Blog: In Defence of Saladin Ahmed

This is the first in what I’m going to call my ‘blogging series’. I’m aware that I run a blog, so technically every post is ‘blogging’. However, most of my posts tend to be less about me and my opinions and more about topics. They’re more magazine-y in style, because that’s the type of content I enjoy reading.

So, from time to time, I’ll write a true ‘blog post’ which I’ll use to discuss myself and issues that I want to talk about and share my opinion on. Hopefully you guys will read them and enjoy them just as much as my other content.

Today I want to talk about a certain fantasy author called Saladin Ahmed who broke onto the scene in 2012 with Throne of the Crescent Moon. It was a fantastic book and I even reviewed it for this blog. So late last year I decided to go looking for the sequel (assuming there was one). Much to my disappointment I found nothing on Amazon and nothing in my local bookshop either. I decided to check out Mr. Ahmed’s website in December last year and I finally found answers.

Having read this review for ‘Throne of the Crescent Moon’ by Saladin Ahmed, I’m now eagerly awaiting it to arrive from Amazon. Check it out if you get a chance, it looks very interesting indeed.

The Malaysian Reader

Popular modern English fantasy is largely the result of “white” meeting “bread”. The authors were/are more often than not very WASPish and their stories clearly have a medieval European feel to it. Nothing wrong there. After all, you should write what you know about. Still, it would be nice to read something not set in thinly disguised 12th century Europe where the only swarthy characters are the villains. That’s why Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon went straight to my must-read-now list when I first learned about it (thanks Omnivoracious!) The author’s name and the title were enough to make me pre-order it even though I’ve gone off fantasy novels lately. I’m impulsive and fickle like that.

Being of Arab descent (not sure if he’s Muslim though, not that it matters) Saladin Ahmed chose to set his Crescent Moon Kingdoms in a distinctly Middle Eastern landscape with Arabic-like…

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