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El viajero
La vida y la leyenda de Marco Polo desde Venecia hasta la corte del kan Kubilai.
En su vejez, Marco Polo fue apodado «Marco Millones», porque en Venecia todo el mundo creía que la historia de sus viajes era una sarta de innumerables mentiras. Cuando estaba a punto de morir, un sacerdote le ofreció la oportunidad para reconocer sus embustes pero, según dicen, Marco Polo contestó: «No he contado ni la mitad de lo que vi ni de lo que hice».
Ahora Gary Jennings ha imaginado esta otra mitad que Marco Polo no llegó a contar. Desde los palacios y las callejas de la Venecia medieval hasta la suntuosa corte del kan Kubilai, desde la perfumada sensualidad de Oriente hasta los peligros e incomodidades que significaba recorrer la Ruta de la Seda, Marco Polo conoce a toda clase de gentes, sobrevive a infinitos peligros y, como es hombre de curiosidad insaciable, se convierte en un fantástico coleccionista de costumbres, lenguas y mujeres.
En el curso de mas de viente anos Marco Polo fue mercader, guerrero, amante, espira e incluso recaudador de impuestos, pero ante todo, viajero insaciable en búsqueda de nuevas experiencias, lamentando solamente las que no había podido tener. En esta novela —en la que la verdad histórica se recrea con todo el brillo, el amor de la aventura y el interés por lo raro y curioso que son las grandes características de Jennings— se nos ofrece una narración épica, grandiosa y amena, de la vida del mayor de los aventureros que ha conocido la historia de la humanidad.
817 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
377 people are currently reading
3836 people want to read
About the author
Gary Jennings
139 books453 followersGary Jennings led a paradoxically picaresque life. On one hand, he was a man of acknowledged intellect and erudition. His novels were international best sellers, praised around the world for their stylish prose, lively wit and adventurously bawdy spirit. They were also massive - often topping 500,000 words - and widely acclaimed for the years of research he put into each one, both in libraries and in the field.
Jennings served in the Korean War, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal- a decoration rarely given to soldier-reporters- and a personal citation by South Korean President Syngman Rhee for his efforts on behalf of war orphans.
Where the erudition came from, however, was something of a mystery.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/garyje...
Jennings served in the Korean War, where he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal- a decoration rarely given to soldier-reporters- and a personal citation by South Korean President Syngman Rhee for his efforts on behalf of war orphans.
Where the erudition came from, however, was something of a mystery.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/garyje...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 286 reviews
October 9, 2025
[9/10]
"Come hither, great princes! Come hither, emperors and kings, dukes and marquises, knights and burgesses! Come hither, you people of all degrees, who wish to see the many faces of mankind and to know the diversities of the whole world! Take up this book and read it, or have it read to you. For herein you will find all the greatest wonders and most marvellous curiosities ..."
I haven't read the original account of the travels of Marco Polo from Venice to the far side of the world. I have chosen instead to travel under the guidance of Gary Jennings, who entered on my favorite authors list with the sprawling epics of Aztec culture and of circus life in the late 19 century ( Aztec and Spangle). I was rewarded with the spiced up, picaresque, X-rated version of the said travels - a fictionalized account that at first glance seems too incredible and adventurous to be based on historical facts. Nevertheless, checking a few internet sources (as unreliable in their turn as they may be) reveals that the key elements of the journey are accurate and supported by evidence. Beside the 'stylish prose, lively wit and adventurous bawdy spirit', as described on the back cover of the massive volume, what is typical for a Gary Jennings historical epic is his passion for the subject and the thoroughness of his research. He actually spent years retracing the steps of the Polo expeditions, travelling the Silk Road in the Venetians footsteps, learning the local customs, the dialects, the beliefs and (arguably) their sexual peculiarities.
Nicolo: "Adventure is no more than discomfort and annoyance recollected in the safety of reminiscence. Believe me, an experienced traveler makes plans and takes pains 'not' to have such adventures. The most successful journey is a dull journey."
Marco: "Oh! I was rather looking forward to - well, hazards overcome ... hidden things discovered ... enemies bested ... maidens rescued ..."
The framing device of the story has an elderly Marco writing a second account of his travels, one that includes all the censored bits and the ones deemed too incredible and exotic for the official version. By mixing the unreliability of memory with more than a bit of middle-age wish fulfilment regarding women conquests and with a vivid imagination, Marco becomes the larger than life hero of his own adventure, an almost mythical embodiment of what a critic named a "Rabelaisian lust for life' and of the eternal siren call of the unknown, of the ever receding line of the horizon.
Yes, I meant to go again sometime. But when I was freed from Genoa and returned to Venice, the family business demanded my attention, and so I hesitated to depart. And then I met Donata, and she became my wife. So I hesitated again a while, and then there was a daughter. Naturally that gave me cause to hesitate, and there came a second daughter, and then there were three. So, for one reason and another, I kept on hesitating, and suddenly one day I was old.
The family man revisits the places of his wild youth through the pages of the manuscript. Even by his own account, Marco Polo is not a cautious and lawful citizen of the Merchant Republic. His departure at a very young age in the company of his father Nicolo and his uncle Mafio, comes after a sexual debacle with an older woman and after being arrested for a public assassination. From a very precocious age Marco shows a restlessness and a recklessness to jump into the fire and then think about how to get out. A libertine and a rogue, a boastful Latino who claims to have killed a wild boar with only a knife, to have invented a military use for Ming fireworks and then to have won a war single-handedly, to have bedded beautiful women from the Persian harems to the Mongol yourts, to the hidden temples of India, Marco will in the end prefer to be remembered for his curiosity:
If a man is to have a fault, it should be a passionate one, like insatiable curiosity. It would be a pity to be damned for something paltry.
If I were to attempt a resume of the adventures Marco experiences during his more than twenty years long journey into China, I would fill a book of my own and still wouldn't capture all the beauty of the lands and all the exotic encounters with different people and cultures. Before I let the quotes I selected speak for themselves, I would just mention that the novel is more than a travelogue, especially after the arrival at the court of Kublai Khan when Marco gets mixed up in palace politics, espionage, governorships and military conquests. Personal drama also comes into play, as Marco's personality develops from a self-centered youth to a considerate lover, later family man. There are side quests involving his uncle Mafio struggling with homosexuality, comic relief from a sidekick inspired by the Arabian Nights, death and loss before the journey's end.
Beside mercantile concerns, the later chapters are dealing more with religious identity, sexual identity, governance, violence. To be honest, I had quite a few issues and grumbles with the text, some of them major turn-offs that made me put the book aside for weeks and read something else. One of these things is the affectation of using archaic spelling for words that have entered common English vocabulary a long time ago. (for example zafran for saffran, but there are other examples on every single page of the novel). Other readers might be turned off by the explicit, frequent and detailed accounts of bedroom sports, another Jennings quirk that I noticed in his previous two novels. Most of all I was bothered by the condescending, dismissive and frankly vicious attacks on Buddhism, Hinduism, Islamism and Confucianism, coupled with too glowing remarks about Mongol martial prowess. I would like to think that the chapters reviling the lamaseries, the stupas, the mosques and the squalor of most of the lands Marco visited has its source somewhere in the original manuscript, and is not reflective of the personal attitudes of Jennings.
Without further ado, here are some samples from the text. I hope they are enough to get you interested:
If I sound unloving of camels, it is because I am. I think I have straddled or perched upon every sort of transport animal there is in the world, and I would prefer any other to a camel.
