Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Every year it seems that there’s a huge buzz around one debut novelist and their work. In 2012 the novelist is Saladin Ahmed and the book is Throne of the Crescent Moon. Although Throne of the Crescent Moon is his first novel, Saladin Ahmed isn’t an entirely new name in the SFF field, his short work garnered him a nomination for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2010 and 2011.

To be totally honest I was probably always a lock for Throne of the Crescent Moon from the first time I heard about it and saw Jason Chan’s awesome cover (it displays the three main protagonists; Adoulla, Raseed and Zamia, and does so faithfully, right down to Raseed’s two pronged sword, although I never really saw Adoulla as an overweight balding Moses, which is what he looks like here), and then found out it was Arabian Nights in tone and theme. I love Arabian Nights flavoured stuff. I think it’s a tragically under utilised setting and mythology in SFF. I was also interested and pleased to see Saladin Ahmed list Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman amongst his influences in a recent exchange on i09. Weis and Hickman are best known for their Dragonlance work, but my favourite, and in my opinion, best work was their Rose of the Prophet trilogy which was also very Arabian Nights in tone and setting. So Saladin was always on a winner with me for Throne of the Crescent Moon.

Adoulla is an aging ghul hunter based in his beloved city of Dhamsawaat, Adoulla believes he’s the only genuine ghul hunter in the city, it’s possible he’s the only real one in all the Kingdoms of the Crescent Moon. Life isn’t getting any easier for the scholar and he’s starting to consider retirement. Maybe hand the business over to his deeply religious ‘apprentice’ Dervish Raseed. Then Adoulla can spend his days drinking cardamom tea in his friend Yehyeh’s tea shop and woo Miri, the ‘one that got away’.

However things rarely go as planned in Adoulla’s long and eventful life, and before too many pages have passed Raseed has uncovered a new and particularly vicious threat, that will not only cause problems for Adoulla and his friends and neighbours, but the entire city of Dhamsawaat unless it is tracked down and defeated.

Doing this will bring Adoulla and Raseed in contact with the fierce young tribeswoman Zamia, who has lost her clan to the threat, it will destroy Adoulla’s home, put his friends and neighbours, the Soo couple; Dawoud and Lizat in danger and introduce them all to the annoyingly charismatic and competent thief lord; the Falcon Prince.

This is a real swashbuckler and an absolute joy to read. Saladin Ahmed does not miss a beat with his characterisation or his setting. Adoulla initially put me in mind of Barry Hughart’s flawed Asian scholar and detective Master Li, but as I read on I started thinking he was more like Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden, he has that same world weariness and complete and total lack of respect for authority, like Butcher’s Wizard for Hire he does a nice line in snark, too, although delivered in the very lyrical style that the book is written in. Adoulla’s is also middle-aged, which is a refreshing change of pace from the oh so young heroes that generally people the pages of SFF novels. He has Raseed and Zamia to do that for him. Like Scott Lynch in his debut The Lies of Locke Lamora, Saladin Ahmed builds up his setting of Dhamsawaat lovingly and it comes to life through the pages, you can feel the midday heat and the evening cool, smell the spices and the stench from the tannery that wafts through the down at heel Scholar’s Quarter on a daily basis. Like Lynch’s Camorr, Ahmed’s Dhamsawaat is an extra bonus character for readers.

I thoroughly enjoyed Throne of the Crescent Moon and look forward to seeing more tales of this middle eastern world. My only complaint is that the book was too short and I’ll have to wait a while before I can visit Dhamsawaat again.

Flashman at the Charge - Chapter 11

George MacDonald Fraser never gave the chapters in his Flashman books titles, but if he had then chapter 11 of Flashman at the Charge could very well be titled: Harry the Brave.

