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A review by heroineinabook
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
4.0
At first glance, it's easy to dismiss THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON as a typical sword and sorcery novel with not one, but many reluctant heroes in the guise of being presented by multiple points of view. But from the very first chapter, you realise you're in the presence of something much larger, grander, and more indepth than previous versions of this motif. You could read the story for what it is, a tale of an old man and his young charges righting the wrongs of the world, but you'd be missing out on much of what Saladin has to say.
And boy does he have a lot say - THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON is an allegorical tale using Saladin's world as the mirror to our own and through his work, he is critiquing the problems that exist in our world. He underscores some of the larger and complex concepts with a very subtle humour that at first read through you miss until you realise what he's getting at -- very Dickensian. His voice is very passionate, very authentic, and very real.
And there was something else in this tale that I couldn't put my finger on until I read it on another review: Saladin's work has soul and a heart. A lot of fantasy I've read, and in the larger scope of my canon is actually much less than most, tends to have a hollowness to the world and characters - they seem to be missing their "humaness" about them we often need to make that connection within ourselves. There is certainly nothing wrong with that, not every novel needs to be a treatise on the human condition. But you don't realise how much you miss having a full bodied story until you get your hands on one again.
And boy does he have a lot say - THRONE OF THE CRESCENT MOON is an allegorical tale using Saladin's world as the mirror to our own and through his work, he is critiquing the problems that exist in our world. He underscores some of the larger and complex concepts with a very subtle humour that at first read through you miss until you realise what he's getting at -- very Dickensian. His voice is very passionate, very authentic, and very real.
And there was something else in this tale that I couldn't put my finger on until I read it on another review: Saladin's work has soul and a heart. A lot of fantasy I've read, and in the larger scope of my canon is actually much less than most, tends to have a hollowness to the world and characters - they seem to be missing their "humaness" about them we often need to make that connection within ourselves. There is certainly nothing wrong with that, not every novel needs to be a treatise on the human condition. But you don't realise how much you miss having a full bodied story until you get your hands on one again.