A review by summerthelibrarian
Mirage by Somaiya Daud

3.0

Audiobook is great and overall this was GOOD but it had the potential to be great. A lot of missed opportunity for cool world building. The setting is Moroccan expired, but it takes place on a planet, and there is mention of space. However, the setting doesn't really make sense. We have mentioned of drinking out of sheepskins, characters, ride horses and milk goats, but we also have Androids and spaceships. It's quite jarring even if the reason for this is poor moon = rural setting, poor peasants, low tech + conquered by high tech Vathik empire but wouldn't that end up looking like Tattooine where there is still some parts of new technology integrated with the more provincial culture? Idk I feel like this could have been explained better. I'm halfway through the second book and this still hasn't been resolved imho.

I did really enjoy the characters, they are all built fairly well and this is more of a character driven novel than a fantasy one.