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Throne of the Crescent Moon (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, #1)

Saladin Ahmed

Start date: June 26, 2012

Finish date: July 24, 2012

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What Members Thought

Jul 03, 2012 Felicia rated it it was ok

I went into this with a open mind knowing a tale based on a fictional Islamic Fertile Crescent inspired kingdom would have skewed gender biases. I knew this book would not be like Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Leiutenant. I was willing to forgive the narrow field of characters for women, and totally expected while I did not condone the use of phrase like "cry like a woman". I was willing to even allow for the word whore and mistreatment of women in the novel solely because it added a historic val I went into this with a open mind knowing a tale based on a fictional Islamic Fertile Crescent inspired kingdom would have skewed gender biases. I knew this book would not be like Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Leiutenant. I was willing to forgive the narrow field of characters for women, and totally expected while I did not condone the use of phrase like "cry like a woman". I was willing to even allow for the word whore and mistreatment of women in the novel solely because it added a historic validity and added to the mood and setting of the story. It was not something I agreed with but it did create an atmosphere. Even to a lesser extent I was willing to put up with what I felt was uneven character development between the opposing characters of Raseed and Zamia. But the thing that was totally unacceptable to me, and will keep me from ever rereading this book and think twice before picking up anything else by the author, was when Zamia tells us she can't shapeshift when she is on her period. Now while I understand this to be a cultural reference to women being unable to do things in Islam like pray when they are menstrating, I felt this particular bit of information was awkward, more insulting than anything I had read previously, and worst of all, completely unnecessary for either plot or character development. In no way does this hinder her in the actual plot and it's just throne in as gee lucky break my period was last week or I wouldn't be able to fight the final boss.

I had to put the book down and walk away for several days before deciding to finish it. But it wasn't the same and it was the straw that broke the camels back. I read the rest solely out of duty to not leave the story unfinished and couldn't enjoy it.

By no means do I think this makes the author sexist. On the contrary. I think he was working diligently to create a strong female character, but did so only through strength. One could argue that he was trying to emulate the cultures' stories but lets be honest. This story was written in the 21st century and there are standards for female characters I felt the author not only didn't meet, but totally failed to go in the correct direction.it was truly unnecessary and offensive to both men and women who feel like these representations of women are ludicrous and poor development on the part of the author. I would likely only read anything else he writes if he does some serious development on his female character building skills. ...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Quick ben rated it really liked it

It was nice to see a fantasy not set in the usual Eurocentric milieu.I had high expectations for this book and was not disappointed.The book was under 300 pages and in these days of back breaking tomes I consider it an achievement in itself.

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Feb 18, 2016 Stuart Hodge rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, adventure, 2016-read-harder-challenge

Cool setting, different lead characters, but still it didnt really do it for me. Needed a bit more meat on the bones of the story, I never really felt the stakes.

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