---
"The wise man shall pass into strange countries, and good and evil shall he try in all things." (Ecclesiasticus?)
---
"A companion is the best provision for the road." (Arab proverb)
---
The overland journeyer knows the same sensation that a man feels when he is stark naked - a fine sense of unfettered freedom, but also a sense of being vulnerable, unprotected and, compared to the world about him, very small.
---
I learned there that the Farsi word meaning garden, pairi-daeza, became our Bible's word Paradise.
---
That is why we Zardushi (Zoroastrians) have for centuries been persecuted and derided and dispersed and driven into exile. By Muslims and Jews and Christians alike. A people who pride themselves on possessing the only true religion must pretend that it came to them through some exclusive revelation. They do not like to be reminded that it merely derives from some other people's original.
---
A good horse and a wide plain to you, until we meet again! (Mongol greeting)
---
Meanwhile, the Mongol folk, who do not care much about face, are smearing molasses on the faces of their kitchen gods. They have the quaint belief that the idol they keep over the kitchen hearth, the house god Nagatai, ascends to Heaven at this time to report their year's behavior to the great god Tengri. So they feed molasses to Nagatai in the quaint belief that thus his lips are sealed, and he cannot tattle anything detrimental.
---
You must not look at everything with a tradesman's eye, always asking yourself, 'What is this good for? What is it worth?' Leave that grubby philosophy to the tradesmen who never step beyond their shop doors. You have ventured out to the farthest edge of the world. It would be a pity if you take home only profit, and not at least a little poetry. (Nicolo Polo)
... it was the variances, not the similarities, that made the place lovely in my eyes. So is Venice still lovely and dear to me, but it would cease to be if it were not unique. In my opinion, a world of cities and places and views all alike would be the dullest world imaginable, and I feel much the same way about the world's peoples. If all of them - white and peach and brown and black and whatever other colors exist - were stirred together into a bland tan, every other of their jagged and craggy differences would flatten down into featurelessness.
I kept my favorite for last, an epitaph of sorts for a life spent in interesting times:
I let no chance go by untaken. I never hesitated to follow where my curiosity beckoned. I willingly went where there was danger in beauty and beauty in danger. I had experiences in plenty. Many were enjoyable, some were instructive, a few I would rather have missed. But I had them, and I have them still in memory. If, as soon as tomorrow, I go to my grave, it will be no black and silent hole. I can paint the darkness with vivid colors, and fill it with music both martial and languorous, with the flicker of swords and the flutter of kisses, with flavors and excitements and sensations, with the fragrance of a field of clover that has been warmed in the sun and then washed by a gentle rain, the sweetest-scented thing God ever put on this earth. Yes, I can enliven eternity. Others may have to endure it; I can enjoy it.
TL:DR - one word review : Arcistupendonazzisimo!
"Come hither, great princes! Come hither, emperors and kings, dukes and marquises, knights and burgesses! Come hither, you people of all degrees, who wish to see the many faces of mankind and to know the diversities of the whole world! Take up this book and read it, or have it read to you. For herein you will find all the greatest wonders and most marvellous curiosities ..."
I haven't read the original account of the travels of Marco Polo from Venice to the far side of the world. I have chosen instead to travel under the guidance of Gary Jennings, who entered on my favorite authors list with the sprawling epics of Aztec culture and of circus life in the late 19 century ( Aztec and Spangle). I was rewarded with the spiced up, picaresque, X-rated version of the said travels - a fictionalized account that at first glance seems too incredible and adventurous to be based on historical facts. Nevertheless, checking a few internet sources (as unreliable in their turn as they may be) reveals that the key elements of the journey are accurate and supported by evidence. Beside the 'stylish prose, lively wit and adventurous bawdy spirit', as described on the back cover of the massive volume, what is typical for a Gary Jennings historical epic is his passion for the subject and the thoroughness of his research. He actually spent years retracing the steps of the Polo expeditions, travelling the Silk Road in the Venetians footsteps, learning the local customs, the dialects, the beliefs and (arguably) their sexual peculiarities.
Nicolo: "Adventure is no more than discomfort and annoyance recollected in the safety of reminiscence. Believe me, an experienced traveler makes plans and takes pains 'not' to have such adventures. The most successful journey is a dull journey."
Marco: "Oh! I was rather looking forward to - well, hazards overcome ... hidden things discovered ... enemies bested ... maidens rescued ..."
The framing device of the story has an elderly Marco writing a second account of his travels, one that includes all the censored bits and the ones deemed too incredible and exotic for the official version. By mixing the unreliability of memory with more than a bit of middle-age wish fulfilment regarding women conquests and with a vivid imagination, Marco becomes the larger than life hero of his own adventure, an almost mythical embodiment of what a critic named a "Rabelaisian lust for life' and of the eternal siren call of the unknown, of the ever receding line of the horizon.
Yes, I meant to go again sometime. But when I was freed from Genoa and returned to Venice, the family business demanded my attention, and so I hesitated to depart. And then I met Donata, and she became my wife. So I hesitated again a while, and then there was a daughter. Naturally that gave me cause to hesitate, and there came a second daughter, and then there were three. So, for one reason and another, I kept on hesitating, and suddenly one day I was old.
The family man revisits the places of his wild youth through the pages of the manuscript. Even by his own account, Marco Polo is not a cautious and lawful citizen of the Merchant Republic. His departure at a very young age in the company of his father Nicolo and his uncle Mafio, comes after a sexual debacle with an older woman and after being arrested for a public assassination. From a very precocious age Marco shows a restlessness and a recklessness to jump into the fire and then think about how to get out. A libertine and a rogue, a boastful Latino who claims to have killed a wild boar with only a knife, to have invented a military use for Ming fireworks and then to have won a war single-handedly, to have bedded beautiful women from the Persian harems to the Mongol yourts, to the hidden temples of India, Marco will in the end prefer to be remembered for his curiosity:
If a man is to have a fault, it should be a passionate one, like insatiable curiosity. It would be a pity to be damned for something paltry.
If I were to attempt a resume of the adventures Marco experiences during his more than twenty years long journey into China, I would fill a book of my own and still wouldn't capture all the beauty of the lands and all the exotic encounters with different people and cultures. Before I let the quotes I selected speak for themselves, I would just mention that the novel is more than a travelogue, especially after the arrival at the court of Kublai Khan when Marco gets mixed up in palace politics, espionage, governorships and military conquests. Personal drama also comes into play, as Marco's personality develops from a self-centered youth to a considerate lover, later family man. There are side quests involving his uncle Mafio struggling with homosexuality, comic relief from a sidekick inspired by the Arabian Nights, death and loss before the journey's end.
Beside mercantile concerns, the later chapters are dealing more with religious identity, sexual identity, governance, violence. To be honest, I had quite a few issues and grumbles with the text, some of them major turn-offs that made me put the book aside for weeks and read something else. One of these things is the affectation of using archaic spelling for words that have entered common English vocabulary a long time ago. (for example zafran for saffran, but there are other examples on every single page of the novel). Other readers might be turned off by the explicit, frequent and detailed accounts of bedroom sports, another Jennings quirk that I noticed in his previous two novels. Most of all I was bothered by the condescending, dismissive and frankly vicious attacks on Buddhism, Hinduism, Islamism and Confucianism, coupled with too glowing remarks about Mongol martial prowess. I would like to think that the chapters reviling the lamaseries, the stupas, the mosques and the squalor of most of the lands Marco visited has its source somewhere in the original manuscript, and is not reflective of the personal attitudes of Jennings.
Without further ado, here are some samples from the text. I hope they are enough to get you interested:
If I sound unloving of camels, it is because I am. I think I have straddled or perched upon every sort of transport animal there is in the world, and I would prefer any other to a camel.
---
"The wise man shall pass into strange countries, and good and evil shall he try in all things." (Ecclesiasticus?)
---
"A companion is the best provision for the road." (Arab proverb)
---
The overland journeyer knows the same sensation that a man feels when he is stark naked - a fine sense of unfettered freedom, but also a sense of being vulnerable, unprotected and, compared to the world about him, very small.
---
I learned there that the Farsi word meaning garden, pairi-daeza, became our Bible's word Paradise.
---
That is why we Zardushi (Zoroastrians) have for centuries been persecuted and derided and dispersed and driven into exile. By Muslims and Jews and Christians alike. A people who pride themselves on possessing the only true religion must pretend that it came to them through some exclusive revelation. They do not like to be reminded that it merely derives from some other people's original.
---
A good horse and a wide plain to you, until we meet again! (Mongol greeting)
---
Meanwhile, the Mongol folk, who do not care much about face, are smearing molasses on the faces of their kitchen gods. They have the quaint belief that the idol they keep over the kitchen hearth, the house god Nagatai, ascends to Heaven at this time to report their year's behavior to the great god Tengri. So they feed molasses to Nagatai in the quaint belief that thus his lips are sealed, and he cannot tattle anything detrimental.
---
You must not look at everything with a tradesman's eye, always asking yourself, 'What is this good for? What is it worth?' Leave that grubby philosophy to the tradesmen who never step beyond their shop doors. You have ventured out to the farthest edge of the world. It would be a pity if you take home only profit, and not at least a little poetry. (Nicolo Polo)
... it was the variances, not the similarities, that made the place lovely in my eyes. So is Venice still lovely and dear to me, but it would cease to be if it were not unique. In my opinion, a world of cities and places and views all alike would be the dullest world imaginable, and I feel much the same way about the world's peoples. If all of them - white and peach and brown and black and whatever other colors exist - were stirred together into a bland tan, every other of their jagged and craggy differences would flatten down into featurelessness.
I kept my favorite for last, an epitaph of sorts for a life spent in interesting times:
I let no chance go by untaken. I never hesitated to follow where my curiosity beckoned. I willingly went where there was danger in beauty and beauty in danger. I had experiences in plenty. Many were enjoyable, some were instructive, a few I would rather have missed. But I had them, and I have them still in memory. If, as soon as tomorrow, I go to my grave, it will be no black and silent hole. I can paint the darkness with vivid colors, and fill it with music both martial and languorous, with the flicker of swords and the flutter of kisses, with flavors and excitements and sensations, with the fragrance of a field of clover that has been warmed in the sun and then washed by a gentle rain, the sweetest-scented thing God ever put on this earth. Yes, I can enliven eternity. Others may have to endure it; I can enjoy it.
TL:DR - one word review : Arcistupendonazzisimo!
December 2, 2011
While I did enjoy the Journeyer I would have to say that it was not a great read. Sure the story of Marco Polo is a fascinating one and Mr Jennings did maintain my interest for 80% percent of the time.
What annoyed me, however, is that the story is not vastly different from Aztec. Man travels, has many weird and wonderful adventures, is witness to and indulges in some bizarre sex practices and later, reflecting upon his experiences, decides to self indulgently confess about his wanderings in a tell all book.
To put it bluntly, Jennings should have laid off the kiddie porn, incest and sexual deprivation. I'm no prude but I found it a bit tedious after a while and very formulaic given it rehashed many of the themes in Jennings earlier book Aztec. Like Aztec, the book was also about 200 pages too long. Thinking back on it, I probably would have enjoyed the book more if I had not first read Aztec. I just got the feeling in the Journeyer that Jennings thought, as he had a "winner" with Aztec and purely for marketing reasons, he simply rehashed the same old themes to maintain his winning formula. From a literary perspective I think such an approach is a bit cynical and intellectually lazy.
What annoyed me, however, is that the story is not vastly different from Aztec. Man travels, has many weird and wonderful adventures, is witness to and indulges in some bizarre sex practices and later, reflecting upon his experiences, decides to self indulgently confess about his wanderings in a tell all book.
To put it bluntly, Jennings should have laid off the kiddie porn, incest and sexual deprivation. I'm no prude but I found it a bit tedious after a while and very formulaic given it rehashed many of the themes in Jennings earlier book Aztec. Like Aztec, the book was also about 200 pages too long. Thinking back on it, I probably would have enjoyed the book more if I had not first read Aztec. I just got the feeling in the Journeyer that Jennings thought, as he had a "winner" with Aztec and purely for marketing reasons, he simply rehashed the same old themes to maintain his winning formula. From a literary perspective I think such an approach is a bit cynical and intellectually lazy.
December 13, 2007
I love to read. I am a voracious reader, yet, this book has captured my heart above all others. The story and the way Mr. Jennings was able to capture the courage and inspiration that Marco Polo had to traverse the silk trail was inspirational to me. At the tender age of 18, it inspired me to travel across our country with little to no money and discover myself. It has since helped me realize that life is the journey and when I feel stuck or unable to shed myself of unhealthy things to which I've been accustomed, I read this book again. I can not emphasize how wonderful, well written, inspirational, uplifting, sad, and rewarding this book is. Because of this book I have read every other book Jennings has written (and own first editions of all of them). Another book by Jennings similar in vein is called "Raptor" for those that enjoyed this book.
October 9, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Over 20 years ago, I read Jennings' superb novel, Aztec, about the great pre-Columbian civilization and the arrival of Cortez and the Conquistadores. I really enjoyed Aztec and shortly thereafter obtained a couple of his other novels including The Journeyer which has been sitting on my shelves unread since then. Well, I finally got around to reading this immense novel which details the life of Marco Polo in the 13th century. I probably put off reading this because of its length at over 1000 pages of small type but finally decided to give it a shot.
The novel supposedly expands on Polo's original Travels and starts off when Marco was young and getting into trouble roaming the streets and canals of Venice. When he is falsely accused of murdering the husband of his lover, he is exiled from Venice and travels east with his father and uncle to the court of Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor of the orient. Along the way, he visits the Middle East where the Crusades have about ended leaving the Holy Land in the hands of the Muslims. He then travels to Baghdad where he learns many of the myths and legends later told in the Arabian Nights. He travels over the great deserts and on to the "Roof of the World" where it never gets warm; then on to Kithai (Cathay) where he becomes an emissary to the Khan Kublai. He was sent on diplomatic missions for the Mongols to such places as To-Bhot (Tibet), Ava (Burma), Indo-China, and India. Many of these missions were to assist in the conquering of these locations and the expansion of the Mongol empire. While in Khanbalik (Beijing), he falls in love with a beautiful deaf-mute slave girl who ends up as the love of his life but who doesn't survive childbirth.
Overall, I was mixed on how to rate this book. The story of Marco Polo was fascinating but Jennings seemed to go overboard in his descriptions of the people, practices, landscapes, etc. The novel was way too long and took me several weeks to read. I thought it could have been cut down by several hundred pages. And then there was Jennings descriptions of sexual practices including a lot of child porn from when Marco was young, and things such as incest later in the story. He also went overboard in his descriptions of the female anatomy and the Mongols use of torture. I'm definitely not shocked by any of this but think it was somewhat gratuitous. I have one other book on my shelves by Jennings, Raptor, but not sure when or if I will get to it.
