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The last ghul hunter in the city of Dhamsawaat is an old man with no proper apprentice. Now, with his motivation flagging, he must face a greater challenge than any in his long career, with only himself, an impatient shapeshifter, a moralizing dervish with no finesse, and two old friends he must drag from the safety of retirement. Even then, if no-one will believe him about the danger, he may have to turn against his own city to save it.
This was a brilliant book. A setting and tone that could have come out of the Arabian Nights, flavorful dialogue that will be familiar to anyone who's read fantasy in an Arab-esque setting before... but treated matter-of-factly, not exoticized. The characters were complex, troubled people, making their choices interesting and not perfectly predictable. The ghuls were well-imagined, although I could wish we saw more varieties.
Only a few small criticisms.
First, the climax was too quick. We saw everyone struggle on the way to the final battle, and everyone put in danger during it, but they each faced the final dangers, persevered, triumphed. It felt formulaic, and once you understood the formula you lost the sense of risk that was present earlier on.
Second, while the villains were delightfully, chilly evil, and the scenes of torture intercut throughout the book built to the climax... seeing the torture itself, as intimately as we did, and repeatedly, was... a little less necessary.
Third, I really felt like a lot more could have been made of the dervish's moral conflict. It was really good, an actual thorny ethical problem, made worse by the other characters making light of it... and it's pushed past unresolved buy the urgency of the climax, rather than being made pivotal to the action, which would have helped incredibly with problem number one.
Still, it was a great, swashbuckling adventure, a world that feels lived in and yet unfamiliar to readers of traditional American fantasy novels, and compelling characters whose problems cannot be solved by the mechanical action of the plot, but only by facing them and sacrificing something as they set their priorities in order.
Looking forward to the sequel. Bravo, Mr. Ahmed.
This was a brilliant book. A setting and tone that could have come out of the Arabian Nights, flavorful dialogue that will be familiar to anyone who's read fantasy in an Arab-esque setting before... but treated matter-of-factly, not exoticized. The characters were complex, troubled people, making their choices interesting and not perfectly predictable. The ghuls were well-imagined, although I could wish we saw more varieties.
Only a few small criticisms.
First, the climax was too quick. We saw everyone struggle on the way to the final battle, and everyone put in danger during it, but they each faced the final dangers, persevered, triumphed. It felt formulaic, and once you understood the formula you lost the sense of risk that was present earlier on.
Second, while the villains were delightfully, chilly evil, and the scenes of torture intercut throughout the book built to the climax... seeing the torture itself, as intimately as we did, and repeatedly, was... a little less necessary.
Third, I really felt like a lot more could have been made of the dervish's moral conflict. It was really good, an actual thorny ethical problem, made worse by the other characters making light of it... and it's pushed past unresolved buy the urgency of the climax, rather than being made pivotal to the action, which would have helped incredibly with problem number one.
Still, it was a great, swashbuckling adventure, a world that feels lived in and yet unfamiliar to readers of traditional American fantasy novels, and compelling characters whose problems cannot be solved by the mechanical action of the plot, but only by facing them and sacrificing something as they set their priorities in order.
Looking forward to the sequel. Bravo, Mr. Ahmed.
