Pashazade: The First Arabesk

Arabesk #1

by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

El Iskandria is the most famous and cosmopolitan city of Ottoman Egypt in the 21st century. Ashraf Bey travels there to escape an American prison but ends up the main suspect in a case of murder.

Genres: Science Fiction, Alternate History, Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Science Fiction Fantasy

327 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

'Tough, sexy and brutal, but leavened with sharp humour... Grimwood is a name to watch.' The Times

Jon Courtenay Grimwood was born in Malta and christened in the upturned bell of a ship. He grew up in the Far East, Britain and Scandinavia. Apart from novels he writes for magazines and newspapers. He travels extensively and undertakes a certain amount of consulting. Until recently he wrote a monthly review column for the Guardian.

Felaheen, the third of his novels featuring Asraf Bey, a half-Berber detective, won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. So did his last book, End of the World Blues, about a British sniper on the run from Iraq and running an Irish bar in Tokyo. He has just delivered the Fallen Blade, the first of three novels set in an alternate 15th-century Venice

His work is published in French, German, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Finnish and American, among others

He is married to the journalist and novelist Sam Baker, currently editor-in-chief of Red magazine. They divide their time between London and Winchester...

Reviews

[ambyr · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Cyberpunk set in alternate-history North Africa?" says I. "Sounds interesting."

And that was my first mistake.

I was expecting William Gibson crossed with, oh, The Years of Rice and Salt. What I got was more in the spirit of Dan Brown--an action-adventure with pasted-on Exotic Setting.

I should have known I was reading the wrong book in the first few pages, when it became clear that the protagonists of this supposedly North African-focused novel were both white Americans. (Okay, one is half Berber nobility. He's been raised as a white American and shows exactly zero interest in his Berber heritage.) The native North African characters come in two varieties: pro-Western good guys (the liberated Zara, for example) and traditionalist baddies.

As to cyberpunk: no. Sure, the main character has implants that let him see in the dark, one of the secondary characters is a computer hacker, and one of the tertiary characters has an improbably high-tech sound system that he uses in a drug-ridden techno club. But there's none of the nihilism I'd expect from cyberpunk, no real exploration of the cost of technology, the breakdown of society. It's just there to be glitzy. And our protagonists are rich and high-ranking; what little we get of society's underside is in flashback and side scene, safely out of the way.

Besides, this is alternate history. The power of cyberpunk is its immediacy: "That could be tomorrow. This is already happening today." It's hard to get that in a story of a future that will never be, even if the author does seem to frequently forget their own alternate history premise. (Why does the United Nations exist in a world where Germany won World War I and the U.S. remains intensely isolationist into the 21st century? I have no idea. Why are all the brand names the familiar French and American ones? Who knows. And, whether Germany won World War I or not, how did the Ottoman Empire teeter into the 21st century? No fucking clue.)

That last is the most bothersome: the whole point of the alternate history, as far as I can tell, is so that the author can write in a 21st-century Ottoman Empire. But I remain utterly unconvinced that the history as outlined would result in such a political improbability.

But even if none of this had bothered me--even if I had gone into this expecting, from the start, Dan Brown--I still would have tripped over the language. It's not so much that the author doesn't know what a complete sentence is as that he appears to know--and be on constant vigilance against one appearing in his work. Things are. Broken up more or less at random, producing a. Choppy effect that I think. Is intended to be literary. (It's not a success.)

To add to the pain, the author jumps back and forth in his timeline, piling flashback on flashback in an attempt to make a paper-thin plot appear convoluted.

This is also not a success. Indeed, I'm hard pressed to think of any part of this book that's a success. (Well, there's the sex scenes. They're successful at providing hilarity. But I think this is unintentional.) Highly unrecommended. I will be giving the sequels a wide berth.

[Rupert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book/author was ultimately very disappointing. The blurbs trumpeted Grimwood as the 21st Century Raymond Chandler. Although, this kind of blurb is usually full of it, it pulled me in. And the book held me into the first 100 pages. Around page 90 I was thinking, "wow, 90 pages in and I don't know where the author is taking this, the alternate time/world that it is set in is very subtle and intriguing, the character is likeably enigmatic. Then around page 200 I was thinking "wow, close to 200 pages and this book is going nowhere, the best side character is killed and I don't think the author thought this thing out ahead of time. And now, oh dear God, rave music and culture seems to be represented as the romantic hope of the endtime. Plus this baby is the first of a trilogy! Because the writer doesn't know where to take it so it will drag on forever! I will put this down now and take comfort in my Don Rickles book."

