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Arabesk #1-3 omnibus
Arabesk
896 pages, Paperback
First published September 6, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 25, 2025
I picked this book up in charity shop and read it through without knowing anything about the author or its genre so although it took me awhile to understand what was going on I did enjoy it but the more I understood the more problematic the book, or rather trilogy, became.
I have two major problems - first the weird SF medical implants that give special powers to our hero and were implanted when he was a child and the whole bizarre part of how his childhood was grossly extended by these implants etc. are only 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 they were important 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/SF. I read these novels not as fantasy or SF but as a counterfactual history and it is that counterfactual history that is my second problem with 'Arabesk'.
Although, when I began reading the 'Arabesk' trilogy I quickly understood that the story was set in an Alexandria of alternate time line (though nothing specifically made plain that it was a counterfactual history. I was under the impression it was going to be a detective/crime novel), that the Ottoman empire didn't end because England and France lost WWI. So this 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' bears no relation to any kind real history - because almost no readers of the book will know anything about the real history of Egypt at the time of WWI - this isn't alternate history but fantasy history to allow him to use an exotic local and funny antique titles and an attempt to avoid accusation of cultural appropriation by insertin Berber background to explain why the hero is who is clearly a white man and not an Egyptian (I can't resist pointing out the Berbers were in areas of Tunisia and Morocco and had nothing to do with Egypt).
I think the whole setting is just glossy colour, there is no understanding of Egypt, its culture or heritage and that makes for a poor foundation for an alternate history novel. An author creating an alternate history who has no understanding of the original history is going to produce a hot-pot of a novel not bouillabaisse.
I give three stars because it is well written but that still means I think it is a mediocre and disappointing book.
I have two major problems - first the weird SF medical implants that give special powers to our hero and were implanted when he was a child and the whole bizarre part of how his childhood was grossly extended by these implants etc. are only 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 they were important 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/SF. I read these novels not as fantasy or SF but as a counterfactual history and it is that counterfactual history that is my second problem with 'Arabesk'.
Although, when I began reading the 'Arabesk' trilogy I quickly understood that the story was set in an Alexandria of alternate time line (though nothing specifically made plain that it was a counterfactual history. I was under the impression it was going to be a detective/crime novel), that the Ottoman empire didn't end because England and France lost WWI. So this 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' bears no relation to any kind real history - because almost no readers of the book will know anything about the real history of Egypt at the time of WWI - this isn't alternate history but fantasy history to allow him to use an exotic local and funny antique titles and an attempt to avoid accusation of cultural appropriation by insertin Berber background to explain why the hero is who is clearly a white man and not an Egyptian (I can't resist pointing out the Berbers were in areas of Tunisia and Morocco and had nothing to do with Egypt).
I think the whole setting is just glossy colour, there is no understanding of Egypt, its culture or heritage and that makes for a poor foundation for an alternate history novel. An author creating an alternate history who has no understanding of the original history is going to produce a hot-pot of a novel not bouillabaisse.
I give three stars because it is well written but that still means I think it is a mediocre and disappointing book.
August 6, 2015
Having read the Assassini series first, this older work seemed terribly similar. The protagonist has super human abilities, there's a star crossed love affair and a lot of political back stabbing. The difference is this is a future world where the Ottoman empire thrived and the Allies lost the first world war. The author again shows discuss for cultural subjugation of women which gives him a plus in my book.
I found this less engaging than his Vampire hero, the segues between actions abrupt and too confusing, with too many vague hints about the hero's history and how he got his super genetics. I don't mind things left up to the imagination but leave out too much and it just becomes mud. Still a decent read as the author writes very well dispite the enigmatic style.
I found this less engaging than his Vampire hero, the segues between actions abrupt and too confusing, with too many vague hints about the hero's history and how he got his super genetics. I don't mind things left up to the imagination but leave out too much and it just becomes mud. Still a decent read as the author writes very well dispite the enigmatic style.
June 21, 2015
Completely brilliant -but very long. Sort of Sci-fi/crime/thriller set in North Africa. We're kept guessing about Raf until the very end - great suspense writing and twists. Like the flashbacks.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews