Posts Tagged ‘Middle Eastern’
Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed
published in Feburary 2011
where I got it: the Library*
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I’ve been trying to write this review for two days now, and it just hasn’t been happening.
The only important part of this review is: Read this book now. really. I adored it. Ask my husband, I’ve been talking of nothing else for the last few days.
There is nothing I can say that will do this book justice.
But you know I’ll try.
If Ellen Kushner showed me what effortless writing looked like, then Saladin Ahmed has shown me what truly fully developed characters read like. These characters are so real and so true that I didn’t feel like I was reading them so much as spending a few precious days with them. I feel like I could tell you what Adoulla’s bookshelves look like (cluttered but organized?), like I could describe the look on Raseed’s face when he instantly regrets something he’s said, the sound of Zamia sleeping while in her lion shape. I want to have tea at Yehyeh’s, I want to follow Adoulla through the city as his conflicted feelings force his actions.
Beyond the exquisite characterization, Throne of the Crescent Moon is so deliciously atypical of so much of the fantasy that’s currently available. Yes, it’s a fantasy adventure in a secondary world, and yes there is some magic. But show me another recently written fantasy novel where the hero is a middle aged fat man whose magic stems from phrases and quotations out of a religious prayerbook. Show me a recently written fantasy adventure where the endgame is all about ending up with the person you love, the person who waited for you.
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