Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I've read a number of Saladin Ahmed's essays on genre fiction. In fact the reason I bumped this book to the top of my lengthy book queue was his Big Idea essay (for John Scalzi's Whatever). I really like the things Saladin Ahmed has to say about the genre.
Too bad I didn't much care for his actual genre writing. The action is dull with no engaging set pieces, and barely serviceable choreography. The whole setting was, in general, a little thin. Adoullah is, apparently, the last ghul hunter, and as we see in the novel, Ghul's have the potential to do some serious damage. You'd think someone would notice, "hey, we've only got one of these left...we'd better get a fresh batch of recruits."
There are some good points. Adoullah and Raseed are both fairly engaging, and I the Falcon Prince effectively steals his scenes as he's supposed to. I thought the climax was effectively handled, especially for these characters, and I very much enjoyed the awkward, fumbling, and wholly believable relationship between Raseed and Zamia.
As for the good, that's about it.
The biggest problem in the novel is that there is just no plot momentum in the middle third of the book. Two new main characters are introduced and they get most of the POV in this section, and frankly the were perhaps the most boring and unimaginative alchemists and magicians I've ever stumbled across in fantasy fiction.
So, as you've gathered, I was very disappointed with this book. Ahmed has potential, and I hope he either improves upon his weaknesses or plays more to his strengths in his future volumes.
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