Holy moly what a book! I just want to preface that this is my very first foray into the writings of Raymond Khoury. The synopsis of the book as well as reading a preview of the first chapter hooked me instantly. Being that I'm a fan of alternate history plots, this one was right up my alley.
This book gives a really great refreshing take on a "What If?" scenario that I haven't seen being done a lot. The story centers around a world in which the Ottoman Empire still exists and has taken control of practically all of Europe and all of the Middle East. This world is depicted as a world where neither WWI or WWII happened let alone any other wars since then. Despite of some of the pluses of this world, the trade off is that the entire empire is one gigantic police state. With the advent of technology, it has become easier for Big Brother to keep tabs on the subjects of the empire. All of this came to fruition because of a mysterious individual that appeared to the sultan of the empire in the 1600s in the advent of a major battle that, in the history we come to know, the empire spectacularly loses. We meet individuals who end up crossing paths with this mysterious individual in modern (alternate history) Paris and we take off on a really fun ride.
There is A LOT of history building in this book. If you're not one for that type of exposition then this book is certainly not for you. I found the history extremely fascinating because not only do we get a sprinkle of the actual events that transpired but we also get a timeline of events that would lead to the Ottoman Empire in becoming the large civilization it might have become in modern times. It was extremely cool to read especially since I don't have much knowledge in that particular period.
I will say it was very fun to read some of the Turkish phrases and words in the story personally being that I did end up taking a trip to Turkey a couple of years ago and learned a little bit of the language to make my way around the cities. Learning a little bit more of Islamic customs was a really neat insight as well.
All in all, I had a really great time reading this book. I never wanted to put the book down because I wanted to find out what was going to happen next. It certainly was a nice starting point in reading more books by Khoury.
This book gives a really great refreshing take on a "What If?" scenario that I haven't seen being done a lot. The story centers around a world in which the Ottoman Empire still exists and has taken control of practically all of Europe and all of the Middle East. This world is depicted as a world where neither WWI or WWII happened let alone any other wars since then. Despite of some of the pluses of this world, the trade off is that the entire empire is one gigantic police state. With the advent of technology, it has become easier for Big Brother to keep tabs on the subjects of the empire. All of this came to fruition because of a mysterious individual that appeared to the sultan of the empire in the 1600s in the advent of a major battle that, in the history we come to know, the empire spectacularly loses. We meet individuals who end up crossing paths with this mysterious individual in modern (alternate history) Paris and we take off on a really fun ride.
There is A LOT of history building in this book. If you're not one for that type of exposition then this book is certainly not for you. I found the history extremely fascinating because not only do we get a sprinkle of the actual events that transpired but we also get a timeline of events that would lead to the Ottoman Empire in becoming the large civilization it might have become in modern times. It was extremely cool to read especially since I don't have much knowledge in that particular period.
I will say it was very fun to read some of the Turkish phrases and words in the story personally being that I did end up taking a trip to Turkey a couple of years ago and learned a little bit of the language to make my way around the cities. Learning a little bit more of Islamic customs was a really neat insight as well.
All in all, I had a really great time reading this book. I never wanted to put the book down because I wanted to find out what was going to happen next. It certainly was a nice starting point in reading more books by Khoury.