I really liked the concept of this book as I love alternate histories, in general. I have a special interest in Turkey and the Ottoman Empire as my husband it Turkish and I always love learning about the history of the country and culture. While there are some things I loved about the way the book depicted Ottoman/Turkish culture, you could still tell that it was a non-Turk writing the book. The feel of it all was more Arab, which makes sense given the background of the author. Even details as small as the spelling of the names are incorrect. I understand that the book is supposed to be an extrapolation and modern Turkish would have developed differently than it has now, but since there is a modern system in place, I feel the author should have used it. I also want to point out that the spellings as they are written in the book are examples of the western transliterations of Arab/Turkic names. I also feel that religion played too big a part in the story. While the Ottoman Empire was a Muslim empire, they allowed religions of all sorts to be practiced under their rule. I don't believe that a modern world with an extant Ottoman Empire would be segregated by gender/sex. Although I do think the idea of America as a Christian Republic is pretty believable. All in all it's an enjoyable read if you don't know a lot about the Ottoman Empire or Western Asian history in general, which I feel is the author's target audience. It's enjoyable but, as a history buff, there are things that definitely bother me.