Over 20 years ago, I read Jennings' superb novel, Aztec, about the great pre-Columbian civilization and the arrival of Cortez and the Conquistadores. I really enjoyed Aztec and shortly thereafter obtained a couple of his other novels including The Journeyer which has been sitting on my shelves unread since then. Well, I finally got around to reading this immense novel which details the life of Marco Polo in the 13th century. I probably put off reading this because of its length at over 1000 pages of small type but finally decided to give it a shot.
The novel supposedly expands on Polo's original Travels and starts off when Marco was young and getting into trouble roaming the streets and canals of Venice. When he is falsely accused of murdering the husband of his lover, he is exiled from Venice and travels east with his father and uncle to the court of Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor of the orient. Along the way, he visits the Middle East where the Crusades have about ended leaving the Holy Land in the hands of the Muslims. He then travels to Baghdad where he learns many of the myths and legends later told in the Arabian Nights. He travels over the great deserts and on to the "Roof of the World" where it never gets warm; then on to Kithai (Cathay) where he becomes an emissary to the Khan Kublai. He was sent on diplomatic missions for the Mongols to such places as To-Bhot (Tibet), Ava (Burma), Indo-China, and India. Many of these missions were to assist in the conquering of these locations and the expansion of the Mongol empire. While in Khanbalik (Beijing), he falls in love with a beautiful deaf-mute slave girl who ends up as the love of his life but who doesn't survive childbirth.
Overall, I was mixed on how to rate this book. The story of Marco Polo was fascinating but Jennings seemed to go overboard in his descriptions of the people, practices, landscapes, etc. The novel was way too long and took me several weeks to read. I thought it could have been cut down by several hundred pages. And then there was Jennings descriptions of sexual practices including a lot of child porn from when Marco was young, and things such as incest later in the story. He also went overboard in his descriptions of the female anatomy and the Mongols use of torture. I'm definitely not shocked by any of this but think it was somewhat gratuitous. I have one other book on my shelves by Jennings, Raptor, but not sure when or if I will get to it.
July 17, 2013
This book pulled me in two distinct and opposite directions: on the one hand, it's a fantastic and accurate (if my fact-checking is any good) account of life in Venice and the middle and far east in the 13th century. There is a lot of interesting detail about cultural traits and knowledge that we still use today. That really hooked the history buff in me. On the other hand...the extremely graphic descriptions of torture and other sundry mayhem was over the top, even for this Game of Thrones lover, and the descriptions of sex, including patently odd perspectives of female anatomy, were just not sexy at all. Jennings may have provided a window into what men really think about the female body, but I'd rather not have known. Also, he portrays Marco Polo as a very ethnocentric (to put it nicely) person, which may be accurate for a 13th century Venetian, but was still offputting to this 21st century reader. The story was good, but the fact that the main character is continually traveling from place to place made it hard for Jennings to create characters that lasted throughout the story. It also became somewhat repetitive. All of that said, I did finish the book and loved the research-based history. Unfortunately, the sex and violence were so unpalatable that I will probably not read another book by this author.
July 2, 2017
I just read Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" which is a short book about an encounter between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. That book reminded me that I'd read Jennings' "The Journeyer" several decades ago: in "Journeyer" there is an encounter between Polo and Khan. (I must note in all fairness that the publication of "Invisible Cities" predates the publication of "The Journeyer" by about a decade, but still, there is nothing new under the sun. Now, "The Journeyer" is okay, but as I recall, my expectations were absolutely off the charts, as I had just read Jennings' remarkable "Aztec", a far better book. And comparatively speaking, "Journeyer" sort of rambles while "Aztec" is more focused, centralized, and more exciting.
September 14, 2010
this is my favorite read of all time. Takes about 100 pages to get going, but by the ending after a 1000 pages you wish there could be another 1000. His research into his subject matter, Marco Polo, has proven to be unbelievably accurate. The Great Khans earthquake detection machine was fully describe while I was at the national museum in Ulambator Mongolia. Aztec is his other great book and fully explains how Cortez and 60 soldiers could conquer a nation.
February 22, 2013
The adventures of Marco Polo. I was probably 16 when I read this book. I read it because my mom had just finished it. This book will make you laugh out loud- when you least expect it, and make you slam it shut while being on the verge of tears. You will carry some of the characters with you for The rest of your life: Nostril, Aziz, and The Fondler. You can never forget their stories. Some scenes are so graphically horrible it's as if you've seen them and not read them. One of the most emotional books you will ever read that will challenge your knowledge of history and the world all the way through.
July 15, 2021
It was an interesting read but not a completely pleasant one. My biggest gripes are that the author did not modernize geographical names or at least provide an appendix that did so and the author did not provide a postscript that differentiated fact from fiction which forced me to investigate elsewhere. The prose did not flow in a manner that made it easy to read.
May 22, 2012
I LOVE this book. It has scarred me for life. That's a sign of a great book. Some of the images and scenes from this book have stayed with me, years after the reading. It was so good, I didn't want to put it down, and when I was done reading it, I felt a remorse that it was over.
April 30, 2015
The first half of this book should have more accurately been titled ‘Marco Polo’s Porno Journey Through Asia’, and although these antics worked for the character, it often felt a little bit over done and forced. The second half of the book was well articulated and presented, and the world was believable and slightly magical. Marco also became a more rounded character as he became a jaded, wearied traveller towards the end, especially when he settled down with Hui-sheng in Asia and started to interact with the cultures he was viewing more. He became even more compelling after he was forced to grow up after tragedy and realise the consequences of his actions. The best thing about this book was how Jennings researched the cultures that Polo interacted with well, and he was able to build a convincing world. Another was how Marco resigned himself to the fact that he had grown old and lost his chance to travel, but that his eternity would be filled with lots of beautiful memories, which was very moving. One critique would be that some characters were not fully developed and could have done with more fleshing out – the plethora of women Marco slept with on the journey into Asia, and Hui-sheng herself, who was a little too perfect on occasion. But if you can get past the first twenty percent of this book, I'd say it was worth the read.
July 8, 2009
This is the last book of Gary Jennings I've to read. Actually, that's not true, he wrote some book about a hot-air balloon, but I don't like those things at all so I won't be reading that.
If you like Jennings, this is classic. It's the story of Marco Polo. Full of interesting etymological "facts" and lots of sexual perversion. (Hey, you know it's true, lol)
Nothing beats a good piece of historical fiction! It's so escapist, yet, when written well, it's so very informative. One of the reasons I "know so much" is because I'm a fan of this genre. So, if you've enjoyed Jennings in the past, or just like period piece fiction, I suggest picking up The Journeyer. It's a big one too! ;)
If you like Jennings, this is classic. It's the story of Marco Polo. Full of interesting etymological "facts" and lots of sexual perversion. (Hey, you know it's true, lol)
Nothing beats a good piece of historical fiction! It's so escapist, yet, when written well, it's so very informative. One of the reasons I "know so much" is because I'm a fan of this genre. So, if you've enjoyed Jennings in the past, or just like period piece fiction, I suggest picking up The Journeyer. It's a big one too! ;)
July 19, 2021
Famously (apocryphally?), Marco Polo, on his deathbed, said, "I have not told the half of what I saw and did!"
