Sofia

Reign of the Favored Women #1

by Ann Chamberlin

In an evocative new series of historical novels featuring the women of the Ottoman Empire, Sofia, the daughter of a Venetian aristocrat, and an Italian sailor are captured by Turkish pirates and sold into slavery during the sixteenth century. Reprint.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Romance, Novels, World Literature, Roman

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 1998

Reviews

[Carmen · Rating 1 out of 5]

RE-READ 04/29/2014
This book has two of the stupidest, most selfish protagonists I have ever had the displeasure of reading about.

1562 Venice. Sofia is a 14-year-old girl who doesn't want to get married to the man her father wants her to marry. Why? He's too weak. She wants power! She wants to rule the world!

Giorgio is also an Italian teenager. He meets Sofia. Even though she's a total jerk to him, he's overwhelmed by lust for her.

Later, when he sees her running off to elope with an Italian nobleman, he tattles on her. This leads to his life being utterly ruined. He has no chance of getting this woman, but just to spite her he ruins her elopement.

Now, she didn't love the guy she was eloping with. She was only going to marry him because he's powerful. And that's pretty much her MO for this whole book. Any new situation or place she's plunged into, she hits on the strongest man there, gets him to fall in love with her, screws his brains out and manipulates him into doing whatever she wants him to do. But she has no feelings for any man, and will drop whoever she's with at a moment's notice if someone better comes along. She hates women, too. At one point in the novel she just sits back drinking wine, ready to enjoy the spectacle of seeing her best friend (a virgin) gangraped in public.

Giorgio is no better. He chases Sofia around, alternatively hating her and buying her bullshit. He knows she's a viper, but continues helping her and standing up for her because he wants to have sex with her.

They are on a ship together, going to bring her to the man she's supposed to marry (according to her father). Giorgio's a sailor. They get boarded by Christians, Sofia tattles about something, people are hurt and die. Then they get boarded by Turkish pirates. People get hurt and die. Sofia is taken to the slave market.

Giorgio vows to get her back. He borrows money from his best friend. He pays some money just to see Sofia, since he doesn't have nearly enough to buy her. She's all like, "Oh, I love it here! Look at my new outfit! Look at this great food they're feeding me!"

He's determined to raise the money to "save" her. His best friend has an idea. But when it's finally time to go through with it, Giorgio won't go through with it on principle and loyalty to Venice. In a rage or utter childish stupidity, he ruins the deal.

Then, he breaks into the slave harem to bust Sofia out. She again tells him she's happy and excited to be a slave. She was taken to the Sultan's palace today! He might buy her!

Now that it's kind of sinking in to Giorgio that she really doesn't give a crap about him, he's captured. Because he's a man, to turn him into a slave they cut his balls off and make him a eunuch. He almost dies. Then he almost commits suicide. Then he's assigned to guard the Sultan's harem, where Sofia is ruling over all the other ladies.

Now that he's a eunuch, he finally sees Sofia for who she really is. I guess Sofia is SO pretty and SO seductive that only getting castrated will make a man immune to her powers. *rolls eyes

Things go on from there. Anyway, it's not pretty.

Also, this being a historical novel, Chamberlin goes into all this detail about how things were "back then." I don't mind it. It didn't seem clumsy like when Adair did it in the (much worse) novel THE RUNNING PATTERER. If you are interested in learning about Venice and Turkey in the 1500s, I guess this would be an interesting way to do it.

This is NOT a romance. There is sex, but it's mostly off-page, and what is on-page is not very sexy. In my opinion. So this is not a torrid bodice-ripper. It's more like an exploitation novel on the foreignness of the Muslim faith, the "romantic" idea of harems, the "exotic" people and spices of Constantinople.

Not to mention that the ideas of forced human castration, public gangrape, and all-women-are-slaves ideas are sickening and not "exotic and exciting" like the author seems to believe they are.

[Serap]

Çooookkk uzak bir geçmişte okumuştum, o yüzden yildizlamayacagim ama devam etmedigime göre sevmemişim demek ki...

[Fearless · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evet...
Hurremden daha korkusuz olması daha bilgili olduğunu gostermesede daha pratik zekalı ve daha cesur olduğu kesin kahramanımızın.
Sofia Türk Haremine düşen bir peri.. Ve uzanıp Murad'i kötü alışkanlıklarından kendine bağlaması için getirilmiş. Ama bu arada onun aklından neler geçtiğini kim bilebilir ki? Güce önem veren güzel ve zeki bir kadın tehlikeli bir birleşim oluyor..

[Inara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ortalama bi kitaptı. Abdullaha inanılmaz çok üzüldüm. Kitabın birinci kısmı sıkıcıydı, İstanbula geldikden sonraki bölümler heyecanlı ve sürükleyiciydi.

