[A Conservative Teacher] Book Review: The Desert of Souls
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A Conservative Teacher
May 27, 2013, 2:14:38 PM5/27/13
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Before when I pictured the Islamic Golden Age I imagined it as I saw in the classic Bugs Bunny movie 1001 Rabbit Tales (Looney Tunes Movie Collection (Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Movie / 1001 Rabbit Tales)
)
- but after reading The Desert of Souls
by Howard Andrew Jones I now will picture instead the warrior Asim and the scholar Dabir battling enemies of the caliphate such as the sorcerer Firouz and Arab Marsh pirates and the scheming Byzantine Greeks and undead monkeys.
If you have ever read or heard about Tales from the Thousand and One Nights (Penguin Classics)
(or also known as Arabian Nights) you are familiar with some of the images and settings of the Islamic Golden Age. This is the setting and images that Howard Andrew Jones uses in his sword-and-sorcery tale of adventure set during the reign of Harun al-Rashid (about 800 AD) in the capital city of Baghdad in the Abbasid Caliphate.
The book begins quickly without a lot of set-up- Jaffar (son of the vizier), Asim (captain of the guards), and Dabir (tutor and scholar) go for a walk looking for some adventure- and what an adventure they find. They are given a prophecy, a dead man falls at their feet, they get caught in an plot to steal a magical artifact, they chase after thieves on boats through the waterways and countryside and deserts of the Middle East, they battle with swords and cunning and even magic against pirates and hired goons, they discover abandoned cities and artifacts from centuries prior, they are teleported to magical worlds, they save the girl, and struggle with undead monkeys and birds.
The plot is fun and light and moves along at a good pace and never lags. Slow moments are filled by the characters telling stories which themselves are entertaining and help the reader to better understand the plot- it as if there are other books just waiting to be written about the adventures of Asim and Dabir. There are no complicated magical systems or overly explained justifications for how things are- rather there is mystery and fun and a wildness about the ride that compels the reader along.
The characters are memorable and simple to understand- this is not a book that really challenges you on a deeper level but instead a book that is fun to read and enjoy. And the settings are well-thought out and described- just enough description to give you a good sense of what sort of world the Islamic Golden Age was but not pages and pages of dense description that would lose the reader- rather you felt like you were there looking through the eyes of Asim and moving through the world and enjoying the story without reading some sort of nonfiction about the Islamic Golden Age.
Fans of Robert E. Howard will enjoy the books- not because any of this resembles Conan but rather because the adventures remind you a little bit more of Solomon Kane (The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
) (there is even an appearance by the Staff of Moses). But Howard Andrew Jones style of writing is probably closer yet to Harold Lamb, who wrote amazing historical fiction that was also set all over Asia during the Middle Ages and whose stories in my opinion were even more fun and imaginative than Howard's were. It shouldn't be surprising that Jones' style evokes Lambs'- he recently collected and helped publish them recently (read Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume One
). Jones is also the managing editor of Black Gate, one of today’s leading fantasy magazines (link to the blog here).
There aren't many good historical fiction sword-and-sorcery fiction stories set during the Islamic Golden Age- and I suggest that if you are looking to read a good one that you check out The Desert of Souls, by Howard Andrew Jones.
--
Posted By A Conservative Teacher to A Conservative Teacher at 5/27/2013 02:14:00 PM
)- but after reading The Desert of Souls
by Howard Andrew Jones I now will picture instead the warrior Asim and the scholar Dabir battling enemies of the caliphate such as the sorcerer Firouz and Arab Marsh pirates and the scheming Byzantine Greeks and undead monkeys.If you have ever read or heard about Tales from the Thousand and One Nights (Penguin Classics)
(or also known as Arabian Nights) you are familiar with some of the images and settings of the Islamic Golden Age. This is the setting and images that Howard Andrew Jones uses in his sword-and-sorcery tale of adventure set during the reign of Harun al-Rashid (about 800 AD) in the capital city of Baghdad in the Abbasid Caliphate.The book begins quickly without a lot of set-up- Jaffar (son of the vizier), Asim (captain of the guards), and Dabir (tutor and scholar) go for a walk looking for some adventure- and what an adventure they find. They are given a prophecy, a dead man falls at their feet, they get caught in an plot to steal a magical artifact, they chase after thieves on boats through the waterways and countryside and deserts of the Middle East, they battle with swords and cunning and even magic against pirates and hired goons, they discover abandoned cities and artifacts from centuries prior, they are teleported to magical worlds, they save the girl, and struggle with undead monkeys and birds.
The plot is fun and light and moves along at a good pace and never lags. Slow moments are filled by the characters telling stories which themselves are entertaining and help the reader to better understand the plot- it as if there are other books just waiting to be written about the adventures of Asim and Dabir. There are no complicated magical systems or overly explained justifications for how things are- rather there is mystery and fun and a wildness about the ride that compels the reader along.
The characters are memorable and simple to understand- this is not a book that really challenges you on a deeper level but instead a book that is fun to read and enjoy. And the settings are well-thought out and described- just enough description to give you a good sense of what sort of world the Islamic Golden Age was but not pages and pages of dense description that would lose the reader- rather you felt like you were there looking through the eyes of Asim and moving through the world and enjoying the story without reading some sort of nonfiction about the Islamic Golden Age.
Fans of Robert E. Howard will enjoy the books- not because any of this resembles Conan but rather because the adventures remind you a little bit more of Solomon Kane (The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
) (there is even an appearance by the Staff of Moses). But Howard Andrew Jones style of writing is probably closer yet to Harold Lamb, who wrote amazing historical fiction that was also set all over Asia during the Middle Ages and whose stories in my opinion were even more fun and imaginative than Howard's were. It shouldn't be surprising that Jones' style evokes Lambs'- he recently collected and helped publish them recently (read Wolf of the Steppes: The Complete Cossack Adventures, Volume One). Jones is also the managing editor of Black Gate, one of today’s leading fantasy magazines (link to the blog here).There aren't many good historical fiction sword-and-sorcery fiction stories set during the Islamic Golden Age- and I suggest that if you are looking to read a good one that you check out The Desert of Souls
, by Howard Andrew Jones.--
Posted By A Conservative Teacher to A Conservative Teacher at 5/27/2013 02:14:00 PM
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