Our anti-hero is leaving the Silk One’s chambers when he runs into Yakub Beg and Izzat Kutebar, the warlord and the bandit leader are both fuming because Beg’s overlord has refused to give them any military support for their plan to torpedo the Russian powder boats from with the enemy using the Russian’s own ammunition, and this is where readers first notice some very unFlashmanlike behaviour from Great Britain’s most cowardly soldier. Instead of heaving a sigh of relief, trying to dissuade his allies from taking any unsupported action and seeing if they’ll get him an escort back to British held territory, he actively assists them in trying to whip up support for the action. Admittedly his stirring speech, which may have actually been given in English, sounds more like something aimed at Rugby’s First XI when they’re trailling badly at half time than what you’d say to a desperate band of tribesman battling for their way of life, but Flashy’s heart, which seems to have grown a size or two, is in the right place.

He backs the words with actions. When Yakub Beg, Izzat Kutebar and the Silk One lead their 5,000 strong force against the Russian camp Flashman is riding right alongside them shouting ‘Tally Ho!’. He’s actually rather put out when he realises that Yakub Beg will be having all the ‘fun’ fighting the Russians, while he, Kutebar and Ko Dali’s daughter will be liberating and aiming the rockets. Flashman does seem a little surprised to find out that the rockets are Congreves and remarks that someone in London has lined their pockets selling British arms to the Russians. At this stage readers are wondering if George MacDonald Fraser temporarily took leave of his senses and thought he was writing about a genuine hero, rather than a bounder and craven like Harry Flashman. Harry helps them fire off all the rockets, seemingly having a great time. In fact he likens the experience to an insane kind of Guy Fawkes night. They manage to set two of the powder boats on fire before the go down they’re in is hit by Russian fire and they have to run for it.

They all pile into a boat and make their way back. Yakub Beg is pleased that they took out two boats, but is arguing with Kutebar about how many men he lost for an inadequate return when the biggest of the boats seemed to escape the barrage, it’s about then it goes up in a huge explosion, which nearly upsets their boat and delights Izzat Kutebar. The only aspect of his character that Harry seemed to retain was a distinct randiness, he spent a lot of the chapter trying to come to grips with the Silk One, that’s when he wasn’t baying for Russian blood.

Very odd chapter, it was almost like one of Flashman’s fever dreams, and it still remains one of the funniest I’ve read just for Flashy’s sheer insane bravery and his whole gung ho attitude.

Replay by Ken Grimwood

The problem with the must read list is that it can sometimes be a bit of a lucky dip. I do get books I’ve already read and others by authors I’ve always wanted to read, but never had the opportunity until the name came up on the list, but I sometimes get others that I either don’t enjoy or wonder why they’re on the list in the first place. Ken Grimwood’s name and his book Replay set some of my alarm bells ringing. I’d never heard of the author or the work and that often makes me wonder why. Replay did win a World Fantasy Award in 1987 when it came out, and I believe it’s success allowed the author to concentrate on writing full time, but it certainly hadn’t ever appeared on my radar before even when it was originally published. From the little bio and précis in the book it didn’t really sound very fantastic.

I’m happy to report that my fears in this case were entirely unfounded. Replay is an awesome book. It is fantasy, but not in the way that many outside the genre define it, actually quite a few within it wouldn’t define it in this way. There is no magic, no swords, no fantastical otherworlds. Replay is the story of an ordinary man called Jeff Winston, living his day to day life in our world, or one very like it…over and over again.

Replay begins with it’s main character; Jeff Winston, a middle aged news executive at a local radio station at his desk, dying of a heart attack. When Jeff comes to it’s 1963, he’s 18 and in his first year of college. His entire life is ahead of him again. How many of us have ever looked back and wondered what if when it comes to the choices we’ve made in life? Jeff uses his knowledge of the future to amass a large fortune and fashion a better life than the one he left behind. Despite being wealthy, successful and powerful the only thing that brings him any real happiness is his daughter Gretchen (Jeff and his wife Linda were childless in his first life), and then just when he is happy with Gretchen he dies again. Same age, same day and in the same fashion and again he wakes up in 1963 at the age of 18.

He starts over again and this time he marries his college sweetheart; Judy, and they have a happy and fulfilling life together, they adopt two children, then despite taking all the right precautions Jeff dies of a heart attack at the age of 43, and once again is in 1963. Miserable and becoming frustrated by his inability to life his life to it’s logical conclusion he falls into a hedonistic life style of drugs, alcohol and casual sex, until a near miss in a plane crash drives him to a hermetic existence of solitude. One day while picking up supplies in the town nearest to his farm Jeff sees an advertisement for a film called Starsea, it is runaway success, the thing about it that interests Jeff is that it is out of time for him and it heralds the beginning of the careers of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas before either man was meant to experience the sort of success they later would achieve. This leads Jeff to the film’s creator Pamela Phillips, who is, like him, another ‘replayer’. This is where Replay turns into a love story.

Jeff and Pamela are soul mates, they live and die and always find each other somehow. They live many lives, but never stop loving each other even when they irrevocably alter the course of the past with their knowledge of the future, until they both die one final time.

Replay is a fantasy, a time travel adventure, it has elements of a thriller, an alternate SF novel and a romance. It’s got an unseen, extraordinary end and it has real human characters that the reader can identify with.

I was enthralled all the way through and was reading compulsively, how I never discovered this book before I do not know. The two concepts that most immediately spring to mind are both from screen, TV and film. It at first reminded me in some ways of the 1980's and 90's TV show Quantum Leap, in which the central character Dr Samuel Beckett kept leaping from body to body within his own life span in an effort to finally get back home for good. The other one was Groundhog Day, Jeff's situation was similar in that he was forced to relive the final 25 years of his life over and over. In terms of books the closest thing I can think of is Connie Willis' Hugo award winning Blackout/All Clear, in which time travelling historians go back to wartime England and are at pains to try and not effect events whilst observing them.

Highly recommended. Replay is about the best book I've read off the list.

Flashman at the Charge - Chapter 10

As a guest and soon blood brother of Yakub Beg, Flashman is treated considerably better by his Tajik ally than he ever was by Ignatieff. Beg’s stronghold of Kokhand is actually quite nice as described by Flashman, and he feels rather at home there. Beg becomes his blood brother, a ritual he was already familiar with having experienced it once before with Ilderim Khan in Flashman. He is free to pass his time with Izzat Kutebar, another scoundrel Flashman enjoys the company of. He actually muses that if things had been different Kutebar and Pencherjevsky would have been great friends. I liked Kutebar as a character, at one point he speaks about the desirability of a Tashkent melon, a delicacy about which it is said the Caliph would give his entire harem for. Kutebar is less extravagant, he would offer 5 or 6 of his best slave girls, but only if it were a very good melon.

What Flashman really wants is to be allowed to get into Afghanistan and then find his way to a British command post either in Afghanistan or Northern India. He even has an amusing little fantasy about delivering the much needed news to high command, it proving to be the saviour of the empire and he winds up with a knighthood out of it, and manages to put more than a little mud on East’s reputation for leaving him behind as well. Harry really wants a knighthood, the Who’s Who at the start of the books shows that he eventually gets one, but this is when he starts to want one. I don’t know if this was because his wife had a baronetcy that her miserly father bought for her and he wanted to equal it, or whether he just desires glory and as much of it as he can get.

He winds up sitting in Yakub Beg’s war councils and this is where the Silk One becomes important. She’s a great character. It’s debatable as to whether she was real or not. It’s highly likely that she was, but she’s also greatly fictionalised. She’s the daughter of a Chinese warlord called Ko Dali, so she is also often referred to as Ko Dali’s daughter. Her features betray her Mongol heritage, although many of the people in that part of Central Asia (modern day Uzbekistan) have some sort of Mongol blood as the entire area was once part of Genghis Khan’s empire. She spends her time in the councils playing with a Persian kitten, and offering unasked for advice as she carries on a conversation with the kitten. She’s the one who comes up with the plan to invade the Russian camp and use some of their Congreve rockets to blow up the arriving powder boats, thus delaying the Russian invasion. The Congreves are where Flashman comes in. He knows about them, he spent time in ordnance before being sent to the Crimea and knows how to use them, anyone can do it, but Flashman has acquired expertise and the whole venture will be more successful with that. Harry being Harry tries his best to weasel out of it and because of the debt Beg and Kutebar owe him they’ll let him out of it, not so the Silk One.