[Lana Del Slay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I look back on my initial review, and on what I remember of the book, and I've no desire to revisit any of it. Down to one star, because it's forgettable.

[Kayra Gürkan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roman, Osmanlı’da kadın ve erkek dünyasını aynı anda gözlemleyebildiği için bir hadımın ağzından yazılmış.
Eserde Sofia Baffo’nun III. Murad’a verilmek üzere hareme satılması anlatılıyor. Bu süreçte, İtalyan Veniero Sofia’ya âşık ve onu kurtarmak için büyük çaba harcıyor. Ancak bana kalırsa Safiye Sultan bunu pek hak etmiyor; uğruna bu kadar çabaya değecek biri mi? Hayır
Murad devlet işleriyle ilgisiz, “lay lay lom” bir hayat sürerken, Nurbanu Sultan’ın stratejileriyle Sofia Baffo’nun onun hayatına girmesi Murad’ı bir ölçüde değiştiriyor; onu uyuşturucudan uzaklaştırıyor. Ardından Veniero’nun yeniden olaya dahil olmasıyla olaylar karışıyor. Falat bir sorun var Veniero hafım edilmiş. Belirli bölümlerde hadım edilmiş olmanın getirdiği psikolojik ve fiziksel zorlukları anlatıyor. Sokollu Mehmed Paşa, hadım kölesini İsmihan Sultan’ı almak ve oraya götürmekle görevlendiriyor. Ancak yolda, Sokollu tarafından kör edilen Orhan; Veniero, İsmihan ve Safiye’yi kaçırıyor. Kalabalık önünde onları taciz ediyorlar.
Sonrasında, aralarında bi arbede yaşanıyor 7 kişi ölüyor ve bizim üçlü kurtuluyor. Ancak saraya döndüklerinde, “namusları kirlendi” gerekçesiyle idam edilmekle karşı karşıya kalıyorlar. Bu durumda kıvrak zekalı Safiye “Hayır, hadım bizi korudu. İnanmıyorsanız İsmihan ve Sokollu birlikte olsun, hâlâ bakire olduğunu göreceksiniz.” şeklindeki yalanlar söylüyor kendilerini kurtarıyorlar. Böylece olay kapanıyor ve herkes normal yaşantısına geri dönüyor. Bu arada siyahi Hüseyin var Veniero’nun eski dostu. O hadım olayını öğrenmişti ve Veniero’yu hadım eden kişinin bir taraflarını kökünden kesiyor kan kaybından öldükten sonra da kafasını keserek öldürüyor dostu için. Zavallı Venierom (yeni ismi Abdullah) biraz olsun rahatlamış oluyor.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is set in an unfamiliar culture of sultans and harems. I found it very engaging because there was a lot of action, intrigue, adventure, danger, and an education about the culture - although some of it was a bit TMI. It was a novel I kept wanting more time to read and find out what would happen.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, predictable, stilted language, like she’s writing a Harlequin romance.
I finished 51% and it just did not improve.

[Hilal Baltacı · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vasat.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a captivating read. I give it three stars because there were grammatical and spelling errors, and there was so much lag time. Other readers can review and rate the plot much better than I. A comparison between the Christian faith and the Islam faith is made by moving the story from Venice to Constantinople, a very effective style. Though Sulieman the Great is only mentioned in this book, his influence is a driving force of the story. Crime and punishment in Venice is tame compared to that in Constantinople. The protagonist, a young and good looking sailor from the west, was sold into slavery in the east where he was fully castrated. The act of a full castration and its consequences was told in full detail. The heroine lived in a convent in Venice and in a harem in Constantinople. The Islam customs and ways made for a very good read.
Thank you, Ms. Chamberlin, for your research and writing of a most interesting read.

[asdfghl]

As per usual, a woman's story told from the point of view of a man.

Listen, this got old 65 years ago with Wilbur Smith Something Egypt Pharaohs Hyttitos Something.

TBH the magnificent century tv series made a better story of this...

[Layla]

There is a lot about what happens beyond of the Ottoman Empire's walls... This is great for who loves history and interesting in Ottoman culture. I loved it.

[Whimsical · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting!

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I couldn't put it down until I read the trio. The story was sumptuous, but raw, the characters brutal and sublime. What a gorgeous escape!

[Sezgi · Rating 3 out of 5]

O sarayda ne entrikalar dönüyor. İnsanın ağzı açık kalıyor. Yok artık diyorsunuz. Saray entrikalarını sevenler için güzel bir roman.

[Basak Yarar · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sözüm ki tek sana geçmez, celladımsın ey zaman!"