells. You get a sense of meaning from understatements and symbolisms; it befits the Mongol setting perfectly.”
— Laura Rahme
Full review at Goodreads

“It’s clear that she is herself enraptured by the time, the place, and above all the historic characters she fleshes out to live their complex tribal lives. Hammond has researched every aspect of her enterprise, not to harass us with needless historic detail, but to make sure that the experience of the reader will be full and genuine. This is your chance to travel in space and time, and BE THERE… Amgalant is a rare and different, wonderful read, although not always easy. Hats off to Hammond for her long, loving and continuing discipline.”
— John Caviglia
Full review at Goodreads

“Bryn Hammond makes the Mongol peoples spring to life as you read about them. Dry witted, whimsical, a thorough delight from page to page. The sort of book not to read on public transport as you are liable to become so engrossed in it that you will miss your stop… a roaring good read.”
— Margaret
Full review at Goodreads

 

Website by Julie Bozza. She of the dedication:

My sister has been godmother to the book. Amgalant, what’s written and what isn’t written yet, is dedicated to her, with waves from Tem and Jam, and no sight or scent of a goat. In steppe epic, a steed and a sister are your trustiest, most intelligent and indefatigable aid: the hero doesn’t have to be heroic, but these do.