Katabasis & Siege Perilous

At the end of the first three Mongoliad books, the main plot has been resolved but there are a few and fertile ground for imagining what happens next to the  surviving characters (spoilers: some people die).  The following two books, for the most part, answer those questions though not always satisfactorily.  Also, I was partially through the fourth book when I realized that they had lost Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear as authors and the fifth book is only by one author (E. D. deBirmingham) and not even a collaboration like the other four.

 
Katabasis, the fourth book, wraps up the story of the shield brethren (yes, there are shield brethren in the 5th book but they are not the focus).  There are definitely some great battles and fight scenes, which was what originally drew me into the first Mongoliad book, this one seems somewhat lacking in the epic scope of the first three.  Also, it was primary about infighting between various factions of the western world and it made all the efforts of the previous books to force the mongols back seem a little pointless (however, I am sure that they did meticulous historical research and this resembles what happened in the period).

At the end of the big battle one of the characters gives a speech that I won't post here because it contains minor spoilers but it is a good speech and concludes with the line "Let us live my friends, and by living keep alive our hope for a world made better by our presence in it."  I particularly liked that line.

Siege Perilous provides (more of) a conclusion to the Rome plot lines in books 2 and 3 which were basically ignored in Katabasis.  The story is based on the siege of the Cathars in France but, as always, our protagonists make an appearance.  Once again, there was some good combat but most of it was seen from the viewpoints of people not directly involved.  However, from a historical perspective this one felt more interesting than the other, perhaps because I knew a little about the siege before I read the book.  Probably the most annoying part of the story was the end where they resolve one plot point by saying, almost literally, "That is a story for someone else."

Both of these trend towards a more fantastical story than the historical fiction that originally interested me.  I have it difficult to believe that there were various magic elements permeating history it breaks my suspension of disbelief every time an, generally subtle, implication of magic occurs.  They are definitely a continuation in the spirit of the first three books but I don't think that they really needed a direct continuation.

Overall, I would give these two together an 82%.