[Tellulah Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sci-fi mystery set in a world almost, but not quite like ours. Grimwood's writing is so evocative. I could picture the garish faded allure of the free city El Iskandriyah (aka our Alexandria) and its corrupt, now-rotting foundation, all blasted by the unforgiving heat of North Africa. Our hero is the genetically modified, drug taking Raf, a reinvented man who has been brought to El Isk because of a new found status and a newly acquired alliance. Each of which bring him mountains of trouble.

I actually read the second book in this series first and couldn't wait to go back and start at the beginning. Having Raf's backstory in book one, really fills out his character in the subsequent book - I'd been finding him a bit of an enigma, but that was because I read it out of order. All the characters, from young Hani, to his jilted bride Zara and her family, sucked me in and and made me want to know more about them. Then there's the added element of this compelling alternate world: an interesting tension of hedonism and traditionalism, Islamic, and tech heavy.

While murder fuels each book, the trilogy (at least based on the first two books) is really an epic tapestry, anchored by the lives of these characters we're swept into. The excitement I felt for this was similar to when I picked up my first Gibson novel way back when Neuromancer was first released. Great read.

[Graculus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read standalone novels by Grimwood before but never been able to get hold of this, the first of his Arabesk trilogy of books.

The protagonist in Pashazade is Ashraf, recently returned to Alexandria and replete with all the trappings of a rich man's son in a world where the Ottoman empire never fell. The problem is, Ashraf is a phoney, more at home in the American prison he recently left than dealing with the hierarchical society of Egypt and a potential arranged marriage to a girl who's equally unimpressed with the idea.

The alternate history is well thought out, as is the world-building, and though Ashraf is quite ruthless at times, he's also a sympathetic character who is out of his depth and knows it. I'm not really sure where the rest of the trilogy is going to take these characters, but I'm looking forward to it - the next book in the series is Effendi.

[Tasula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, but some parts were confusing and overly detailed (for instance I really didn't need all the detail about what turns he took from the café to the next place). I really liked the little girl (Hani), the detective (Felix) and Zara's filthy rich father (Hamzah). The main protagonist (we are told he is not sure who he really is, since he puts on a different persona depending on the situation, and at the end I still wasn't sure who he was or if he really knew himself). The mystery I thought was quite good, and in the end the solution did depend on some of the details (such as the type of autopsy the murdered person underwent). This is part of a trilogy so I will probably read the rest to see how the characters continue to develop.

[Dennis (nee) Hearon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 & 1/2 stars rounded up. I can see why this book would not be to everyone's taste. Very noir and gritty. The non-serial, non-chronological style would make it hard to follow in an audible format. At times the writing can seem somewhat jarring. That being said, I still found the book to be a very compelling read. The style of the book, to me, was reminiscent of early William Gibson, ala Neuromancer and Count Zero. I thought that the hero/anti-hero MC was a very interesting character, with a deep, back story and unique makeup. I also enjoyed the fusion of Islamic culture with a cybernetic substrate. The pacing is tight but requires a lot of concentration, especially given the constant shifting of time frames. Not a light read. but ultimately rewarding.

P,S, For some reason, I read the 3rd book of this trilogy first. I suspect I would have found it far more rewarding If I had read it in the proper chronological order !!!!!!

[Mary Z]

I found “Pashazade” in the science fiction section of my local library but it might also be called speculative fiction or even just a detective story. The setting is what is unique here and gives it the sci-fi label: Imagine an Earth where Germany won the First World War, and in the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire never fell. Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s novel takes place in this world, in the city of Iskandrya in Egypt. The story revolves around Ashraf el-Mansur, who has escaped a Seattle prison by the machinations of his (until now unknown to him) Aunt Nafisa, the sister of his father whom he has never met, and brought to North Africa. As the legitimate son of the Emir of Tunis, Nafisa produces a marriage certificate as proof, he inherits the rank of Bey under Ottoman law. A marriage has also been arranged for him to Zara, the daughter of an incredibly wealthy family. But soon after his arrival, his aunt, Lady Nafisa, is murdered; he becomes responsible for his nine-year-old niece, Hani, and is the prime suspect in Nafisa’s murder. He searches to find the truth in a culture that he knows very little about, in a country thousands of years old but new to him.

