The Blue Wolf (Paperback, New edition)

'I was sixteen years old, with a perfectly honed body and a tremendous desire to destroy.' Thus opens the story of Genghis Khan whose name alone conjures up the steppes and viscera of the barbarian heart. The novel opens as Temudjin, son of a murdered chief and the future Khan, chases after horse rustlers on the steppe with his friend Bo'ortchou. They become blood brothers and it is Bo'ortchou who relates the story of this dispossessed young man's struggle to regain the inheritance of his father the Khan - the chief of chiefs. THE BLUE WOLF narrates Temudjin's early years; his defeat of the Tartars, the most feared enemies of his clan and his suppression and integration of the tribes of the steppes. It ends with him being crowned King of the oceans - Genghis Khan. However, he is now paranoid and suspicious; his hunger for power has lead to blood-lust and a growing mistrust of old friends and allies. Bo'ortchou becomes a virtual exile in the new kingdom ruled by a man on the path to despotism. At the height of his power Genghis Khan had unified 400 tribes and was feared by powerful men from Baghdad to Peking. Like Napoleon he imposed a pitiless regime on the people he conquered; like Caesar he lead his troops with a merciless code of conduct.