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A review by mwplante
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
3.0
ALMOST a 4 for me, but it drags too much in the middle. The characters point this out frequently (complaining about dawdling) and I cannot help but agree... There was simply too much dawdling in what should have been a swashbuckler. Also the main villain wasn't terribly interesting.
On the other hand, all that downtime allowed the author to flesh out some wonderfully realized characters. Saladin Ahmed is clearly an author who pays close attention to making sure none of his characters are cliches. All have flaws and relatable problems, from aging to paying the rent. Even their body-types/physical descriptions consciously defy genre stereotypes, which I appreciated as a breath of fresh air. Favorite characters include Mouw Awa, (deliciously cheesy!) Raseed (this basically good man's struggle with his own inner dogmas was a highlight of the book for me), and the Falcon Prince (in the real world and the best art, being a hero can get a bit messy).
And may I just say how wonderful it is to have a fantasy novel that places the Middle-East & Africa analogues front and center rather than relegating them to some peripheral window-dressing. Here's hoping the "Warlands" to the West get the always-alluded-to-never-visited treatment in this series that the "Crescent Moon Kingdoms" get in most of the other fantasy series.
I look forward to the next book. I read somewhere that now that he's got a trilogy deal the author will be taking the series in a more "epic" direction, and I think his style and commitment to creating heaps of strong, interesting characters will be more suited to this format.
On the other hand, all that downtime allowed the author to flesh out some wonderfully realized characters. Saladin Ahmed is clearly an author who pays close attention to making sure none of his characters are cliches. All have flaws and relatable problems, from aging to paying the rent. Even their body-types/physical descriptions consciously defy genre stereotypes, which I appreciated as a breath of fresh air. Favorite characters include Mouw Awa, (deliciously cheesy!) Raseed (this basically good man's struggle with his own inner dogmas was a highlight of the book for me), and the Falcon Prince (in the real world and the best art, being a hero can get a bit messy).
And may I just say how wonderful it is to have a fantasy novel that places the Middle-East & Africa analogues front and center rather than relegating them to some peripheral window-dressing. Here's hoping the "Warlands" to the West get the always-alluded-to-never-visited treatment in this series that the "Crescent Moon Kingdoms" get in most of the other fantasy series.
I look forward to the next book. I read somewhere that now that he's got a trilogy deal the author will be taking the series in a more "epic" direction, and I think his style and commitment to creating heaps of strong, interesting characters will be more suited to this format.