More than just a murder mystery, the alternative history allows the story to take place in a modern Ottoman Empire, with very strong old world values and traditions and without strong American influence. This makes for a very rich, detailed and fascinating setting. There are some light cyberpunk elements to the story but really only thrown in as window dressing it seems: Cybernetic implants in Ashraf’s eyes, and some sort of cognitive “enhancement” that manifests itself as a fox in his head which advises him. I was thrown off, too, by the many French and American brand names bandied about that apparently still dominate industry in spite of the alternative history timeline.

But putting aside these inconsistencies, the story is still interesting because for Raf, it’s not just about finding out who killed Nafisa, but about who he himself is. There are many flashbacks through which we learn about his past, his childhood, and the events that shaped him. So this novel also follows his inner journey, examining a heritage that he had no idea was his, shaking off his sketchy past, and creating a present in which he starts to include people in his life other than himself.

Pashazade is the first book of the Arabesk trilogy, the next two being: “Effendi” and “Felaheen”.

[Cronache di Betelgeuse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recensione pubblicata su Cronache di Betelgeuse

I libri di Grimwood riescono sempre a creare un’atmosfera ricca e particolare nelle città descritte e anche stavolta El Iskandryia non è da meno.

A metà strada tra un’antica città del deserto e una fortezza tecnologica, il fulcro di questa storia si divide tra ville lussureggianti, antiche case da ristrutturare e i bassi fondi in cui la musica diventa uno sfogo per evadere. La città stessa è parte integrante della trama, con i suoi vicoli in cui nascondersi e gli intrighi da discutere alla luce del sole seduti comodi tra i tavolini di un caffè.

Ashraf è un ragazzo molto complicato, nonché grande protagonista della vicenda. Sappiamo ben poco su di lui e quel poco che riusciamo a scoprire lo apprendiamo strada facendo. I protagonisti di questo autore sono sempre da scoprire e da apprezzare con lo scorrere dei capitoli. I flashback e le sue azioni nel presente riescono a creare un personaggio complesso, che anche alla fine del libro ci sembra comunque sfuggente. Ashraf non ha molto interesse per la sua famiglia a El Iskandryia, ma allo stesso tempo non può più continuare la sua vita in America. A causa delle sue azioni poco legali è in fuga, ma non sa che la città che lo ha accolto non è così gentile e benevole nei suoi confronti.

La sua famiglia più stretta è un vero mistero. Da un lato ha una zia che vorrebbe dettare legge sulla sua vita, senza neanche conoscerlo, dall’altra invece ha una nipote giovanissima che non conosce quasi nulla del mondo esterno. Eppure Ashraf si sente legato abbastanza a loro da sopportare la prima e affezionarsi alla seconda. Il suo tentativo di costruire una vita in un ambiente così strano rispetto a quanto è abituato però si infrange quasi subito sul sangue che sarà versato.

A quanto pare il protagonista è riuscito ad attirare l’attenzione delle persone sbagliate, mettendo a rischio tutto quanto è riuscito a creare. I dialoghi interiori di Ashraf sono molto importanti, perché ci permettono di capire meglio come ragiona e cosa aspettarci da lui. Il ritmo della storia alterna momenti concitati con attimi di tranquillità, che altro non sono che il preludio di nuove scene di tensione. Quando si chiude la storia siamo decisamente pronti a leggere subito il seguito di questa trilogia.

[Vittorio Vandelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Post-Chandler, hard-boiled and Blade Runnerish indeed, but something is wrong in this book. The setting is fascinating but the 'alternative history' background is confusing, and, in the end, pointless. The protagonist is a very young super tough-guy that works more for comics than for literature (by the way, getting familiar with his multiple names is not easy). His brain implantation is a cheap homage to cyberpunk, but it is out of place. The flashbacks on his past are quite complex: it is a puzzle-built plot and it is not easy to put the parts in the right position - and if you make it, you'll probably found out there are missing pieces not included in the box. Protagonist and girl on the run are nothing new, but the urban milieu in which they wander is the best part of the novel: El Iskndryia/Alexandria is mysterious and fascinating, caught between High-Tech and traditions, run by corruption in business and politics (nothing new under the sun here). Enjoyable to read, but not a page-turner. Good Italian translation by the niche publisher 'Zona 42'.
.

[Michael Battaglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're going to write an alternate history, I imagine rule number one of that is making it clear to the reader that history has changed radically. It'd be like the main difference in "The Man in the High Castle" is that there seems to be more sushi restaurants that also happen to sell giant pretzels.

The kind of change that's teased here seems tailor made for me. I have a slight fascination with the history of Europe prior to and in the years after World War One, somewhere around the level of an amateur scholar's interest in extreme car crashes. For one reason or another, the fact that the "before" and "after" map of Europe during that time period changes the landscape on par with the giant meteor that slammed into Arizona tens of thousands of years ago is something I find interesting.

So give me a series that postulates a world where the Ottoman Empire didn't collapse in the aftermath of WWI (despite being kind of on its last legs for some time before that, if I remember correctly) and I'll be all over that. Which is what Grimwood tries to give us here, setting the story in the North African city of El Iskandryia, apparently in the present day and featuring some light SF touches just to make it seem more futuristic. There's a mysterious murder that the local chief of detectives/raging alcoholic (even in alternate futures, fictional cops still have drinking problems) Felix is trying to solve, a murder that may involve newcomer to the city Ashraf Bey, who is there to get married to nineteen year old heiress Zara even though neither of them are looking to get married to each other. And maybe German assassins are involved, too, but you know, the more the merrier.

You can definitely accuse Grimwood of trying to do too much here. First off, the alternate history aspect of this, which is presumably the main draw, doesn't really make that much of a difference . . . the future we see never feels like an extrapolated modern Ottoman Empire and because none of the characters care about history or the world at large you never get a real sense of what changes were wrought in the rest of the world. We get repeated references to Berlin and it seems like they're still a major player in things but our brief flashback glimpses of the US (specifically Seattle) don't feel necessarily different than the world we have currently. The story could easily be placed in a near future North African city without the alternate history aspects and still not feel any different beyond the SF elements.

But that would be okay beyond the mild disappointment . . . the George Effinger series I recently read took place in a future Arabic culture and still felt fully realized in how it mixed the old and new. Whatever its foundation, a good made-up world is a good made-up world . . . but as much as he tries El Isk never quite comes across as a vital place with danger and wonder lurking around every corner. It feels like a big city but I've been to those and gotten the nifty hats.

The characters are pretty much the last resort and its here that Grimwood succeeds even those he seems to go out of his way to muff it. Early on the cast just feels really opaque, especially with the early sole focus on Ashraf Bey, also known as ZeeZee. Its just not clear what he's on about or why he's even there so he spends most of the early stages of the book thinking about the "fox" in his head (which never seems to make a big difference except when it has to and whose revelation was both obvious and pointless enough that we could have been told about it earlier) and wandering the city while the book doles out italicized and lengthy flashbacks that fill in some of the gaps but don't explain much of anything. And since he's mostly reactive and has a past murkier than a nonlinear biography of Wolverine it makes for some rather detached going for at least half the book since you're not quite sure where he's going with any of this.

Grimwood does eventually make you persevere in caring a little about the characters. Even if his fascination with Bey's past does not nearly equal mine (some of the flashbacks involving his time with the local Triad are interesting even if they don't have much to do with the story at hand), his dancing around as Bey and Zara and the young child they wind up with attempt to decipher the plot eventually starts to win you over to the point where you want to see these people succeed, even if you're not quite where winning is going to get them.

Which, again, is good because the plot underneath all the murders and flashbacks is relentlessly unclear as to what the driving forces are and even when it starts to get disentangled its not immediately clear why we're supposed to care about it. The book is so relentlessly and narrow focused on the main cast members that we never get to see beyond faint glimpses what the larger political picture is and how it all fits in.

It ultimately makes for an uneven experience, though never bad, just perplexing and opaque . . . the constant flashbacks make the flow choppy but the chapters are short and his writing is good enough that if you stick with it starts to justify your investment in it. But it shouldn't be this difficult or as much of a struggle as it sometimes is. In contrast, there's a photograph taken in November 1922 of Mehmed IV, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire leaving the country after the whole empire has been dissolved and even though I have no desire to ever see it come back there's a strange emotion in seeing this nondescript old man walking through a crowd of people saluting him, basically marking the moment when a thousand year entity has permanently crumbled to dust. Its also a more potent emotion than the book ever made me feel. A history where that photograph never happened but still able to convey its weight would have been something. This is decent, but nowhere near what it could have been.

[Aishwarya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable. This is a noir-ish mystery set in Alexandria in an alt-hist world where the Ottoman Empire is still powerful. The backstory (and attendant worldbuilding) are revealed slowly and unobtrusively, and the focus is mainly on the (excellent) plot. It's clever and absorbing and generally awesome. I'm glad I had the sense to buy the next book in the series in advance.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, and almost did, because of its cool alternate history reality. But it skipped around a bit too much for my liking. I kept being confused and feeling like I had to struggle to keep up with the plot. And the plot wasn't quite intriguing enough to be worth it.

[Luca Cresta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opera di assoluto interesse. Ucronia dalle tinte gialle molto particolare. Proseguioò sicuramente il ciclo. Un ottimo libro. Grazie a Giorgio Raffaelli ed a Zona42

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a one volume edition of all three novels called Arabesk which I picked up in charity shop read without knowing anything about the author or the genre so although it took me awhile to understand what was going on I did enjoy the series the more I understood the problematic all the books in the trilogy became.

I have two major problems - first the weird wi-fi, si-fi (?) medical implants that give our hero special powers which were implanted when he was a child and the whole bizarre part of how his childhood was grossly extended by them etc. All this is only fully explained fully at the end of the trilogy, so for a large part of the story I didn't know what all the various dropped hints - for me just weird stuff about a fox in his head, etc. meant - clearly he seemed to have an ability to see things and do things out of the normal but it was all a bit vague. Maybe I found it more obscure because I don't read a great deal of modern, or any kind of, fantasy/wi-fi.

The second problem is a much bigger one - I caught on pretty quick that the story was set in an Egypt and an Alexandria of an alternate time, one were the Ottoman empire didn't end because England and France lost WWI. So this was alternate history (I don't think I knew the term steampunk when I read this) but if you are going to make an alternate history it is usually by playing around with a history that is known. The setting of this novel in an Egypt were there are still 'pashas' but bears no roots in real history, it is an alternate to what happened - probably because that would require explaining to readers of the book what the actual history you are diverting from was. As 99% of readers will know nothing about the real history of Egypt at the time of WWI the author hasn't created an alternate history but a fantasy history one that is, quite frankly 'Orientalist' in every sense of the word. How deeply offensive this is to anyone from Egypt or the middle east will probably be unknown to the readers of this trilogy but the author tries to avoid the accusation of cultural appropriation that his use of exotic locales and funny antique titles and having the hero being so clearly a westerner by inserting Berber background to explain why he is clearly a white man and not an Egyptian (I can't resist pointing out the Berbers were from areas of Tunisia and Morocco and had nothing to do with Egypt - just one of many egregious errors that have nothing to do with 'alternate' history only plain carelessness or ignorance).

I think the whole setting is just there for glossy colour, there is no understanding of Egypt its culture or heritage and certainly there is no alternate history because you have to understand the history you the real history you are creating an alternative too.

I give three stars because it is well written but that still means I think it is a mediocre and disappointing book.

[Jaime · Rating 2 out of 5]

A whole lot of disparate detail signifying nothing and not worth more than a quick glance, yet going on seemingly forever and coming to a deeply disatisfying conclusion. Stuff Jon Courtenay Grimwood threw in here just because:

1. Alternate history: Germans didn't stop being evil Aryans and the Middle East can't forgive them or get away from them, I guess. Like all of these concepts, it's good for a little vignette and then doesn't really matter.

2. El Iskandriya, the setting: Could have been Cairo or Casablanca to similar effect. The geography was boring and the politics underdeveloped so the "twists" don't surprise us.

3. Genetic engineering and a brain implant fox thing: OK, whatever. Why is our hero the only one who has any of this.

4. The hero's backstory: weird details, weird connections that never cohere.

5. Bondage, colonic irrigation, raves, Armani/designer clothes, coffee, cute nicknames for drugs, swords, gangsters, strange prisons: again I'm not sure why we bothered unless the author just couldn't help but add everything he likes to this book.

So scattered and jumpy, the interesting bits can hardly take hold.

[Rob Trans · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book grew on me. It started off with an unprepossessing character who seemed like a socio- or psychopath. He was a drug user, a criminal, he lacked social attachments. He was violent through childhood. He was probably equipped with some kind of augmentation, or was it an ongoing hallucination? His mother seems to care little for him. On the other hand, he might have been the semi-legitimate scion of a wealthy sultan. All very uncertain.

Then his aunt dies, murdered. He gets blamed and has to solve the crime with the help of a detective, who is also murdered, an arranged fiancee, and a young girl. He assumed responsibility for the little girl and grew to care for his fiancee. It changed him, he evolved. He was in his element.

I plan to finish the 3 book series.

