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288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
There are things I read and then there are things I avoid like the plague, non-fiction and historical fiction among them. The reason I don’t read historical fiction is because reading history puts me to sleep faster than you could say Zzzz… If it weren’t for the fact that it was given to me or that I was intent on “broadening my horizons”, Qaiser-o-Kisra would have been one of those unfortunate books that I NEVER, EVER even try to read. But I digress.
I haven’t read any book like this one before so I’m not sure if the things I noticed apply to every historical fiction book; the conversations between the characters were mostly about what was happening around them than themselves. The dialogue offered very little insight as to what the person was “feeling” and their facial expressions,etc but contained heavy descriptions about the current situation, war, politics, etc. Even answers to questions simple as “how are you?” ended in about 2 or 3 paragraphs with a detailed account of everything. There was a constant recurrence of similar adverbs and adjectives. I don’t know when I started being annoyed by this in books but I am. I want things to be explained uniquely each time which admittedly is very difficult in a 700+ pages book. However, these things are merely what I found to be different from what I’m used to in books and I wasn’t perturbed.


The story is set in the time when the two super powers, Rome and Persia, were at war. The main character is a young Arab man who is in search of a religion which would rescue him from all the misery, injustice and cruelty of this world.