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scifimagpie's review against another edition
4.0
This was an interesting one - I think it would have blown my mind when I was a bit younger, but now, I was a bit too conscious of some of its tricks. The prose is gorgeous, and the characters are well-realised, with an effortless mastery of language.
Lots of sensory details crop up, and the omniscient narration has a distinct voice, while still allowing for peeks into the minds of individual characters.
The ending wraps up the mystery in kind of a post-scripty way, though, and it felt a bit abrupt somehow? There is also something kind of languid and oddly fluffy about the tone of the whole book. The namedropped classical heroes are worked in well, and they're fair, not overly idealised portrayals, but the female characters just felt like queens on a chessboard somehow--powerful and interesting, yet somehow two-dimensional. Even Jodha, the imaginary queen, just doesn't get as much realisation and time as she could.
Over all, it was a wonderful book, but it was missing something I can't put my finger on.
Lots of sensory details crop up, and the omniscient narration has a distinct voice, while still allowing for peeks into the minds of individual characters.
The ending wraps up the mystery in kind of a post-scripty way, though, and it felt a bit abrupt somehow? There is also something kind of languid and oddly fluffy about the tone of the whole book. The namedropped classical heroes are worked in well, and they're fair, not overly idealised portrayals, but the female characters just felt like queens on a chessboard somehow--powerful and interesting, yet somehow two-dimensional. Even Jodha, the imaginary queen, just doesn't get as much realisation and time as she could.
Over all, it was a wonderful book, but it was missing something I can't put my finger on.
silverthistle's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Rushdie's writing is beautiful and poetic, but the story itself fell flat and felt wooden, especially in regards to female character development and representation. I read another review that describes this book as "lush emptiness," and I have to agree. This one wasn't for me.
smartcassart's review against another edition
2.0
I don't know...
This book should have been a treasure for me. I'm a sucker for lush settings, political intrigue and historical fiction weaved with fantasy so - Mughal India? Renaissance Italy? An epic saga spanning generations and a myriad of colourful characters and cultures as they embark on adventures across the world, among them a powerful enchantress who is also a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan? Sign me up!
In terms of writing Rushie does not disappoint. It is lyrical, seamless, deliciously excessive in the right places and therefore reflective of the decadent environments he describes, really pushing the boundaries of the English language (though there are many languages spoken in here). I have no complaints about the book's vivid imagery, boundless creativity and whimsy, which is everything I look for in magical realism or fantasy in general, after all.
HOWEVER, it takes more than pretty writing and cool mysterious shit happening (let's be honest - that's what many of the plot devices boil down to) to convince me to rate a book 4 or 5 stars. If a friend of mine wants a fun interpretation of 16th (?) century cross-cultural history and adventure vicariously, or to read for the pleasure of language or flowery, playful writing, I will recommend this without hesitation. But if the friend is looking for a story strong in plot and characters, I'll say move on. Because oh my god... where do I start?
So the plot is clear enough, at least to me - a blonde foreigner and avid adventurer travels to a Mughal capital to seek the audience of the illustrious emperor, Akbar the Great, to tell him his mother's story and convince him of their shared connection. As he regales him with this story, they form a deep bond and we, the readers, are take further back in time to follow the titular enchantress Qara Koz. I wouldn't say the structure is poor, but it is very meandering due to the blonde stranger beating around the bush. Ok, that's fine. However, it is clear the main focus is the story of Qara Koz, which doesn't even really start until more than halfway through the book and even though that is to be expected I still find myself annoyed at this, thinking of it as an interruption, because by then I am quite invested in Akbar's and the blonde stranger's storyline. The emperor's intellectual, spiritual and practical struggles, and the landscape of his city is much more interesting to me, as is his deepening relationship with the stranger who starts this story by sneaking into a ship and poisoning the captain to steal a letter from Queen Elizabeth I (you can't make this shit up) so he's quite exciting too! Rushdie spends so much time painting Sikri in the beginning, explaining the court drama, the emperor's talented peers, the people's dreams, philosophies, struggles and motivations, the diverse inhabitants of this kingdom, that Qara Koz's tale pales in comparison. Because I'm sorry, as much as I want to enjoy the journey of a strong, sassy, willful woman who does what she wants and gets what she wants... I can't enjoy this one. I find her motivations weak, her actions confusing, and most of all, her character lacking. She is not someone anyone can relate to because we are ordinary plebs with no magical powers or superlative beauty.
But can we all agree that being super hot is not a personality? I've read so many books where the heroine is very beautiful and attractive to most men they meet, but usually they have other qualities that give them more depth and even gain the reader's sympathy. I did not feel anything for QK or her lover Argalia or anyone else in their storyline EXCEPT Niccolo Machiavelli, a childhood friend of Argalia. As a loyal civil servant who dedicated his life to serving his nation only to be betrayed by it due to human cruelty and greed, Niccolo's story is criminally glossed over but at no more than a slim 4-5 pages a thousand times more profound than the infatuations of Qara and Argalia. Don't forget this is all happening against the tumultuous background of social and political turmoil, meaning conflicts, betrayal, nationalism and war. War is brutal, and to Rushdie's credit he does acknowledge that, I mean Argalia spends most of the book killing people and leaving a bloodbath in his wake everywhere he goes, but if you write about something like that don't expect me to give as much of a shit about Qara batting her eyelashes and making whole towns fall in love with her. That's just it - apart from one or two instances, she faces next to no conflict, neither do her loved ones, or when they do you just don't really care.
As you can guess, every other women in this story are oversexualized and Just Not As Special As The Heroine. As intelligent and talented as Rushdie is, this work still reeks of a straight (as far as I'm aware) male author writing a fantasy with a lot of sexy women in it who inevitably are objectified. In this regard, this book is not special or surprising at all, but damn it is tiring. Fantasy and magic is NOT an excuse to have female characters who are barely people, OK?
Anyway, 2/5. What a shame.
This book should have been a treasure for me. I'm a sucker for lush settings, political intrigue and historical fiction weaved with fantasy so - Mughal India? Renaissance Italy? An epic saga spanning generations and a myriad of colourful characters and cultures as they embark on adventures across the world, among them a powerful enchantress who is also a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan? Sign me up!
In terms of writing Rushie does not disappoint. It is lyrical, seamless, deliciously excessive in the right places and therefore reflective of the decadent environments he describes, really pushing the boundaries of the English language (though there are many languages spoken in here). I have no complaints about the book's vivid imagery, boundless creativity and whimsy, which is everything I look for in magical realism or fantasy in general, after all.
HOWEVER, it takes more than pretty writing and cool mysterious shit happening (let's be honest - that's what many of the plot devices boil down to) to convince me to rate a book 4 or 5 stars. If a friend of mine wants a fun interpretation of 16th (?) century cross-cultural history and adventure vicariously, or to read for the pleasure of language or flowery, playful writing, I will recommend this without hesitation. But if the friend is looking for a story strong in plot and characters, I'll say move on. Because oh my god... where do I start?
So the plot is clear enough, at least to me - a blonde foreigner and avid adventurer travels to a Mughal capital to seek the audience of the illustrious emperor, Akbar the Great, to tell him his mother's story and convince him of their shared connection. As he regales him with this story, they form a deep bond and we, the readers, are take further back in time to follow the titular enchantress Qara Koz. I wouldn't say the structure is poor, but it is very meandering due to the blonde stranger beating around the bush. Ok, that's fine. However, it is clear the main focus is the story of Qara Koz, which doesn't even really start until more than halfway through the book and even though that is to be expected I still find myself annoyed at this, thinking of it as an interruption, because by then I am quite invested in Akbar's and the blonde stranger's storyline. The emperor's intellectual, spiritual and practical struggles, and the landscape of his city is much more interesting to me, as is his deepening relationship with the stranger who starts this story by sneaking into a ship and poisoning the captain to steal a letter from Queen Elizabeth I (you can't make this shit up) so he's quite exciting too! Rushdie spends so much time painting Sikri in the beginning, explaining the court drama, the emperor's talented peers, the people's dreams, philosophies, struggles and motivations, the diverse inhabitants of this kingdom, that Qara Koz's tale pales in comparison. Because I'm sorry, as much as I want to enjoy the journey of a strong, sassy, willful woman who does what she wants and gets what she wants... I can't enjoy this one. I find her motivations weak, her actions confusing, and most of all, her character lacking. She is not someone anyone can relate to because we are ordinary plebs with no magical powers or superlative beauty.