Based on Gary Jennings' The Journeyer, I can only conclude that the half of what he saw and did that he never told was based primarily around his wang.
(n.b. I haven't ever read the original The Travels of Marco Polo, and outside of Jennings' novel, my chief familiarity with the source material comes from the Netflix show, which I assume diverges even further from the source material.)
So: To Marco Millions and his naughty bits.
This book is Jennings' follow-up to Aztec, a very particular type of historical novel (that Jennings possibly pioneered?) that also includes such examples as Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth and Nicholas Guild's The Assyrian -- history treated almost in the style of a sprawling epic fantasy, and stuffed to the gills with sex and violence. (Any of the books mentioned could go toe-to-toe with A Game of Thrones on those counts.)
The book begins with Marco in his delinquent childhood, child of a noble house, running wild with Venetian street urchins because his father's away on his first expedition to the East, his mother is dead, and the servants are unwilling or unable to control him. Thanks to the aforementioned wang, he finds himself in a Venetian jail cell awaiting execution when his father fortunately arrives home and is able to convince the Doge to commute the sentence to banishment, at which point Marco, his father and his uncle set out on their great expedition to Kublai Khan's Mongol court, an expedition that will take them across the entire breadth of Europe and Asia, during which travels they'll encounter all manner of colorful (sometimes sinister) characters and have all manner of adventures, not all of which are wang-related.
As with Aztec (which I reread a couple of years ago for the first time in decades), I did enjoy this book quite a bit; and while I can't speak to its historicity, Jennings certainly seems to have done more than his share of research. Be warned that there are a few bits of relatively unsavory stuff (borderline child abuse, e.g.) that come up in passing even if Marco isn't directly participating; and his attitudes towards things are sometimes ... questionable, even if perhaps historically accurate. But with all that in mind, if you want a big, fat novel you can just lose yourself in, you could do much, much worse.
Based on Gary Jennings' The Journeyer, I can only conclude that the half of what he saw and did that he never told was based primarily around his wang.
(n.b. I haven't ever read the original The Travels of Marco Polo, and outside of Jennings' novel, my chief familiarity with the source material comes from the Netflix show, which I assume diverges even further from the source material.)
So: To Marco Millions and his naughty bits.
This book is Jennings' follow-up to Aztec, a very particular type of historical novel (that Jennings possibly pioneered?) that also includes such examples as Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth and Nicholas Guild's The Assyrian -- history treated almost in the style of a sprawling epic fantasy, and stuffed to the gills with sex and violence. (Any of the books mentioned could go toe-to-toe with A Game of Thrones on those counts.)
The book begins with Marco in his delinquent childhood, child of a noble house, running wild with Venetian street urchins because his father's away on his first expedition to the East, his mother is dead, and the servants are unwilling or unable to control him. Thanks to the aforementioned wang, he finds himself in a Venetian jail cell awaiting execution when his father fortunately arrives home and is able to convince the Doge to commute the sentence to banishment, at which point Marco, his father and his uncle set out on their great expedition to Kublai Khan's Mongol court, an expedition that will take them across the entire breadth of Europe and Asia, during which travels they'll encounter all manner of colorful (sometimes sinister) characters and have all manner of adventures, not all of which are wang-related.
As with Aztec (which I reread a couple of years ago for the first time in decades), I did enjoy this book quite a bit; and while I can't speak to its historicity, Jennings certainly seems to have done more than his share of research. Be warned that there are a few bits of relatively unsavory stuff (borderline child abuse, e.g.) that come up in passing even if Marco isn't directly participating; and his attitudes towards things are sometimes ... questionable, even if perhaps historically accurate. But with all that in mind, if you want a big, fat novel you can just lose yourself in, you could do much, much worse.
October 16, 2010
Ranks alongside 'Aztec' as Gary Jennings' greatest work. Much like Aztec, it is a first person narrative, this time concerning Marco Polo and his journey from Italy to the court of the Yuan emperor Khubilai via the middle east, Persia, Nepal and finally China (and, later on, several other places).
Definitely one of the best historical books I have ever written, can't recommend it highly enough...
Definitely one of the best historical books I have ever written, can't recommend it highly enough...
May 9, 2012
Toward the end of last year, I read Laurence Bergreen’s biography of Marco Polo. Subsequently, a buddy of mine not only clued me in to but provided a copy of Gary Jennings’ fictionalized narrative of the Venetian’s Asian wanderings in The Journeyer. I ran across a copy of another of Jennings’ works--Aztec Rage--years ago in a summer cabin or some such place, got started on it, but never finished and never got back to either the book or Jennings.
There are a couple of interesting discrepancies between the biography and the novel. Apparently, one of arguments against the verisimilitude of Polo’s account is that he never mentions the great wall. Bergreeen defends him by saying the wall wasn’t up when he was there. Jennnings has Polo giving detailed accounts of how it was built and of its effectiveness (not very). My googling tells me the wall was started around 700 B.C. I don’t care enough to track down the truth, but it’s a head scratcher.
Bergreen and Jennings agree that Marco first entered the great Kahn’s kingdom with his father and uncle, who had already concluded one extensive stay there and had contracted to return with 100 Christian priests (They fail to fulfill the contract.) to add to the emperor’s heterogeneous collection of religious philosophers. Bergreen however, adds that they were also supposed to bring a vial of holy oil from Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. In this, according to him, they succeed. Jennings makes no mention of the vial, which would have fit nicely into his narrative.
The Marco of The Journeyer talks often of traveling the Silk Road. To Bergreen, the Silk Road didn’t exist as a general term until the Renaissance, a full hundred years or more after Marco’s death.
Jennings paints Polo as willingly serving the Kahn for twenty-plus years and finally going home when he’d achieved great wealth and got a little homesick. Bergreen claims That Kublai kept Marco, his father, and his uncle virtually under house--or, more properly, empire--arrest, that they had to contrive and deceive greatly and dangerously to get back to Venice. Perhaps new facts emerged since the 1984 publication of The Journeyer, but I find the divergences puzzling nonetheless.
The book itself seems to me more of an encyclopedia than a novel. During the course of Marco’s travels from Venice to Jennings contrives a thousand situations for Marco to be instructed by various and sundry in customs and mores martial, sexual, political, culinary, financial, commercial, monetary, sexual, floral, faunal, bestial, avial, marital, theological, sexual, meteorological, cartological, ichthyological, ethnic, sexual, sartorial, architectural--among others. And did I mention sexual? It’s not just a recurring theme for Jennings, it almost amounts to an obsession. Nevertheless, the range of facts and knowledge the book contains in its eight hundred pages steps beyond remarkable into stunning. You can, for example, learn how to build and sail three or four different kinds of ships. How to diagnose and cure a multitude of diseases and injuries, how to navigate by stars and/or sun on land or sea and on either side of the equator. You can learn admiration or contempt for a plethora of religions and cultures.
Jennings simply and cleverly invests the text with a veneer of authenticity and ancientness by the device of spelling--”Kithai” for “Cathay,” “To-Bhot” for “Tibet,” “Karwan” for “Caravan,” and so on. The method orients readers geographically and culturally without yanking them into the modern world. Good job with that, but there is this still this bothersome matter of the lack novelizing or storytelling.
