Throne of the Crescent Moon

[sawyl]

I've been meaning to write something about Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon for a while, but for one reason and another I haven't quite got round to it. Set in the city of Dhamsawaat, where the Khalif rules from the titular throne, the story conjures up a rollicking adventure that draws in elements from Arabian Nights, pre-Islamic myths, and even Errol Flynn and the golden age of Hollywood.

The story opens with the middle-aged Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, the city's last remaining ghul hunter, contemplating the idea of retirement. But when the nephew of his mistress arrives with the grim news that his family have been murdered by a pack of ghuls, Adoulla snaps into action. In the company of his assistant, a young dervish called Raseed, the Doctor confronts the monsters only to discover that they're much stronger than the average ghul. Saved only by the chance intervention of a young tribeswoman called Zamia, who has seen her entire band fall to the monsters, the hunters retreat to the city to regroup and reconsider.

But the monsters refuse to respect the sanctuary of Dhamsawaat and Adoulla is forced to call on the help of his friends Litaz and Dawoud, two former assistants who used to work with him in his younger days. Gradually the hunters' problems start to yield to a combination of the wisdom of the older generation and the zeal of the younger, allowing the group to crack the secret of the ghul master's plans for the city. But when they start to put their plans into action, they discover that someone else also seems to have cracked the mystery.

I'm not at all surprised Throne of the Crescent Moon has found its way onto the shortlists for both the Nebulas and the Hugos. The world building is excellent and Dhamsawaat, with its squares and quarters and tea houses and traffic jams, feels so real you can practically smell it. The setting also cleverly mixes the mythic and religious elements — statues of angels, fallen spirits, books of scripture and implied monotheism — in a way that makes it intriguingly hard to tell whether the setting is pre- or early- Islamic.

The characters are well drawn and rather atypical for epic fantasy heroes. Adoulla, Litaz and Dawoud are all middle-aged, lower middle-class — for Litaz, this is a step down from being a pasha's niece, but for Adoulla it is a hard-won step up from his origins in the local orphanage — and engaged in society, rather than being outside, but without any great love for the ruling aristocracy. But, to be fair, the city's rulers don't seem to have a great deal fo time for its ordinary citizens. The Falcon Prince, Ahmed's Flynn-like folk hero determined to end the oppressive rule of the current Khalif, is a bit of a delight. With his showy swagger and his Robin Hood rescues, he feels as thought he has wandered in from a 1940's Technicolor movie complete with a Korngold soundtrack. But unlike the heroes of the big screen the Falcon Prince occasionally finds himself flummoxed and out of his depth, when events fail to unfold exactly as anticipated.

Highly recommended.