But can we all agree that being super hot is not a personality? I've read so many books where the heroine is very beautiful and attractive to most men they meet, but usually they have other qualities that give them more depth and even gain the reader's sympathy. I did not feel anything for QK or her lover Argalia or anyone else in their storyline EXCEPT Niccolo Machiavelli, a childhood friend of Argalia. As a loyal civil servant who dedicated his life to serving his nation only to be betrayed by it due to human cruelty and greed, Niccolo's story is criminally glossed over but at no more than a slim 4-5 pages a thousand times more profound than the infatuations of Qara and Argalia. Don't forget this is all happening against the tumultuous background of social and political turmoil, meaning conflicts, betrayal, nationalism and war. War is brutal, and to Rushdie's credit he does acknowledge that, I mean Argalia spends most of the book killing people and leaving a bloodbath in his wake everywhere he goes, but if you write about something like that don't expect me to give as much of a shit about Qara batting her eyelashes and making whole towns fall in love with her. That's just it - apart from one or two instances, she faces next to no conflict, neither do her loved ones, or when they do you just don't really care.
As you can guess, every other women in this story are oversexualized and Just Not As Special As The Heroine. As intelligent and talented as Rushdie is, this work still reeks of a straight (as far as I'm aware) male author writing a fantasy with a lot of sexy women in it who inevitably are objectified. In this regard, this book is not special or surprising at all, but damn it is tiring. Fantasy and magic is NOT an excuse to have female characters who are barely people, OK?
Anyway, 2/5. What a shame.
sinelit's review against another edition
4.0
Neredeyse somutlaşıp cana gelmiş bir cinsiyetçilik var evet, yok demek imkansız. Ama hikayenin kendi çerçevesi içinde garip bir şekilde çok da rahatsız etmiyor. Çok uzun yıllar boyunca yapılan araştırmaların sonucu olduğu belli, 400 sayfadan bile az bir kitap yerine 400'er sayfalık üç ciltli bir seri bile olabilirmiş. Böyle bir "konsantre"lik hem güzel hem de yorucu, özellikle büyülü gerçekçi bir masal olduğunu düşünürsek.
Her şey bir yana, çeviri muazzam olmuş. O kadar güzel ki aslını okur gibiydim; tabi Orta Doğu kültürüne çok dayalı bir kitap olmasının da etkisi var.
Her şey bir yana, çeviri muazzam olmuş. O kadar güzel ki aslını okur gibiydim; tabi Orta Doğu kültürüne çok dayalı bir kitap olmasının da etkisi var.
superfamoustia's review against another edition
5.0
Salman Rushdie is a MASTER. wowie-wow. i've read him before, but i just plum forgot how gifted he is. this is a lyrical, magical, mythical adventure grounded in real history and historical figures. it weaves in and out of time and place, but everything feels like one story, one epic tale where the Imagined is just as important (and potent) as the Real, if not more-so....
jengiuffre's review against another edition
2.0
I started out liking this book, but am just not in the mood for it anymore. It has seemed like a chore trying to finish it. I wouldn't say it is bad, but I just can't focus on such ramblings and all the names with 2 toddlers at hand!
jessrock's review against another edition
5.0
I freely admit that I'm giving this book too many stars because the writing is just that beautiful. Parts of the book are slow going and the story is not always as compelling as it could be. But the writing!
The book flows back and forth between the early 1500s, when a mysterious Italian man appears in an Eastern city and enchants that city's king with his personality and his story-telling, and several generations before, when an ancestor of the king was abducted from the city and traveled to Persia and Italy with her servant, a mirror image of herself. The two stories begin to blend together as people in the king's court become obsessed with the Hidden Princess and as the Hidden Princess's consorts are revealed to have direct connections to the mysterious stranger. The king begins to question how much he can trust the stranger, and whether it's more important to seek truth or creativity. The whole thing feels like a waking dream. Did I mention it's absolutely gorgeous to read?
The book flows back and forth between the early 1500s, when a mysterious Italian man appears in an Eastern city and enchants that city's king with his personality and his story-telling, and several generations before, when an ancestor of the king was abducted from the city and traveled to Persia and Italy with her servant, a mirror image of herself. The two stories begin to blend together as people in the king's court become obsessed with the Hidden Princess and as the Hidden Princess's consorts are revealed to have direct connections to the mysterious stranger. The king begins to question how much he can trust the stranger, and whether it's more important to seek truth or creativity. The whole thing feels like a waking dream. Did I mention it's absolutely gorgeous to read?
bellatora's review against another edition
2.0
I'm surprised with the hatred I feel towards this book. I mean, it's Salman frickin' Rushdie, right? Isn't he some kind of literary god? I'm going to have to read his other books to see, because this one was trash.
