The Steel Seraglio [Paperback]

There were many things I liked about this novel, one thing that was OK, one thing I loved, and one thing I hated.

The novel is as described above, a story about a group of concubines and their children who are taken to the desert and to be killed, and how they decide to make their own fates. It's written as a series of stories about the backgrounds and points of view of several characters, surrounded by the frame story of a librarian who is one of the main characters. It's not unlike the structure of 1001 Nights.

Most of it is done quite beautifully, and it's in a language that takes you away to this different world, except for two sections. One of the writers is responsible for both these sections, and I wish that they hadn't been included in the form they're in. It's because the style and focus is so jarring and wrong for the rest book that it turns what should be a cohesive whole into a mess that left this reader wondering what the heck they were thinking. These two sections felt like Jim Carrey had been dropped into the book to mug for a while using modern slang and idioms ("The legate [...] decided to dip his finger in the cookie jar. [...] Who could fault him if he carried out a little quality control testing? [...] What happens in the deep desert, stays in the deep desert. [...] he saluted and went off to find the little number, armed with her name"). This made me cringe reading it. And too, while other sections focus on the themes of the novel, these seem to focus somewhat crudely on men having sex with women, and were so very out of place. It's not a question of POV either, since the style is used outside of multiple POVs.

Luckily there are only two of these. The latter one was a self-contained section that can easily be skipped, though I read it all to make sure of that before making this recommendation. The first one, unfortunately, contains Zuleika's past and so must be read.

But outside of these two sections it was an interesting story, told in a myth-like manner, about women taking control of their destinies and making a mark that would last forever. I liked how, for the most part, it felt true to time and place. I liked that the change was all a result of their own decisions and community. I liked how the two instances of magic basically made them help themselves. I liked that it wasn't a bed of roses, though sometimes it came a little easily to them. But that's par in reading a legend, which is how this for the most part reads. Hardships aren't glossed over, but there's not a lot of time and attention spent on them especially in the first half to make them personal. I did come to care about all of the women, and read the book in one sitting.

What I loved: There are a few black and white illustrations in the novel at the end of sections that are stunningly beautiful. The artist truly captured the characters within, and they really added to my enjoyment of the whole. The artist is Nimit Malavia, and I urge you to seek out his work.

I basically read this book in one night. As the earlier reviewer noted, it's written in a similar vein to the Arabian Nights (the Richard Burton version, NOT the Disney version), yet it left me with the elegiac feeling I had after finishing the Return of the King - the feeling that the world had changed and perhaps not for the better.

The descriptions of the story given above are absolutely accurate, but they don't give one the intensity the book has - one vicariously becomes a part of this world, and cares for the many inhabitants. While it is mostly about women, the male characters have critical roles, and are very well written - they are believable citizens of this world. And it is a world of love, sex, violence, politics, bravery, and treachery: I loved it.

Unlike the earlier reviewer, I enjoyed the entire book, and I found the different story telling methods to be integral to the whole plot: they give the story a 'somewhere in time' infrastructure, and one doesn't really know if this is a tale of the past, or the future (or, sort of, the present - e.g. there's a call out to a rather obscure computer programming standard). The several drawings included are wonderfully done (although he draws the strangest version of toes I've ever seen); the book is beautifully presented; and it holds up well (it's a paperback): it doesn't fall apart at the binding when the book is folded for easier handling (like when in bed).

This is a book to re-read, and it will stay with me for a long time.

I've loved Mike Carey's previous books so when I saw this one, I didn't even bother to look at the back, I bought it without a second though - ok, I considered if my budget could take the purchase. I had no idea what a fabulous and intriguing book this would turn out to be.

Unlike Mike Carey's previous work, this is not urban fantasy but straight fantasy with folklore elements. Based in a middle east like setting, this is the story of women. When the sultan of Bessa is violently overthrown, all his wives are killed. His 365 concubines are hustled out of the city as a gift to a sultan of a distant city. The usurper, Hakkim Mehdad is a religious zealot with no need for women or anything that he feels distracts him from what his god desires.

When Hakkim finds out that they concubines might be hiding one of the sultan's heirs, he orders their deaths. The concubines then must do everything in their power to save each other from the usurper.

The main characters of this book were fascinating. I loved how the book took a chapter to tell their story prior to becoming a concubine or joining with the concubines. I think my favorite was Rem, who cries inky tears. Zuleika, an assassin turned concubine was also very interesting. The men are not to be out done in this story either. While I didn't find their stories as fascinating as those of the women, I still felt like they played a vital role and were well written. I loved everyone's stories and I loved how this story unfolded and developed. While not every story blended beautifully with the next, I think that created individual voices for each of the characters and the overall story did blend.

How this story worked together is pretty impressive to start with. I'm not traditionally a fan of multiple author books because they can make a mess of things. This book had a few hiccups but I didn't see those as huge problems. The writing and storytelling otherwise was enthralling and I couldn't put this book down. 5 Stars.