Until the Sun Falls

by Cecelia Holland

First published 1969

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4.2(538)

Psin is a senior Mongol reconnaissance commander serving the western armies of the empire during the generation after Genghis Khan. A Merkit by origin rather than a member of the ruling Mongol clans, he has survived by mastering the discipline, mobility and political instincts required by conquest. His military responsibilities under Batu Khan and Subutai are complicated by conflict within his household, particularly with a son determined to establish an independent reputation.

The campaign moves through the invasion of the Rus principalities, the destruction of Kyiv and the advance into Poland and Hungary. Psin participates in operations culminating at Legnica and Mohi, where strategic planning and steppe warfare overwhelm divided European armies. The novel sets the domestic tensions of a commander’s family against the enormous movement of the Mongol host, showing how ambition, obedience and generational rivalry operate inside an army capable of remaking the political map of Eurasia.