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eafiu's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
jonknightknighthunterbooks's review
4.0
Really very good and a pleasantly different perspective on fantasy and SF. One aspect that struck me particularly was the preponderance of faith, which in SF is rather rare.
The stories range from full on fantasy (complete with homicidal rabbit-women) to SF with a number of the stories set in the author's Arabian-nights flavoured fantasy novel setting.
You can read the afore-mentioned fantasy story on the author's blog and probably the genesis of the short story collection at http://www.saladinahmed.com/wordpress/pulp-pastiche-and-a-plea-for-patrons/ though note while the quality is indicative the style is a little different to the rest of the collection.
The stories range from full on fantasy (complete with homicidal rabbit-women) to SF with a number of the stories set in the author's Arabian-nights flavoured fantasy novel setting.
You can read the afore-mentioned fantasy story on the author's blog and probably the genesis of the short story collection at http://www.saladinahmed.com/wordpress/pulp-pastiche-and-a-plea-for-patrons/ though note while the quality is indicative the style is a little different to the rest of the collection.
daveversace's review
4.0
Excellent if short collection of mostly fantasy fiction from Detroit writer Saladin Ahmed. I'd read most of these before in other collections and online, but they're all worth a look. Mostly Arabian-themed (or Arab-American in the case of a contemporary story). The best is "Mister Hadj's Last Ride", a weird West yarn featuring an Arabic bounty hunter, though my favourite was probably "Doctor Diablo Goes Through the Motions", a super-villain story featuring the eponymous Doctor Diablo and an ally with the delightful name of Planhatcher.
They're all good stories. Check 'em.
They're all good stories. Check 'em.
brillig's review
5.0
Really excellent collection of Arabian Nights style fantasy (mostly). Looking forward to reading The Throne of the Crescent Moon once it's in softcover, since demons dervishes and filthy-minded wizards are awesome, and now I know the setting and the characters a little.
yasser's review
3.0
Not a bad collection, none blew me away but I enjoyed the vast majority of the stories. Considering it's free to download and is only ~100 pages, this is a more than fair trade off.
Good for those (myself included) who, interested in Throne of the Crescent Moon, are wanting a taster of Saladin Ahmed's writing. The varied stories are a good showing of prose and imagination so I will be looking forward to reading Ahmed's novel.
Good for those (myself included) who, interested in Throne of the Crescent Moon, are wanting a taster of Saladin Ahmed's writing. The varied stories are a good showing of prose and imagination so I will be looking forward to reading Ahmed's novel.
hammard's review
4.0
An interesting collection of Ahmed's early fiction which shows more confidence as it goes along.
I hope we eventually get a second collection as he has done more excellent work later on.
I hope we eventually get a second collection as he has done more excellent work later on.
kjcharles's review
Cracking collection of shorts, some fantasy, some SF, some both, mostly with a strong Middle Eastern element. I particularly loved the one about an immigrant actor playing the Evil Arab in yet another racist US movie: the ending is spectacular. Vivid imagination, well written, with a lovely sort of storyteller's lilt to the writing. The highly engaging intro story is linked to the author's full length fantasy [b:Throne of the Crescent Moon|11487807|Throne of the Crescent Moon (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, #1)|Saladin Ahmed|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344256189s/11487807.jpg|14520797] so I'm off to that.
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