#Empire of Lies, by Raymond Khoury.
I confess, I’m all about plot, which is after all, story. When I read the publisher’s description of the plot of Empire of Lies, I couldn’t wait to read it. It sounded to me like an exciting alternative history adventure. The author is well-known, so my expectations were possibly higher than they should’ve been. The plot elements were fascinating—a grab bag of present day Paris occupied by ISIS, white Christian (only) America, European/Muslim history beginning around 1680, and a djinn! (Translation: time traveler.) Some risky romance, some beheadings...I hope you get the idea. So as I hope you can see, I was eager for this story. With such brilliant elements, imho it could have been a great book. Fabulous ideas! But the writing was loose, the pace spotty, the characters cardboard. After the prologue whet my interest, reading became a chore.
It was almost as if the book in my hand contained jotted down ideas for the plot, not the finished product. Now and then a chunk of history read as if cut=and=pasted from Wikipedia. This book/story might delight other readers. But I was disappointed, Crushingly disappointed, to be frank. This review is from a copy of the book provided free by #NetGalley and by Macmillan-Tor Forge.
#Empire of Lies.
**
I confess, I’m all about plot, which is after all, story. When I read the publisher’s description of the plot of Empire of Lies, I couldn’t wait to read it. It sounded to me like an exciting alternative history adventure. The author is well-known, so my expectations were possibly higher than they should’ve been. The plot elements were fascinating—a grab bag of present day Paris occupied by ISIS, white Christian (only) America, European/Muslim history beginning around 1680, and a djinn! (Translation: time traveler.) Some risky romance, some beheadings...I hope you get the idea. So as I hope you can see, I was eager for this story. With such brilliant elements, imho it could have been a great book. Fabulous ideas! But the writing was loose, the pace spotty, the characters cardboard. After the prologue whet my interest, reading became a chore.
It was almost as if the book in my hand contained jotted down ideas for the plot, not the finished product. Now and then a chunk of history read as if cut=and=pasted from Wikipedia. This book/story might delight other readers. But I was disappointed, Crushingly disappointed, to be frank. This review is from a copy of the book provided free by #NetGalley and by Macmillan-Tor Forge.
#Empire of Lies.
**