She invites Harry to tea with her and seduces him. The thing with the kitten is priceless, she talks to the animal all the time, never calls it the same thing twice: it is ‘little cruelty’, ‘butcher of tiny mice’, ‘wanton of the walls’ and so on. It’s actually rather reminiscent of Gail Carriger’s urbane Victorian vampire Lord Akeldama in her Parasol Protectorate and the various appellations he has for that series’ heroine Alexia Tarabotti/Maccon. After the love making the Silk One offers Flashman kefir (a fermented milk drink) and he rather enjoys it, including the unusual musky taste. He leaves the room feeling a new man, somehow braver, more reckless.

Harry says that the Silk One intimidates him, he claims that strong women do that. I found this a little at odds with what readers know of him in the 3 books so far. Lola Montez; one of the loves of his life, is a strong woman, Cassie; the escaped slave in Flash for Freedom, had no problems cutting a man’s throat to get free, even Elspeth is in her own way a very strong lady, not that Harry ever recognises or acknowledges it. I guess they’re a little different to Ko Dali’s daughter in that they won’t be wielding a sword or horseback or leading a death or glory rescue attempt, but they are strong ladies in that mould. I could have read an entire book about the Silk One, hopefully someone will write one about a similar character, she shares a lot in common with George R.R Martin’s heroine Daenaerys Stormborn Targaryen (Martin is a Flashman fan, so it’s possible she the Silk One helped him form the character of Dany). Fraser has a great deal of affection for these little known footnote characters in history and it would have been wonderful to see him do more on Yakub Beg, Izzat Kutebar and the mysterious Silk One, we do have to feel privileged for what we get in Flashman at the Charge, though.

Home Improvement - Undead Edition edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner

Home Improvement - Undead Edition, was one of those anthologies I mentioned in the review of Westward Weird.

Like all anthologies Home Improvement - Undead Edition has the usual collection of stories that sometimes hit the mark and other times fall well wide of it, depending on personal taste. Charlaine Harris has leant her name to a number of these recently, trading on the success of her Sookie Stackhouse series (filmed by HBO as True Blood), and the theme this time is home renovation. Although it sounds like it may be hard to get a good collection out of that premise they succeed by and large and seem to find it easier than some of the other premises that may initially sound to have more scope to work with. I'll cover the contents story by story.

The opener: If I Had a Hammer by Charlaine Harris, is centred around her Sookie Stackhouse character. I haven't read the books, but I have seen the show, so I'm familiar enough with the characters. I found the story about a possessed house a little disappointing and very run of the mill. I may have reacted better to it if I were a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse stories.

Victor Gischler, who wrote Wizard Home Security, was not an author I know, but I believe he's done some work on the X-Men comics. The story set in a fantasy world where even wizards need magical type security on their dwellings was different for this sort of collection, it had a couple of appealing characters and a nice twist at the end. He has plans to develop the concept into a book and I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

Patricia Briggs is one of the more successful urban fantasy authors in the field today. Gray was my first encounter with her work, it read rather like Cherie Priest's recent Cheshire Red duology, although I thought Priest did a better job. Not something that would encourage me to read more Patricia Briggs.

I've seen a few less than enthusiastic responses to Rochelle Krich's Squatters Rights, I won't be one of them. I loved this. For mine it was the best story in the book. A standalone fable about a possessed house that turns the occupants on each other, encouraging one to kill the other. It had echoes of American Horror Story, and it was very well done. A suitably chilling end was very clever.

Having written over 150 books it's hard not to have heard of Heather Graham (it's not the same person as the actress), and while I'd heard the name I hadn't ever read her before. I really didn't like Blood on the Wall, it was fine when it was about a nerdy kid who discovered that claiming he could summon demons and gain a cult following was good for turning the tables on the bullies and getting girls to sleep with him, but once they introduced the alpha male vampire detective character the whole thing turned into a pretty predictable paranormal romance. I was barracking for the bad guys in this one.

