The Lion Of Cairo
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'The mark of exceptional historical fiction is its creation of an alien world so convincing (and peopled by such fascinating characters) that the reader never wants to go back to the real one. Scott Oden delivers exactly that in The Lion of Cairo, a tale of Assad the assassin that reads like a cross between the Arabian Nights and a Hollywood blockbuster. Men of Bronze and Memnon put Mr Oden squarely on the historical fiction map. The Lion of Cairo assures his place in the very front rank.' -- Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire
Book Description
Thrilling, action-packed historical novel set in Egypt during the time of the Crusades...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent action novel set in Medieval Egypt,
By
This review is from: The Lion Of Cairo (Hardcover)
Scott Oden had already produced two excellent novels set in the Ancient world: `Men of Bronze' and `Memnon'. With `Lion of Cairo' he has shown that he can write just as well about the Medieval world as he can the Ancient.
What Oden has done so well in this case - as he did with `Memnon' - is taking a little-known (to most people) historical episode and weaving his fictional characters into it. In this case, it is all about the wrangling over control of Egypt in the mid-12th century, and the political machinations of the secret sect of killers whom we know as the Assassins. The hero is Assad, himself an Assassin, sent on what is effectively a diplomatic mission to the Fatimid court at Cairo ... but with particular instructions to do away with those who might upset the status quo. I was concerned at first that it would be difficult to make a hero out of an Assassin; but Oden uses the historical division between the Persian and Syrian branches of the sect to make Assad a sympathetic killer, which solves the moral problem of rooting for a `bad guy'. The writing is good and brisk, and the plotting is, overall, more than competent (more of that in a while). Oden manages to evoke a believable medieval background which, if it doesn't exactly make you believe you are in the Middle East, at least reads with a good deal of authenticity - unlike some writers of historical fiction, whose prose makes me thing I'm in 20th century England. He deals with the fact that his characters are Muslim with assurance. His characters are well defined, with enough layers to make them properly human, rather than two-dimensional cut-outs; and he handles the action very well - it is, in fact, one of his strengths (and I have read some books that were let down terribly by the fight scenes). I said that the plotting was more than competent. I had a bit of a reservation for a while, that so many characters whom Assad met ended up being killed - it was almost like the old joke about `Murder She Wrote', that anyone whom the protagonist met would end up dead. But this potential problem stopped around half way through the book, and Oden's skill is that he was able to make the threads of all these deaths hang together and drive the plot forward, so that I forgot my reservations as everything moved towards the climax. It was very obvious that there will be a sequel to `Lion of Cairo' - I look forward to it with anticipation. Those who know their Crusades history will probably have recognised one of the major historical figures who appears towards the end of `Lion of Cairo' (albeit not under the sobriquet he is usually known by); I trust that we will see more of him in the sequel, as well?
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rousing Adventure in the time of the Crusades,
By
This review is from: The Lion Of Cairo (Hardcover)
Fans of Robert E. Howard and Harold Lamb, as well as fans of well-written historical adventure fiction, will enjoy "The Lion of Cairo". Though Oden's style and plot pay homage to the old masters of the genre, he's created a vibrant new work. Set chiefly in Cairo at the time of the Crusades, it's a Cairo which has slight differences, acknowledged by Oden, from that of straight history. Oden uses these differences chiefly in connection with the book's main character, an Assassin known as the Emir of the Knife, who wields a sword with supernatural abilities. Filled with palace intrigues, conflicts between secret sects as well as Muslims and Christians, battles large and small, and a host of well-developed characters often moving at cross-purposes to each other, Oden has created a violent, believable world that I hope he'll return to in the future. An extremely enjoyable read, and highly recommended to all fans of historical adventure.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Meet interesting people and kill them!",
By
This review is from: The Lion Of Cairo (Hardcover)
Unlike Memnon, which in my view remains Scott Oden's masterpiece, this book didn't really work for me. It has much of the same ingredients:
- an original plot, with the tale being of an elite assassin being sent into Cairo as the weak Fatimid regime is threatened by both Nur Ed Din and the Christians of King Amaury - fast-paced and well written action scenes, including murders, hand-to-hand fighting and a pitched battle - an interesting and somewhat engaging character, which, this time, is entirely fictitious (just like the hero in Men of Bronze, but unlike Memnon) There were, however, a number of things that just didn't work out, at least for me: - our hero seems to spend most of his time killing people. Of course, this is hardly surprising coming from an assassin. However, the frequency and the ease with which this seems to happen is rather incredible, especially when he faces his fellow assassins on his own and takes them all out with what looks like consumate ease - while all this is happening, you can't help wondering what the police was up to? The vizier forces, whose political and physical future depended on staying on top of things, seems both powerless and clueless - finally, having the Christians scared of being assassinated is possible, although a bit of a stretch - it was more difficult for Assassins to get at Christians than it was to get at Muslim leaders - although there are historically at least a couple of examples a successful kills (one was a Count of Tripoli, the other, well after our story, was Conrad of Montferrat). However, reading about the formidable and fanatical Knight Tempplars being scared of the Assassin made me smile and snigger: it somehow didn't sound right. Indeed, as another reviewer put it, this sounded like "Assassin's Creed" at times. Since it wasn't what I was looking for, I was somewhat disappointed...
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