The Journeyer (ISBN 0689114036)

Saga of a Long Journey - VERY Long!:
This very long fictionalized account of the travels of Marco Polo and his family to the exotic Far East and the court of Kublai Khan is entertaining and informative, but overlong. This work contains something for everyone: descriptions of lands and cities, religions, cultures and societies, warfare and of course, sex, LOTs of sex for pretty much any taste. As others have mentioned, there are some very graphic descriptions of atrocious torture which are not for the weak stomached. The narrative is uneven, sometimes moving briskly through interesting episodes, and other times meandering seemingly endlessly through "li" after li of the globe. Jennings seems unwilling to leave out the place name, or plant name, or city name of any place Polo visits. After a while, the endless barrage of names and places and languages and customs and foods becomes a bit overwhelming by the sheer NUMBER of these things which the author dutifully records. Not everyone will be as interested in the particular differences between each and every tribe described. Further, I was ready for the journey to be concluded LONG before the author sees fit to bring Polo home. Overall, I enjoyed the first half of this novel better than the second which became repetitive and basically exhausted my interest in following the travels any further. Interesting, but not captivating.

a disgusting, horrid book:
One must wonder what kind of person the author is, considering the horrible scenarios he has created in this book. My recommendation is to stay far, far away from it.

magnificent:
I just finished this book. I savoured every last minute of it. It was raw,real, passionate, historical and believable. I learned so much and I am inspired to find out more about Marco Polo and his travels. I highly recomend this book. It may even explain to you some of lifes questions. Do be aware there are grafic sexual details. I found this to be a facinating book. When I closed this book for the last time I bowed my head and was sad. I feel as if a dear relative has pasted away from my life leaving me with only the fondest memories. I love a great book but alas hate to have it end.

Don't believe the small minded-this is a GREAT BOOK!:
This is one of the greatest books that I have ever read. Not the most intellectual, not the deepest, but the MOST FUN EVER. It is a fabulous "journey". Isn't that what a great book should do? Take you to other worlds? Well, this book really does. Yes, there is sex that we wouldn't condone (but you better bet went on then and certainly goes on still) and there is the most horrifying description of torture I have ever read and I was raised Catholic--12 years of martyr education, in depth. We are fortunate to live in a world that doesn't have to deal with this very often, or at least can assiduously deny it all. I have noticed a great deal of negative reviews on Amazon that come from our own extremist/fundamentalists and I must say: I didn't appreciate the Taliban in Afghanistan and I REALLY don't appreciate our own little band of American Christian Taliban. We are Americans: when I was growing up it was a "free country", it is far from it now. Read the book. Open your mind. The good went on and the bad went on, that is life. That's what happens in real life and that's what happens in this magnificent fiction. It's a great ride, and it won't kill anybody to read the icky parts.

AWESOME!:
i could probably read this again since its been a while since i first read it. can't say that about ANY other book i've read and i've read a lot. little action, adventure, romance, humor, sex, and lots of historical stuff and since it spans throughout many countries and cultures, it keeps your interest up! so damn entertaining!