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communi_kateContinuing the non-Western fantasy theme, my next read was Desert of Souls by Howard Jones. An Arabian-nights style tale of fantastical adventures set in Haroun al-Raschid's Baghdad, this was a good story, although maybe a little lacking in depth. It's a cross between the old style stop motion Sinbad films and the Prince of Persia with a full complement of mysterious fortune tellers, feisty princesses, undead monkeys and lost cities half-buried in sand.
Unfortunately, I found Jones's characters rather less interesting than they could have been. The main character, stoic guard captain Asim, is rather prosaic, and would have made a great straight man for a cast of sparkling secondary characters a la Captain Jack of the POC franchise. The problem was that Asim's companions, the scholar Dabim and the princess Sabirah,weren't all that interesting either. I never really felt attached to them the way I do to some characters, and the plot wasn't quite strong enough to keep my interest alone.
However, my main criticism of the book is that it was too much like old-school Sinbad for its own good-and by that I mean the sort of tale where the Muslim heroes are really Westerners covered in Fake Bake. If I hadn't just read Saladin Ahmed's novel I maybe wouldn't have noticed quite so much, but you can tell that Desert of Souls was written by a Westerner as opposed to an author of Arab heritage. For instance, the spunky princess spends most of the book travelling with two unmarried and unrelated men and is married off-screen on her final return without even a whiff of scandal. Now this isn't a book-breaker for me, but I felt it made the whole novel read like a bit of an exercise in Orientalism.
I'm not quite sure what the solution is here. I'm Western (and atheist) myself but I've read a few Islamic stories written by Western authors that still managed to feel more authentic (Edward Morris's Lovecraftian Assassin demon-hunter in Jihad Over Innsmouth and Pamela K Taylor's 'Fifty Fatwas for the Virtuous Vampire' are both ones that stand out).
So Desert of Souls is a big screen Saturday afternoon movie of a book, swashbuckling, big and brainless. I'd still recommend Ahmed's Kingdoms of the Crescent Moon tales if you fancy some Arabic fantasy. Or for fans of Lovecraft, the Supernatural tv series or the AC games I'd also recommend Jihad over Innsmouth,available in full at the attached link and also podcast on Pseudopod.org.
Unfortunately, I found Jones's characters rather less interesting than they could have been. The main character, stoic guard captain Asim, is rather prosaic, and would have made a great straight man for a cast of sparkling secondary characters a la Captain Jack of the POC franchise. The problem was that Asim's companions, the scholar Dabim and the princess Sabirah,weren't all that interesting either. I never really felt attached to them the way I do to some characters, and the plot wasn't quite strong enough to keep my interest alone.
However, my main criticism of the book is that it was too much like old-school Sinbad for its own good-and by that I mean the sort of tale where the Muslim heroes are really Westerners covered in Fake Bake. If I hadn't just read Saladin Ahmed's novel I maybe wouldn't have noticed quite so much, but you can tell that Desert of Souls was written by a Westerner as opposed to an author of Arab heritage. For instance, the spunky princess spends most of the book travelling with two unmarried and unrelated men and is married off-screen on her final return without even a whiff of scandal. Now this isn't a book-breaker for me, but I felt it made the whole novel read like a bit of an exercise in Orientalism.
I'm not quite sure what the solution is here. I'm Western (and atheist) myself but I've read a few Islamic stories written by Western authors that still managed to feel more authentic (Edward Morris's Lovecraftian Assassin demon-hunter in Jihad Over Innsmouth and Pamela K Taylor's 'Fifty Fatwas for the Virtuous Vampire' are both ones that stand out).
So Desert of Souls is a big screen Saturday afternoon movie of a book, swashbuckling, big and brainless. I'd still recommend Ahmed's Kingdoms of the Crescent Moon tales if you fancy some Arabic fantasy. Or for fans of Lovecraft, the Supernatural tv series or the AC games I'd also recommend Jihad over Innsmouth,available in full at the attached link and also podcast on Pseudopod.org.
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Date: 2012-03-04 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 09:07 pm (UTC)