Continued: Re-Reading Cassan Astor and the Desert Empress – More Thoughts!

This morning, I wrote my thoughts after re-reading Cassan Astor and the Desert Empress (follow that link for that post). But as the day went on, I reflected on some additional thoughts that I’d neglected to mention in my initial post, so I wanted to add to that post here. Therefore, you can consider this post an extension of the previous one.

Those thoughts I mentioned revolve around one character: General Aharon.

General Aharon is an antagonist in this series. In the later Cassan Astor books, we know he is a cold-blooded killer, but when we initially meet him in the first book, he is coming from a very different place. Don’t get me wrong – he’s still not a good guy at first. He’s rude, he’s obscene, he’s arrogant, he gets in everyone’s way. That’s him from the get-go. But being mean isn’t the same as being a literal murderer and I forgot how well this book takes General Aharon on the journey from arrogant and annoying to outright evil. This book takes him excellently on that journey in a way that feels natural. It is really a great villain origin story for Aharon and I forgot how well that arc moves along. It’s one of the book’s strengths in my opinion.

Another thing that’s really great about General Aharon is that he’s one of the few characters to not only overlap between the Cassan Astor and Empress Isis storylines, but he is absolutely pivotal to both of their stories. The journey of Isis would not be the same without Aharon. Likewise, the journey of Cassan Astor would not be the same without Aharon. He is absolutely essential for the stories of both characters in a series where those two characters tend to have very isolated, very different storylines.

So, in short, I think Aharon is one of the strongest aspects of the book Cassan Astor and the Desert Empress.

For those of you who have read past the first book (spoilers ahead), you know that Aharon eventually loses an eye in a swordfight with Haldir. Once he loses his eye, in my opinion, that is when he becomes all the more menacing and villain-like. I look forward to continuing to read his journey as I read the next books in the series.

If you have yet to read the Cassan Astor series, what are you waiting for? Check it out now on Amazon!