Amazon.co.uk Review
Tom Arden's The Orokon, his fabulous fantasy quintet of the awesome and the charmingly ludicrous, reaches its third volume with
Sultan of the Moon and Stars. In the first two volumes
The Harlequin's Dance and
The King and Queen of Swords, crippled Jem is given the use of his legs, learns that he is the rightful heir and starts collecting the scattered crystals which will put the world to rights; he also goes to balls, travels with persecuted show people and learns the job of being a hero:
"Jem looked down at the heavy plates, greasy with remnants of salt-pig and mustard.
'Don't mind my friend,' Rajal was saying. 'Our guardian once arranged for him to learn to be a gentleman, but truth to tell--he killed his teacher before the lessons were complete.'
The captain's eyes twinkled. He gestured to the weapons abut the walls that clinked with the sluggish shiftings of the tide. 'With what, me lovely? A cutlas? A claymore?
'Shot him in cold blood."
Now Jem and his friend Rajal, and their not entirely trustworthy patron Lord Empster, followed soon after by Jem's beloved Cata, and her villainous suitor Polty, embark on adventures in a land of burning sands and populous cities, where the crystal they seek is the core of religion and rule. Treachery abounds and wild magic is almost commonplace; we also learn of a princess who is not all there, but not in the usual way. Arden's take on Arabian Nights material is informed by some serious thought about the telling of tales and the Orient of Hollywood; as always with this wonderful baggy monster of an epic, it mixes thrills and ironic humour with delightful camp profusion. --Roz Kaveney
Product Description
The vision came in a wilderness long ago, commanding the Sultan's ancestor to lead his peoples to the place that would be called the Sacred City. There, deep within a rocky cavern, there burns an immense, roaring column of fire: the Sacred Flame, the source of the Sultan's power. But the Flame harbours a terrible secret - and so does the Sultan. Prince Jemany is plunged into a seething hotbed of political machinations and rebellion as he begins the next stage of his quest to seek the long-lost crystals of the Orokon. Already the anti-god Toth Vexrah, has burst free from the Realm of Unbeing and is working his evil upon the susceptible and easily swayed. Only Jern standsin his way but Jem is trapped in the bizarre, horrifying dreamworld of the enchanter Almoran. Meanwhile his lost love Cata becomes embroiled with the Shimmering Princess, the idol of millions, whose fate holds the key to the Sultan's empire - and to the whereabouts of the third crystal, the pulsing red crystal of the fire god Theron.
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