Book Review: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

After reading Saladin Ahmed's collection of short stories, I was keen to read more. This book is fantastic! Fantasy books usually seem to be swords and dragons, set in a generic European country. Crescent Moon is scimitars and sorcery, and set in a mythical Middle-Eastern country.

The writing is sublime. It feels like an ancient epic, translated a hundred years ago with archaic language left intact. It'll make good use of your eReader's dictionary to discover words like "ensorcelled".

Amongst all the blood and magic, are literary gems like:

Zamia’s little laugh cut through him like a sword poisoned with pure happiness.

But, perhaps the best thing about this, is that it reads like the end of a trilogy. The characters are all established, there's little exposition about the fantasy-word, the environment is richly textured. Above all, the characters are tired!

It is a fast-paced, exciting, and entertaining book. Perfect for fantasy-lovers who fancy something a bit different from endless Game-of-Thrones rip-offs.