[Fabio R. Crespi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Pashazade" è il primo volume della "Arabesk Trilogy" di Jon Courtenay Grimwood.
Ci troviamo, più o meno, ai nostri tempi, in una El Iskandriya (Alessandria d'Egitto) crocevia multiculturale, quasi una zona franca, di un impero islamico illuminato che convive con gli imperi europei perché la prima guerra mondiale ha avuto una portata limitata e la seconda non si è mai svolta.
La storia ha le tinte del giallo, i sapori del mediterraneo e introduce a un mondo distopico nel quale i fermenti culturali, politici e affaristici si fondono a creare un quadro d'instabilità generale nel quale la Ashraf Bay, un superumano casualmente nobile, è chiamato a indagare su un omicidio ma, più in generale, su quel tipo di società e, infine, su se stesso.

[Jim Bogue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic (in many senses of the word) adventure set in Alexandria, Egypt, in a slightly alternate world. The protagonist (he’s not quite a hero) is a confused, and often lost, refugee from a criminal past in Seattle brought to Alexandria for reasons he doesn’t understand by a woman who doesn’t seem to like him very much. And there seems to be a terrorist plot. And there is a beautiful, if mysterious, woman he is supposed to marry.
How he survives this is the exciting and alluring story that pulls you into the series.

[Miro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ahh. Well. It started promising, but then it got boring.

Long descriptions of the past life, middle interesting. Long descriptions of the building halls and walls.
Then investigation of the case, in most cases leading to some dull resolution.
Sometimes it got a bit interesting and then returned back to the dullness. Even the final scenes.

I was picturing it in front of my eyes and it was like Agatha Christie's Marple, mostly dull.
It was marked as sci-fi, but the sci-fi part was nearly non-existant.

[Marco Landi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un ucronia davvero divertente.. Le due guerre mondiali non ci sono mai state, l Impero ottomano non è mai caduto, e Alessandria è una città araba con tecnologia avanzata.. Il worldbuilding è fantastico, si sentono gli odori, i sapori, si vedono i colori come ad essere li.. La trama noir si sviluppa con calma, ma tra i flashback di Raf, le sue varie avventure, Zara e Hani e la loro fantastica caratterizzazione, il libro vola in un baleno.. Con un occhio a quello che poteva essere...

[Savaş Manyaslı · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover said something like "21st. Century Chandler" but I saw no resemblance in style. If anyone it could be William Gibson with a twist. It is obvious that he is a well equipped author but I have to admit the book doesn't "flow" as you would expect from any decent crime story.

[Marilena Rizou · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book a bit tiring. Too many technical details and I admit I am not that good with history so I didn't get why the survival of the otomman empire would affect positively the scientific development of the world. I'd love some analysis on that. It was a nice adventure though.

[Ida · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a cool idea that didn’t quite live up to my expectations. There was just too much going on in a world that wasn’t fully explained, with characters that completely changed personalities if it suited the plot.

[Gina Hooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this trilogy every 2 years or so in the last 2 decades and it never gets old. I read everything this guy wrote (until the Venice vampire thing, which lost me a bit). Hands down my favourite author, and the one I recommend to literally everyone. Read these books!

[Andrée · Rating 4 out of 5]

Noir? Cyber punk? Sci-fi? Alt-hist?
Who cares? It was a good read and with an islamic context - which is novelty for me.
With plenty of food references - so good to read with Madjool dates.

[Sne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Тръгна интересно и леко досадно, но после досадното й мина. Симпатична книга

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not remotely like Chandler as the back of the book suggests, but very enjoyable nonetheless

[Nimphameth · Rating 5 out of 5]

more thriller than cyberpunk but amazing read nevertheless!

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just weird and most of the time I wasn't sure what was going on. This was a murder mystery based in an alternate modern-day Alexandria that developed after the Ottoman Empire and Germany won WWI. There were several times I was ready to put this book down but I kept hoping an explanation would be forthcoming. That strange fox in his head? Or was it just in his head? Was he genetically altered and why? The relationship between Raf and Hani was the only thing that redeemed this book. The rest was just too much drug-infused craziness.

[Mirana Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise sounded so interesting. The protagonist finds himself in an alternate world. There he faces some problems. Now he has to prove his innocence. It a thriller mystery with spec elements, but with very little spec type world building. If you read speculatives because of vast, whimsical world, this book is not for you. If you like thriller mystery, and want a different set and want to try speculatives, this book is for you.