The Mansion of Imperatives by James Grady was also fairly predictable. There's only so many evil houses one can buy.

Melissa Marr used a little heard of branch of the fae for The Strength Inside and I have to say I liked it and it's tale of dealing with councils and militant home owners organisations. Nicely twisted ending, too.

Woolsley's Kitchen Nightmare by E.E Knight seemed set within the author's Vampire Earth concept. It was a fast moving tale that seamlessly inserted the reader into the concept and was very tongue in cheek for most of it. I'd love to meet one of the six armed bartenders.

For me of course the highlight was Through This House by you guessed it: Seanan McGuire. This was set in Seanan's Toby Daye series. It featured 3 of my favourites from the series; Toby's Fetch May, bridge troll and cab driver Danny and young Tuatha de Danaan noble Quentin. It also filled in a small blank between books. It was fun without being special. It's always nice to visit with Toby and friends.

The Path by S.J Rozan moved a little slow for mine, it was different in that it examined an Asian setting, but other than that struggled to hold my attention.

Stacia Kane's Rick the Brave seemed to set within one of her series concepts and did not grab me at all. There's a depressing sameness about many urban fantasy and paranormal romance concepts and this one fell into that.

I've been meaning to look at Suzanne McLeod's Spellcrackers.com series and Full-Scale Demolition was set in that world, and is set before the series opener had enough to do in it to keep me entertained and has prompted me to give Spellcrackers.com a try.

I've read a bit of Simon R. Green before and It's All in the Rendering which was a standalone was delightful. In some ways it was a little like John De Chancie's Castle series. I don't think he's adapted it into a series, which is a shame, because I'd definitely read more about these characters and setting. You have to love a house set in two worlds, where Grendel and the Leanan Sidhe are house guests.

The other editor Toni L.P Kelner finished the collection off with In Brightest Day. It was a voodoo based tale, I don't know what it is about voodoo, but it just doesn't excite me. I had the same problem with Laura Resnick's Unsympathetic Magic.

Flashman at the Charge - Chapter 9

The occupants of the cell Flashman was thrown into at the end of chapter 8 of Flashman at the Charge, play a much larger role in chapter 9.

Central asia, and the area Flashman is in seems to be either Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, in the middle part of the 19th century was still a wild place and the two men in Flashman's cell were important figures in that wild region. The one chained to the ceiling was Yakub Beg, is a highly born, well regarded military commander in the Syr Daria area, he and the other cell mate get an appendix at the end of Flashman at the Charge all to themselves. The other man is Izzar Kutebar; a bandit leader and guerilla fighter, and although the two men have their differences, they are allies at present and close friends, as evidenced by their banter, which Flashman knows is a sign of respect and friendship amongst the Ghazis.

Once they know Flashman isn't a Russki as they call the Russians, they welcome him as an ally. Beg keeps talking about a rescue and someone he refers to as the Silk One, Flashman thinks he's raving, but surely enough when night falls the camp is attacked and Flashman and Kutebar are forced to fight for their lives in the dungeon. Flashman remarks that he's a veteran of dungeon fights, referencing things that take place in Flashman and Royal Flash.

The three men are ultimately liberated by forces led by someone who appears to Flashman to be a slightly built turbaned boy. The boy is called the Silk One and appears to be some sort of lover to Beg. Flashman knows that same sex relationships are no uncommon amongst men in the area and while he personally doesn't go in for that sort of thing he allows each to their own. The shock comes when the Silk One tries to thank Harry for his part in keeping Beg safe and he attempts to reject the advances thinking it is a boy, then realises once the body is pressed against him that this is very much a woman!

The Lies of Locke Lamora - read along Part 3

We're into week 3 of the read along. This week the questions come courtesy of Bryce at My Awful Reviews. I may be a little early with this, you know Australia being in Saturday while everyone else is still having Friday, but here goes:


1. This section is where we finally get to sneak a peek at the magic in The Gentleman Bastards books. From what we read, what are your initial impressions of the magic Lynch is using? Is there any way that Locke and Company would be able to get around the Bondsmage's powers?

