Synopses & Reviews
It is 1494, and the new ruler of Ferghana, Babur, faces a seemingly impossible challenge. He is determined to equal his great ancestor, Tamburlaine, whose conquests stretched from Delhi to the Mediterranean, from wealthy Persia to the wild Volga. But he is dangerously young to inherit a crown, and treasonous plots, tribal rivalries, rampaging armies, and ruthlessly ambitious enemies will threaten his destiny, his kingdom, even his survival.
Already an acclaimed international bestseller, Raiders from the North chronicles the rise and fall of one of the most powerful and magnificent dynasties the world has ever known. Full of breathtaking bloodshed and treachery, this is historical adventure at its very best.
Review
“Rutherfords glorious, broad-sweeping adventure in the wild lands of the Moghul sees the start of a wonderful series. . . . Breathtaking stuff.”
—Manda Scott, author of The Boudica Quartet
“Raiders from the North is a rousing, rampant gallop through the golden age of one of the worlds greatest empires. . . . This series will conquer readers as utterly as a Moghul army.”
—Nicholas Nicastro, author of Empire of Ashes
“A swift and exciting book that brings to new life a story that history had nearly forgotten.”
—Michael Curtis Ford, author of The Fall of Rome
“A historical novel filled with authentic historical characters that give the readers a glimpse into the savagery and ruthless ambition of the Moghul rulers.”
—Deseret News
"A totally absorbing narrative filled with authentic historical characters and sweeping action set in an age of horrifying but magnificent savagery. The writing is as compelling as the events described and kept me eagerly leaping from one page to the next.”
--Wilbur Smith
“Brilliant and bloodthirsty.”
--The Northern Echo (UK)
“Rollicking.”
--The Hindustan Times (India)
“A compelling series of novels.”
--Deccan Herald (India)
“The pace is fast, and Rutherford carries off the battle scenes with élan.”
--Business Standard (India)
“Alex Rutherford has set the bar high for his sequels.”
--The Daily Mail (UK)
"The books belong to the bigselling genre of historical fiction -- where skimpy facts are fleshed out with vivid descriptions and adorned with the glittering brocades of imagination."
--The Times of India
"An engaging, well-balanced work . . . [with] a certain cinematic helf to it, with a TV documentary-like treatment of the dramatic and the historic."
--New Delhi (India)
About the Author
Alex Rutherford is the pen name for Diana Preston and her husband, Michael, whose nonfiction has been awarded the Los Angeles Times Science and Technology prize and been praised worldwide. They have written seven books including, Cleopatra and Antony, Taj Mahal, and Before the Fallout. They live in London.
Reading Group Guide
1. Soon after the establishment of the Moghul Empire, in the Europe of the day ‘Moghul became a synonym for immense wealth. In the 1920s it was applied to the powerful, opulent film magnates of Hollywood and also to major industrialists. If we know the name ‘Moghul so well, why dont most of us know much about the history behind it? Who were the Moghuls and why did they matter?
2. What makes Babur bounce back from every set-back? How much is down to: a. a desire to live up to the deeds of his ancestors, Genghis Khan and Timur (Tamburlaine)? b. a wish not to die feeling a failure as his father did? c. his own character? d. a sense of destiny, however derived?
3. What effect does telling the story through a single point of view - Baburs - have? How might our perceptions be altered if we had multiple points of view?
4. One of the pleasures in reading books about distant lands and different times is what we find out about peoples lives - a key element in which is food and drink. What do we learn about these topics from this book? How much does the food described differ from the Indian food we eat in Indian restaurants in the USA? How much of this is due to the fact that ingredients such as the chilli, the potato, the pineapple, the papaya (pawpaw) had not yet reached India via Europe from the Americas? How surprising is it that wine cultivation and drinking was so prevalent?
5. Why do you think Babur and Baburi are such good friends? What is it about their personalities and their histories that makes them so well suited to each other?
6. Babur wrote in his memoirs of the great influence on him of both his mother and grandmother, for example he called the latter ‘intelligent and a great planner. What if anything does the book tell us of the role of women in the Moghul society at this time?
7. This is the first book in a series about a ruling dynasty. In Moghul times, dynasties were bolstered by the concept of hereditary rule. But why do dynasties persist in modern societies (e.g. the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty in India, the Bhuttos in Pakistan, the Bushes and the Kennedys in the United States)? How might it feel to be the child of a dynasty?
8. How does Babur change through the book and why?
9. This is, in part, a story of kingdoms along the great caravan routes of the Silk Road. How far do you think travel and trade had an influence on the culture of Babur and his contemporaries?
10. There were no printed books in Central Asia at this time - only laborious manuscript copies. How far do you think this influenced the way and extent information was transmitted?
11. Why do you think Babur kept a diary and then turned his writings into a memoir - the first autobiography in Islamic literature and still in print today? What motives impel people to write diaries? What does it say about how they see themselves? How much can we trust diaries as factual records? How much do factors such as self-justification, real or selective memory loss influence them?
12. In the historical note at the back of the book the authors reveal they used some composite characters e.g. Baisangar as well as historical ones. Why do you think they did so: a. so the main character has someone to confide in and thus reveal his thoughts to us? b. to avoid a multiplicity and confusion of subsidiary characters? c. to carry the story onward?
13. What might be the main difficulties when writing an historical novel and looking at the sources? a. getting beneath the skin of the main characters using the available material which might be scanty and having to imagine their thoughts and feelings etc.? b. deciding what events to include and which to exclude? c. deciding the kind of dialogue? (The authors did not use archaic language but also tried to avoid anything too modern in terms of similes, metaphors and modes of expression.) d. having to immerse oneself in the culture of the time and working out how far to judge motivation and character against that background rather than that of today? e. While knowing the historical ending, avoiding this foreknowledge dominating the action and dissipating the tension?
14. The book cover reveals that Alex Rutherford is the pen name for a husband and wife. What might the difficulties be in writing with someone else and in particular ones partner in life as well as in work?