Most of the book consists of Polo traveling from one location to another, perhaps encountering some adventure or another along the way, then undergoing tutelage on the local way of life. The journey itself is the through-line. Thus, there is little ongoing conflict or suspense. The closest we come is an intrigue in the beginning which provides the impetus for Polo to get out of Venice our young master’s ongoing cat-and-mouse game with a certain Arab counselor of Kahn’s, which is an exciting and captivating series of episodes. However, that takes less than two hundred pages of the whole. It proves Jennings can write that kind of stuff, and it would have pleased me if he had included a great deal more of that kind of material in The Journeyer.
Yet, I have now spent some weeks and a number of pages with the European perspective of the Mongol empire, have learned a good deal of history (bet you didn’t know that Beijing is there because Kublai Kahn put it there and established the Forbidden City and surrounding area. See what I mean?), and am much improved for the experience. It’s been an entertaining and educational ride. I’m glad I took it.
There are a couple of interesting discrepancies between the biography and the novel. Apparently, one of arguments against the verisimilitude of Polo’s account is that he never mentions the great wall. Bergreeen defends him by saying the wall wasn’t up when he was there. Jennnings has Polo giving detailed accounts of how it was built and of its effectiveness (not very). My googling tells me the wall was started around 700 B.C. I don’t care enough to track down the truth, but it’s a head scratcher.
Bergreen and Jennings agree that Marco first entered the great Kahn’s kingdom with his father and uncle, who had already concluded one extensive stay there and had contracted to return with 100 Christian priests (They fail to fulfill the contract.) to add to the emperor’s heterogeneous collection of religious philosophers. Bergreen however, adds that they were also supposed to bring a vial of holy oil from Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. In this, according to him, they succeed. Jennings makes no mention of the vial, which would have fit nicely into his narrative.
The Marco of The Journeyer talks often of traveling the Silk Road. To Bergreen, the Silk Road didn’t exist as a general term until the Renaissance, a full hundred years or more after Marco’s death.
Jennings paints Polo as willingly serving the Kahn for twenty-plus years and finally going home when he’d achieved great wealth and got a little homesick. Bergreen claims That Kublai kept Marco, his father, and his uncle virtually under house--or, more properly, empire--arrest, that they had to contrive and deceive greatly and dangerously to get back to Venice. Perhaps new facts emerged since the 1984 publication of The Journeyer, but I find the divergences puzzling nonetheless.
The book itself seems to me more of an encyclopedia than a novel. During the course of Marco’s travels from Venice to Jennings contrives a thousand situations for Marco to be instructed by various and sundry in customs and mores martial, sexual, political, culinary, financial, commercial, monetary, sexual, floral, faunal, bestial, avial, marital, theological, sexual, meteorological, cartological, ichthyological, ethnic, sexual, sartorial, architectural--among others. And did I mention sexual? It’s not just a recurring theme for Jennings, it almost amounts to an obsession. Nevertheless, the range of facts and knowledge the book contains in its eight hundred pages steps beyond remarkable into stunning. You can, for example, learn how to build and sail three or four different kinds of ships. How to diagnose and cure a multitude of diseases and injuries, how to navigate by stars and/or sun on land or sea and on either side of the equator. You can learn admiration or contempt for a plethora of religions and cultures.
Jennings simply and cleverly invests the text with a veneer of authenticity and ancientness by the device of spelling--”Kithai” for “Cathay,” “To-Bhot” for “Tibet,” “Karwan” for “Caravan,” and so on. The method orients readers geographically and culturally without yanking them into the modern world. Good job with that, but there is this still this bothersome matter of the lack novelizing or storytelling.
Most of the book consists of Polo traveling from one location to another, perhaps encountering some adventure or another along the way, then undergoing tutelage on the local way of life. The journey itself is the through-line. Thus, there is little ongoing conflict or suspense. The closest we come is an intrigue in the beginning which provides the impetus for Polo to get out of Venice our young master’s ongoing cat-and-mouse game with a certain Arab counselor of Kahn’s, which is an exciting and captivating series of episodes. However, that takes less than two hundred pages of the whole. It proves Jennings can write that kind of stuff, and it would have pleased me if he had included a great deal more of that kind of material in The Journeyer.
Yet, I have now spent some weeks and a number of pages with the European perspective of the Mongol empire, have learned a good deal of history (bet you didn’t know that Beijing is there because Kublai Kahn put it there and established the Forbidden City and surrounding area. See what I mean?), and am much improved for the experience. It’s been an entertaining and educational ride. I’m glad I took it.
September 19, 2017
This would have been so much more enjoyable if it had been whittled down by about 300 pages, that would have made it 520 pages instead of the 820 that it is. Jennings (1928 - 1999) certainly had a knack for story telling.
The Venetian Marco Polo (1254-1324), is probably the most famous Westerner to travel the Silk Road. Marco, along with his father Niccilo and uncle Maffeo, traveled from Venice to the eastern Mediterranean (Levant) and all the way across Asia and back. He became a confidant and emissary of The Khan of all Khans, Kublai in the late 13th century. To make sure the brothers would be given every assistance on their travels, Kublai Khan presented them with a golden tablet a foot long and three inches wide and inscribed with the words : "By the strength of the eternal Heaven, holy be the Khan's name. Let him that pays him not reverence be killed." The golden tablet was the special VIP passport, authorizing the travelers to receive throughout the Great Khan's dominions such horses, lodging, food and guides as they required.
The trio traveled the whole of China and returned 24 years later, Marco to tell the tale, which became the great travelogue "Descriptions of the World", or "The Travels of Marco Polo. Following Polo's return to Venice, he led the Venetians who lost in battle against their rival Genoa. Polo was imprisoned in Genoa for 1 year, which is where he met Rustichello and dictated his travelogue. I believe that much of Jennings novel was taken from Polo's "The Description of the World".
Over the centuries many people took his accounts with a grain of salt and some skeptics questioned the authenticity of his accountings and considered them as fairy tales. Much of what he wrote, which was regarded with suspicion in medieval times was confirmed by travelers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Phenomenal as it was, and at the time unbelievable to many, it seemed that Jennings compounded that incredulity by adding lots of fiction in terms of sexual deviations that were sickening and unnecessary to the story. I have been trying to recall "Aztec", which I read some 35 years ago. It was also laced with deviant sexual behavior, human sacrifice and cannibalism. In fact that was the better part of Aztec. No doubt those practices may have been true, but I believe them to be exaggerated in his novels for the shock effect, or perhaps Jennings found them to be titillating.
From an historic angle the book was very enjoyable. Learning of the lives, manners and customs of the Persians, Mongols, Muslims and Han was invaluable. Marco Polo's close relationship with The Khan of all Khans, Kubilai Khan was very fascinating.
Marco Polo
Kublai Khan
I would have given "Journeyer" 4 stars if not for the sickening graphic deviant sex and cannibalism that I found unnecessary to the story. This cost 2 stars.
The Venetian Marco Polo (1254-1324), is probably the most famous Westerner to travel the Silk Road. Marco, along with his father Niccilo and uncle Maffeo, traveled from Venice to the eastern Mediterranean (Levant) and all the way across Asia and back. He became a confidant and emissary of The Khan of all Khans, Kublai in the late 13th century. To make sure the brothers would be given every assistance on their travels, Kublai Khan presented them with a golden tablet a foot long and three inches wide and inscribed with the words : "By the strength of the eternal Heaven, holy be the Khan's name. Let him that pays him not reverence be killed." The golden tablet was the special VIP passport, authorizing the travelers to receive throughout the Great Khan's dominions such horses, lodging, food and guides as they required.