Lynch doesn't really use a lot of magic, which is cool, neither does George RR Martin, and prior to reading Lies Martin's ASoIaF was one of the best fantasies I'd ever read, but the Bondsmages are a cool idea. One of the things I loved was that the Falconer is so all powerful and untouchable, I know they'll have to find a way around his power, because hey there's a lot of book still to go, but I can't for the life of me see how, which really rachets the tension up to 11.

2. Not a question, but an area for rampant speculation: If you want to take a stab at who you think the Grey King might be, feel free to do it here.

I'm a rereader, not a first timer, so it's kind of hard for me to have a go at this, because I know who it is, and it's hard to forget details like that.

2.5 (since 2 wasn't really a question) Anyone see the Nazca thing coming? Anyone? Do you think there are more crazy turns like this in store for the book? Would you like to speculate about them here? (yes, yes you would)

Again, being a rereader this is hard, although I can say that I never saw the Nazca thing coming and it was one of those shocks in the book that hit me like a punch in the guts. I already hated the Grey King and the Falconer, this just made me hate them even more. I liked Nazca, dammit! She did not deserve to die that way! There are plenty more shocks coming, trust me.

3. When Locke says "Nice bird, arsehole," I lose it. EVERY TIME. And not just because I have the UK version of the book and the word arsehole is funnier than asshole. Have there been any other places in the books so far where you found yourself laughing out loud, or giggling like a crazy person on the subway?

Oh absolutely! I love Locke's sarcastic, snotty turn of phrase. There's a lot of dialogue which is snappy and funny. No matter how many times I read the Liar/Bastard shtick I can't help, but laugh, and then there's some of Locke and Co's more audacious schemes that make me laugh, like I said last week the thing with the corpse was hysterically funny and it makes me howl with laughter every time I read it.

4. By the end of this reading section, have your opinions changed about how clever the Bastards are? Do you still feel like they're "cleverer than all the rest?" Or have they been decidedly outplayed by the Grey King and his Bondsmage?

I still think they're pretty , bloody clever, but they got too cocky. They never thought anyone could see through them, they stopped taking precautions, they never figured on a Karthain Bondsmage and they were absolutely out played.

5. I imagine that you've probably read ahead, since this was a huge cliffhanger of an ending for the "present" storyline, but I'll ask this anyway: Where do you see the story going from here, now that the Grey King is thought to be dead?

Sometimes reading ahead or rereading in a thing like this makes it difficult. Because I know how it all turns out any speculation on my part would probably spoil the book for others and I'm not about to do that.

6. What do you think of the characters Scott Lynch has given us so far? Are they believable? Real? Fleshed out? If not, what are they lacking?

One of the things that has to grab me about a book is the characters. I have to care about them, so I have to be invested in them. A large part of the reason I gave up on Erikson's Malazan Books of the Fallen was that I just didn't care what happened to the characters, it wasn't that I didn't like or dislike them, it was just that I simply didn't care. I adored Locke and Jean, Calo, Galdo and Bug. Even characters in the past like Chains or the occasionally mentioned Sabetha. I hated the Bondsmage and the Grey King. I love peripheral characters like Dona Sofia and Conte. Even the city of Camorr itself which I have said before is like this bonus character in Lies, I could see those streets, I could smell the water, I could feel the heavy air. I'm in Camorr every time I read Lies.

7. Now that you've seen how clever Chains is about his "apprenticeships," why do you think he's doing all of this? Does he have an endgame in sight? Is there a goal he wants them to achieve, or is it something more emotional like revenge?

There is an element of revenge about what Chains does with his apprentices, especially Locke, but there's also a lot of 'this is what I do, so I'll teach you to do it, too' there. The Gentleman Bastards are a little like Chains' legacy to the world. Although he didn't know it at first, although I think he had thoughts after the Thiefmaker first told him of Locke's exploits, Locke became like a son to him.