I've read sexist books before. There are plenty of them out there, but usually I can glide over the sexist bits because overall the plot/characters/writing are good enough that I choose to ignore the fact that the women are horribly written (looking at you, Robert Jordan). But in this book I cared not a whit about any character, the plot was leaden and the writing was so stilted and musty I thought for a bit it had to be a translated book, despite the fact that I know Rushdie writes in English. Basically, every woman in this is either an insecure shrew (Machiavelli's wife, Akbar's wives) or an empty vessel that men project their sexual fantasies on to. The Enchantress herself is basically powered by hotness. Her magic is her beauty. The female servants in the book are literally their mistress' echo (Gulbadan's servant) or mirror (the enchantress' servant) thus devoiding them of the little personality that the other women get. The enchantress (whose second husband names her Angelique, a name she decides to share with her mirror/servant) decides to fulfill the fantasy that Budweiser ads promise in commercials, namely a threesome with hot, willing twins. Of course, there's never any jealousy between the enchantress and the mirror over the second husband, nor is the mirror ever shown to care that her mistress basically whores her out to the second husband. That would require them to be presented as human, when really the women in this book are ciphers for male fantasies. I mean, for goodness sake, the Mughal's favorite wife (who was an actual historical person) is a figment of her husband's imagination (who, despite this, is able to give him great sex). And don't even get me started on the part of the book when all the women in the Mughal's city became petty and quarrelsome with each other, but were cured when they were ordered to walk around naked all day and realized they were all flawed and human (uh...yeah...). The worst part of it all was that I got the feeling that Rushdie considered this book romantic. No wonder this guy has been married and divorced four times (that is probably a low blow, but the fact that he obviously does not understand women as human beings comes across in this book incredibly strongly).
Also, why the heck did he include a bibliography? This book is completely a book of magical realism and so much of it is detached from reality and obviously NOT historical, you can't really trust any of it to be historically accurate unless you're familiar with the period and can judge for yourself what is real and what is false. Is the bibliography just there to show off that he did in fact do research?
I've read sexist books before. There are plenty of them out there, but usually I can glide over the sexist bits because overall the plot/characters/writing are good enough that I choose to ignore the fact that the women are horribly written (looking at you, Robert Jordan). But in this book I cared not a whit about any character, the plot was leaden and the writing was so stilted and musty I thought for a bit it had to be a translated book, despite the fact that I know Rushdie writes in English. Basically, every woman in this is either an insecure shrew (Machiavelli's wife, Akbar's wives) or an empty vessel that men project their sexual fantasies on to. The Enchantress herself is basically powered by hotness. Her magic is her beauty. The female servants in the book are literally their mistress' echo (Gulbadan's servant) or mirror (the enchantress' servant) thus devoiding them of the little personality that the other women get. The enchantress (whose second husband names her Angelique, a name she decides to share with her mirror/servant) decides to fulfill the fantasy that Budweiser ads promise in commercials, namely a threesome with hot, willing twins. Of course, there's never any jealousy between the enchantress and the mirror over the second husband, nor is the mirror ever shown to care that her mistress basically whores her out to the second husband. That would require them to be presented as human, when really the women in this book are ciphers for male fantasies. I mean, for goodness sake, the Mughal's favorite wife (who was an actual historical person) is a figment of her husband's imagination (who, despite this, is able to give him great sex). And don't even get me started on the part of the book when all the women in the Mughal's city became petty and quarrelsome with each other, but were cured when they were ordered to walk around naked all day and realized they were all flawed and human (uh...yeah...). The worst part of it all was that I got the feeling that Rushdie considered this book romantic. No wonder this guy has been married and divorced four times (that is probably a low blow, but the fact that he obviously does not understand women as human beings comes across in this book incredibly strongly).
Also, why the heck did he include a bibliography? This book is completely a book of magical realism and so much of it is detached from reality and obviously NOT historical, you can't really trust any of it to be historically accurate unless you're familiar with the period and can judge for yourself what is real and what is false. Is the bibliography just there to show off that he did in fact do research?
smoocheee's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
book_lvr's review against another edition
5.0
This is the second Rushide book I've read and he's slowly becoming a favorite. In the beginning, I had the same trouble I had with Midnight's Children: although the writing was beautiful, it was all over the place and I had a hard time picking it up. However, once I was past the first few chapters, I was completely enthralled. Rushdie is a master of mesmerizing his readers with his words. My advice, let him take you wherever the story leads. In the end, it is not "what happened" that matters, but "where have I been" and "what have I felt". It's just that magical.