The trio traveled the whole of China and returned 24 years later, Marco to tell the tale, which became the great travelogue "Descriptions of the World", or "The Travels of Marco Polo. Following Polo's return to Venice, he led the Venetians who lost in battle against their rival Genoa. Polo was imprisoned in Genoa for 1 year, which is where he met Rustichello and dictated his travelogue. I believe that much of Jennings novel was taken from Polo's "The Description of the World".
Over the centuries many people took his accounts with a grain of salt and some skeptics questioned the authenticity of his accountings and considered them as fairy tales. Much of what he wrote, which was regarded with suspicion in medieval times was confirmed by travelers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Phenomenal as it was, and at the time unbelievable to many, it seemed that Jennings compounded that incredulity by adding lots of fiction in terms of sexual deviations that were sickening and unnecessary to the story. I have been trying to recall "Aztec", which I read some 35 years ago. It was also laced with deviant sexual behavior, human sacrifice and cannibalism. In fact that was the better part of Aztec. No doubt those practices may have been true, but I believe them to be exaggerated in his novels for the shock effect, or perhaps Jennings found them to be titillating.
From an historic angle the book was very enjoyable. Learning of the lives, manners and customs of the Persians, Mongols, Muslims and Han was invaluable. Marco Polo's close relationship with The Khan of all Khans, Kubilai Khan was very fascinating.
Marco Polo
Kublai Khan
I would have given "Journeyer" 4 stars if not for the sickening graphic deviant sex and cannibalism that I found unnecessary to the story. This cost 2 stars.
January 19, 2021
Perdí una cita en la que Borges habla sobre el peso de los actos. Recuerdo vagamente que se resume en que puede ser una acción la que defina la vida de un hombre, ese acto que reúne todo los momentos en uno. El libro sobre el que trata este escrito es uno lleno de vivencias de un hombre cuya vida está rodeada por el mito y la disputa de la veracidad de sus historias. Se pone en tela de duda que haya realizado su famoso viaje por la Ruta de la Seda, pero eso no evitó que inspirara a otros a lanzarse a la aventura, a conocer los confines del mundo o a describir nuevas tierras. Este libro inspira a conocer la vida saciando la curiosidad.
El viajero, de Gary Jennings, narra una historia o libro complementario al que hizo famoso a Marco Polo, Los viajes de Marco Polo, en el que corrige eventos o agrega los hechos que omitió contar junto al escritor que recopiló sus historias, Rustichello de Pisa. Que sea complementario no quiere decir que sea un libro corto. El Marco Polo de Jennings es prolífico en los detalles, curioso al extremo, y valiente al probar las experiencias que le ofrece la vida.
Dice Cervantes que “el que lee mucho y anda mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho”. El protagonista de la historia empieza a andar por el mundo desde muy joven, víctima de su inocencia y curiosidad, pero también porque es un chico consentido y entrometido. Empieza como un chico inmaduro, con poco control sobre sus impulsos, pero va madurando con el paso del tiempo y de las experiencias, el roce con otras culturas, y su tendencia a decir si a todo lo que alguien más “sensato” diría que no. Esos riesgos tienen para Polo su recompensa. Hasta las veces que opta por contenerse tienen, en el futuro, su premio inesperado. Karma le dicen.
Desde que sale de Venecia hasta que llega a la corte del Kan Kubilai en Kanbalink (hoy Beijing), el lector irá viajando con los Polo coleccionando historias y personajes entrañables como Narices y Eco (mención aparte para la vieja Esther y la conversación que tiene con Polo en su huerto), o villanos como el Acariciador; irá a la guerra y cabalgara llanuras con la Horda Dorada mongol, acampará al aire libre en el desierto o atravesará las montañas nevadas. Correrá riesgos.
“... poseo un tesoro de recuerdos que pueden animar la eternidad.” Así se expresa un Marco Polo en el otoño de su vida, una vida con los años repletos de vivencias que inspiraron a otros a vivir una vida de aventura (dicen que Cristobal Colon poseía una copia de su libro repleto de anotaciones). Para quienes se aventuren con este extenso libro del autor de Azteca, les espera un gran viaje que a veces querrán botar por detallista, pero que les recompensará con un cierre sublime y nostálgico en ese brevísimo epílogo que cierra el libro, reminiscencia del amor de Marco Polo por su Eco. El acto que resume una vida.
El viajero, de Gary Jennings, narra una historia o libro complementario al que hizo famoso a Marco Polo, Los viajes de Marco Polo, en el que corrige eventos o agrega los hechos que omitió contar junto al escritor que recopiló sus historias, Rustichello de Pisa. Que sea complementario no quiere decir que sea un libro corto. El Marco Polo de Jennings es prolífico en los detalles, curioso al extremo, y valiente al probar las experiencias que le ofrece la vida.
Dice Cervantes que “el que lee mucho y anda mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho”. El protagonista de la historia empieza a andar por el mundo desde muy joven, víctima de su inocencia y curiosidad, pero también porque es un chico consentido y entrometido. Empieza como un chico inmaduro, con poco control sobre sus impulsos, pero va madurando con el paso del tiempo y de las experiencias, el roce con otras culturas, y su tendencia a decir si a todo lo que alguien más “sensato” diría que no. Esos riesgos tienen para Polo su recompensa. Hasta las veces que opta por contenerse tienen, en el futuro, su premio inesperado. Karma le dicen.
Desde que sale de Venecia hasta que llega a la corte del Kan Kubilai en Kanbalink (hoy Beijing), el lector irá viajando con los Polo coleccionando historias y personajes entrañables como Narices y Eco (mención aparte para la vieja Esther y la conversación que tiene con Polo en su huerto), o villanos como el Acariciador; irá a la guerra y cabalgara llanuras con la Horda Dorada mongol, acampará al aire libre en el desierto o atravesará las montañas nevadas. Correrá riesgos.
“... poseo un tesoro de recuerdos que pueden animar la eternidad.” Así se expresa un Marco Polo en el otoño de su vida, una vida con los años repletos de vivencias que inspiraron a otros a vivir una vida de aventura (dicen que Cristobal Colon poseía una copia de su libro repleto de anotaciones). Para quienes se aventuren con este extenso libro del autor de Azteca, les espera un gran viaje que a veces querrán botar por detallista, pero que les recompensará con un cierre sublime y nostálgico en ese brevísimo epílogo que cierra el libro, reminiscencia del amor de Marco Polo por su Eco. El acto que resume una vida.
June 1, 2017
I just got totally lost in this book. It was one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read.
December 31, 2025
Wow! I enjoyed this book so much!! 5 months for this one to finish! 😅 I was familiar with this author for his previous work Aztec. I have a fascination with Marco Polo, and his adventures, so when I came upon this title, I knew I wanted to immediately read it. Like most of Jennings writings, it was no small undertaking, for it is 1000+ pages. It did not disappoint.
Jennings is known for his exquisite research, and it was abundant and clearly portrayed in this book. When I was first in college many years back, I enjoyed very much, my Sociology class. It spoke of many cultures and dialects with specific aspects of different kinds of people around the world. This book similarly treated me with being able to learn of many things through Jennings writing. It took a little while to get into, but about halfway through, I was hooked.
I think it is worth noting that I was amazed at what a wordsmith he was!! He sent me to a dictionary so many times, that it became noticeably fun. I don’t like reading a word without knowing the meaning. I learned so much from him!!!
