Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed

Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed

published in Feburary 2011

where I got it: the Library*

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I’ve been trying to write this review for two days now, and it just hasn’t been happening.

The only important part of this review is: Read this book now. really. I adored it. Ask my husband, I’ve been talking of nothing else for the last few days.

There is nothing I can say that will do this book justice.

But you know I’ll try.

If Ellen Kushner showed me what effortless writing looked like, then Saladin Ahmed has shown me what truly fully developed characters read like. These characters are so real and so true that I didn’t feel like I was reading them so much as spending a few precious days with them. I feel like I could tell you what Adoulla’s bookshelves look like (cluttered but organized?), like I could describe the look on Raseed’s face when he instantly regrets something he’s said, the sound of Zamia sleeping while in her lion shape. I want to have tea at Yehyeh’s, I want to follow Adoulla through the city as his conflicted feelings force his actions.

Beyond the exquisite characterization, Throne of the Crescent Moon is so deliciously atypical of so much of the fantasy that’s currently available. Yes, it’s a fantasy adventure in a secondary world, and yes there is some magic. But show me another recently written fantasy novel where the hero is a middle aged fat man whose magic stems from phrases and quotations out of a religious prayerbook. Show me a recently written fantasy adventure where the endgame is all about ending up with the person you love, the person who waited for you.

Now that I’ve inadvertently made it sound like a supernatural neo-spiritual anime (which it most certainly isn’t), let’s get to the meat of the thing.

Doctor Adoulla Mahkslood is a Ghul Hunter. His unstainable kaftan identifies him as one of the last of his kind. Old and tired, Adoulla agrees to one last ghul hunt. With his young apprentice Raseed, they venture into the desert. To find ghuls, and the Lion girl Zamia, last of her tribe. From there, the story takes off to involve Adoulla’s trusted magician neighbors, an infamous thief known as the Falcon Prince, and the safety of their city. An ancient evil has been awakened, one so secret that even its name has been banished from the encoded records.

At less than three hundred pages Ahmed hasn’t got a lot of time to get the story rolling. With not a wasted word the world of the Crescent Moon Kingdom takes shape like a curtain lifting. The ghul threat shows up very soon, as do possibly enemies and allies. In slower moments Adoulla and his friends chuckle as the teenaged Raseed and Zamia dance around each other, attracted but without the words to tell each other. It’s cute. I hope they get married one day. It might be an fantasy adventure, but as in life, the true beauty of the tale is in the smaller moments.

In the last nine months especially, I’ve noticed a copious amount of new books that proclaim to be “Book one of the dramatic-word-here series!”. I grew up on stand alones and completed trilogies, and I’m not sure how much all these new series excite me. When I found out Throne of the Crescent Moon was the first in a series, I jumped for joy.

* why did I library such a book, and not buy it outright, you ask? Long story short, I know my local library will have this on the “New” shelves for a good 3-4 months, exposing it to countless readers who might not otherwise know of it’s existence. Also, all my disposable income is currently going towards items that have the words “Cat Valente” on them someplace.