Reviews

The world building in this is great. The characters and plot execution are meh. I found the extensive talk of the MCs outfits strange at best, and cringey at worst. The plot was fine, but the pacing was bad. By the time we got to the payoff for the buildup, I had already stopped caring. I feel like there’s a trend in fantasy at the moment to make big chunky books, and I wish that wasn’t so. If this were tightened up to 300 pages, maybe push it to 350, it would’ve been great.

rkap's review

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adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

lamanzaa's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

ielerol's review against another edition

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4.0

This being a full-length novel, I figured the procedural mystery would be bigger and more complicated than the previous shorter alternate history Cairo stories. And in some ways it was, the "returned" Al-Jahiz running around Cairo certainly upped the stakes on figuring it out, though IMO the actual mystery of who was behind it all wasn't too difficult to figure out. What's really great about the longer length is how much of the story isn't procedural mystery, and how well Clark handles it. First, there's a lot more room for background exposition, so the novel is off to a bit of a slow start. But, if only because the first two stories just barely give you enough background to sketch out the setting, I was hungry for the explanations here.

Second, there's a whole lot of world politics going on here, taking great advantage of the opportunity the alternate history provides. This world's history only diverged about 40 years before the setting, with the effect that the world has still come to the brink of maybe world war I, but with the ascendance of Egypt altering the balance of power in important ways. And the way the political situation (both within and without Egypt) ties into the mystery was excellent, much more interesting to me than the simple question of who did it.

Also, what is up with the angels? I do not trust them at all.

jojothebookbean's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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