Friday, September 29, 2017

Short review of "The Throne of the Crescent Moon"

Throne of the Crescent Moon (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, #1)Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Saladin Ahmed has created a fantasy world where Middle Eastern themes and culture are neither disrespected with broad caricatures and offensive tropes nor idealized with the breathless admiration of the wannabe, which is a danger for this sub-genre and others like it. Because he follows this middle road between extremes, the author is able to tell an engaging story that draws on traditional literature like The Arabian Nights but can still comment credibly on humanity and society, especially the evils of the class system. The story is peopled with round main characters who drive the action, but even the imperfectly drawn characters have an arc and both good and bad qualities, enough to give the appearance of realism for fantasy purposes. I enjoyed reading it, and intend to find the sequels.

I have genuine criticisms of the novel, but since it has so much more that I like about it than otherwise I will just leave it at that. A very human author created art that I appreciate, and I look forward to seeing more.

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