The
Chronicle of Sword and Sand: Baghdad, AD 790. Caliph Harun al-Rashid presides
over the greatest metropolis on Earth, ruler of an empire stretches from China
to Byzantium. His exploits will be recorded in Alf Layla or, as we know it, The
Book of One Thousand and One Nights.
But
The Thousand and One Nights are silent on the deeds and adventures that befell
two of the Caliph's subjects: the renowned scholar Dabir ibn Kahlil, and his shield
and right hand, Asim el Abbas. For their story, we must turn to the Chronicle
of Sand and Sword...
The
Desert of Souls: Amid the trackless sands of ancient Arabia, two companions - a
swordsman and a scholar - search for the ruins of the lost city of Ubar. Before
their quest is over, they will battle necromancers and animated corpses, they
will confront a creature that has traded wisdom for the souls of men since the
dawn of time and they will fight to save a city's soul.
I came a across Desert of Souls in the
Head of Zeus line-up and was drawn from first glimpsing the synopsis and the
cover. I can’t recall having read a desert, Arabian Thousand and One Nights
inspired story. Directly images of The Prince of Persia and Aladdin sprang to
mind. The Desert of Souls works its magical wonders in between the well known
urban and epic fantasy, this Arabian Thousand and One Nights story stands out.
The Desert of Souls is the first book
in the Chronicles of Sword and Sand written by Howard Andrew Jones who has been
a Managing Editor for Black Gate. The second and third books as well as a short
story collection will be released by Head of Zeus later this year.
In The Desert of Souls you closely
follow the adventures of Asim el Abbas and his long friend Dabir ibn Kahlil.
This does only become more obvious a few chapters in to the book. The start is
actually more broad introduction into the lives of both friends and their
master Jaffar. It is by an accident that they get caught up in the plans of the
evil fire sorcerer Firouz and a the Greek sorcerer Diomedes. Like I mentioned
the story first revolves around Asim and Dabir and their master Jaffer, they
have just let their fates being read, which they distrust somewhat but I will
get back to that, then all of a sudden they are right smack in the middle of
the stories plot. They come across a
artifact. A door pull. This actually caught me off guard, I totally
wasn’t expecting to come across reading this and I didn’t know how to respond
and how these pulls would translate back into the storyline itself. But I must
say that it was a very cool thing to see the extent of the power of the pulls.
Because you know what a door pull does.. it was a well thought-out plan,
followed up nicely and fitted just spot on in the backdrop of this Arabian
sword and sorcery.
The characters Asim and Dabir are the
focus in The Desert of Souls. Asim is the a warrior working for Jaffer and
Dabir the scholar. Now you might just say a perfect team, the brawn and the
brains. Though this is true in a sense, both Asim and Dabir are not without
their flaws. They do not hold any specific titles of heritage they are just
servants of their master Jaffar and sent out to stop Firouz. There choices
aren’t always the best and they have their own learning moments. It was for me
by portraying them in this way that were made more human and relatable, they
made a few rash decision that almost made me shout at them, no don’t! Making them more of the common people instead
of elitist really made this part of the book for me.
The Desert of Souls is being told from
the perspective of Asim. By using this approach the story really did
feel like a chronicle being retold. However the tone is different from what you would expect from how Asim is shown. This led to my assumption that the narration was from a more experienced, wiser and
older Asim. Just a small remark I think that a prologue would have made this
story telling aspect that much stronger because the book ends with “for this
tale is done” as told by Asim. Next to that a sort of recapture by Asim could have added a bit
more depth because again in the end Asim mentions other storylines and adding
that the other stories must wait for another time. However the narration done
by Asim was quite subtle and if you paid close attention you could see that the
more experience Asim was sometimes trying to say that things could have been
carried out in a better way.
I can make a educated guess as to what was meant with the fates in the beginning (Jaffar, Dabir and Asim had their future fates read, and said there must have been a mix up with them, they did not sound logic in their ears), and hope that on one hand there will be a more pronounced looking back on the characters by Asim, but on the other hand this subtleness does impose an alluring sense to the book and keep you questioning about the if’s and how’s.
I can make a educated guess as to what was meant with the fates in the beginning (Jaffar, Dabir and Asim had their future fates read, and said there must have been a mix up with them, they did not sound logic in their ears), and hope that on one hand there will be a more pronounced looking back on the characters by Asim, but on the other hand this subtleness does impose an alluring sense to the book and keep you questioning about the if’s and how’s.
Desert of Souls sets itself apart with its Thousand and One Nights inspired story. And has next to this main aspect a lot of other things that make it an great read, the supernatural aspects of the djinn, the necromancy and fire sorcery and lets not forget the hidden magical city. Desert of Souls is a very engaging read and shows a lot of promise into a fresh and original new series. Every event, from scenes in the palace or the sword fights or the trek through the desert are written in such an lively and evocative way its just amazing. Desert of Souls shows that other genres can still compete with the highly popular urban fantasy genre.