I also think I should mention that some people have said that this book was too similar to Aztec. I don’t think that they are comparable, other than the writing style. The characters are very different.
In addition, he does expound on the sexual proclivities of some cultures, so go in knowing that this will be a part of it. It did not bother me at all, but it may do so, with other people.
Lastly, this book made me want to read everything he has written. I would love to be able to write like him.
Jennings is known for his exquisite research, and it was abundant and clearly portrayed in this book. When I was first in college many years back, I enjoyed very much, my Sociology class. It spoke of many cultures and dialects with specific aspects of different kinds of people around the world. This book similarly treated me with being able to learn of many things through Jennings writing. It took a little while to get into, but about halfway through, I was hooked.
I think it is worth noting that I was amazed at what a wordsmith he was!! He sent me to a dictionary so many times, that it became noticeably fun. I don’t like reading a word without knowing the meaning. I learned so much from him!!!
I also think I should mention that some people have said that this book was too similar to Aztec. I don’t think that they are comparable, other than the writing style. The characters are very different.
In addition, he does expound on the sexual proclivities of some cultures, so go in knowing that this will be a part of it. It did not bother me at all, but it may do so, with other people.
Lastly, this book made me want to read everything he has written. I would love to be able to write like him.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
abandoned
March 6, 2014Number of MP3s: 29
Total Duration: 42:29:39
Book Description:
================
Legendary trader and explorer Marco Polo was nicknamed "Marco of the
millions" because his Venetian countrymen took the grandiose stories
of his travels to be exaggerated, if not outright lies. As he lay dying, his priest, family, and friends offered him a last chance to confess his mendacity, and Marco, it is said, replied, "I have not told the half of what I saw and did."
Now Gary Jennings has imagined the half left unsaid as even more elaborate and adventurous than Polo's tall tales. From the palazzi and back streets of medieval Venice to the sumptuous court of Kublai Khan, Marco meets all manner of people, survives all manner of danger, and becomes an almost compulsive collector of customs, languages, and women.
Utter crap. Coarse rubbish.
Total Duration: 42:29:39
Book Description:
================
Legendary trader and explorer Marco Polo was nicknamed "Marco of the
millions" because his Venetian countrymen took the grandiose stories
of his travels to be exaggerated, if not outright lies. As he lay dying, his priest, family, and friends offered him a last chance to confess his mendacity, and Marco, it is said, replied, "I have not told the half of what I saw and did."
Now Gary Jennings has imagined the half left unsaid as even more elaborate and adventurous than Polo's tall tales. From the palazzi and back streets of medieval Venice to the sumptuous court of Kublai Khan, Marco meets all manner of people, survives all manner of danger, and becomes an almost compulsive collector of customs, languages, and women.
Utter crap. Coarse rubbish.
May 22, 2012
I was SO DISAPPOINTED in this book! I thought it would be so interesting reading about Marco Polo’s “imagined” and unrecorded travels – I do so enjoy good historical fiction. And I think it could have been good had Jennings left out all of the deviant sexual episodes. I am no prude by any means, but Jennings went way overboard in the weird and “out there” sexual stuff that it totally ruined the book for me. It was really almost obsessive and somewhat pornographic. There was just far too much of it. So much so that I didn’t even finish the book – I stopped not quite halfway through. There are so many good books just waiting to be read, I won’t waste my time on what I now feel is garbage. A shame really.
May 23, 2012
I read this book when I was frighteningly young. Basic plot: Marco Polo goes to China and fucks a lot of people on the way there. And back.
The writing is incredibly engaging and vivid. There's tons of body horror in this book (extreme torture, cannibalization) as well as sex... some gay, lesbian and transgender stuff, but it's mostly meant to be titillating from a straight male POV. It's also very racist and intensely, bizarrely, anti-Buddhist. Seriously, Marco Polo hates Buddhism as soon as he's introduced to it, and spends some of the most boring parts of the book talking about how much it sucks.
I recommend this book highly if you know what you're getting in for, and you like big sweeping epics with lots of real historical figures.
The writing is incredibly engaging and vivid. There's tons of body horror in this book (extreme torture, cannibalization) as well as sex... some gay, lesbian and transgender stuff, but it's mostly meant to be titillating from a straight male POV. It's also very racist and intensely, bizarrely, anti-Buddhist. Seriously, Marco Polo hates Buddhism as soon as he's introduced to it, and spends some of the most boring parts of the book talking about how much it sucks.
I recommend this book highly if you know what you're getting in for, and you like big sweeping epics with lots of real historical figures.
March 19, 2011
I love historical fiction, and the historical fiction aspect of this book was pretty much an A+ from the start. The plot and the prose seemed pretty immature early on, but really improved, and I was retroactively convinced that the early parts of the book were immature because the narrator was still immature. This book turned into a surprisingly good story of youth and aging, along with a fantastic flurry of random historical references.
December 26, 2013
Myötähäpeää aiheuttavan poloiseen kanteen piiloutuva tiiliskiviromaani on yhtäältä viihdyttävää historiallis-eroottista hömppää, toisaalta väkivaltaista ja järkyttävää roskaa seikkailijan retkistä. Jos ajatus seesamiöljyruukkuihin säilötyistä ruumiista järkyttää, kannattaa välttää vuosikausien painajaiset ja jättää kirja lukematta. Kuitenkin jos kirja jättää näin vahvoja muistijälkiä, se ei voi olla ihan huono.
July 18, 2008
Overall, I liked this book.
Jennings could have toned down the sex a bit though. We didn't need to know about EVERY conquest by Marco. Lots of good detail into the time period and different cultures the Polos would have encountered at that time.
Although the part where the little boys gets eaten was a bit over the top.......
Jennings could have toned down the sex a bit though. We didn't need to know about EVERY conquest by Marco. Lots of good detail into the time period and different cultures the Polos would have encountered at that time.
Although the part where the little boys gets eaten was a bit over the top.......
September 12, 2010
When Marco Polo lay dying, his friends came to beg that he repent of all the lies he had written of his journeys. He sat up in bed and swore that he had not told the half of what he had seen and done. This is that half. (This is not a spoiler: this much is stated right at the beginning.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2011
This was a lllooonng book. I had read Aztec previously and this book was based on the same formula, still I kept reading because it was a different setting. If I had not read Aztec previously, I might have given it 4 stars.
August 2, 2017
Marco Polo was an explorer. It looks like Jennings was using Polos lost journal and notes to write the story of Marcos adventurous travels. A rich tale, well researched, bringing to life the Mongol Empire and the Emperors Court.
September 4, 2012
This is my favorite Jennings novel. I actually read it twice -- and it's a very long book. I've always loved adventure tales, however, and The Journeyer is fine adventure as well as an accurate portrait of the Mongol court and Kublai Khan. Recommended.
September 5, 2019
Gary Jennings is not for the faint-hearted. If one can brave through the graphic scenes of horrendous cruelty, as well as pure pornography, it ultimately turns out to be a highly entertaining and an informative novel based on Marco Polo's adventure through the realm of Kublai Khan. Of course Gary Jennings's fertile imagination renders it much more fantastic than even what the big-mouth Marco Polo could ever imagine! But I credit him for the historical accuracy when it comes to geography, events, and customs. However, last chapter in the novel (Home) appears rather insipid following all that high adventure, and the nostalgic emotion the writer tries to stir, is rather half-baked....I would have chopped off much of that.
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