All too often, the only fantasy we read is that written by white Westerners with a Christian or Jewish religous/cultural background. It is therefore a joy to read the occasional book, written in English, that taps into another culture, penned by someone who has more than a touristy knowledge of it.
I’m white and Western, but I have lived 80% of my (long!) adult life in Muslim and Asian or African societies, married to someone who is neither white nor western nor Christian. Which is one of the reasons I try to tap into this experience in my world building. Certainly, I will be doing this in my new trilogy, and the title of the first book, “The Lascar’s Dagger” gives a hint of this. There’s even a possibility that somewhere in my nuclear-scientist husband’s ancestry, there was a lascar… My husband was after all, born in a place which was once one of the world’s great ports (Malacca), and his lineage originates from Muslim Aceh in Sumatra.
But I digress. This blog post is not about me, but to point in the direction of another writer, American-born, but of Arab descent, who has also tapped into his non-white, non-western, non-Christian cultural background with his first novel.
His name is Saladin Ahmed. And his first book is called “Throne of the Crescent Moon“.
“The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, land of djenn and ghuls, holy warriors and
heretics, Khalifs and killers, is at the boiling point of a power
struggle between the iron-fisted Khalif and the mysterious master thief
known as the Falcon Prince. In the midst of this brewing rebellion a
series of brutal supernatural murders strikes at the heart of the
Kingdoms. It is up to a handful of heroes to learn the truth behind
these killings….“
His blog is here. Scroll down to read one of his short stories.
If you want to buy the throne of the crescent Moon, you can do it best from Saladin’s website here.
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Thanks, Glenda. I'll certainly be checking that one out! And looking forward to your next book, too!
Meantime, I'll work on getting posts right the first time!
I will definitely check this out, but I had to giggle… the way your post is displayed on my computer I thought it said Klingons, not Kingdoms!
Also looking forward to your next book!
Barb