Took quite a while to dig hooks into my interest. Exactly 40% of insipid story. But then a hint of a spark flashed as a major reveal unfolded its purpose and a timeline divided unexpectedly, but still: 

 

5 stars to me for finishing this 484 page window-wedge. 

 

Sure, there was a lot of action, fast-paced adventure in deserts and on seas, a few noggin-scratching twists, predictable juvenile romances [parenthesis here: apart from beginning with a scene implying forced sex, there isn’t any gag-me smut in this novel, and for that I was grateful, but I still wouldn’t recommend it to younger than 15 year olds for suggestiveness and other mature themes], and I don’t know if it’s that I’ve now read way too many in this genre that they begin to blend…? or that this one just didn’t have the spark of djinn magic I was hoping for…? The main characters did naught to convince me I needed to ‘give two figs’ about them or their people, and they were a fickle group of young adults, jumping from one thing to the next, changing lovers and brothers by chapters, never tucking in their chairs nor cleaning up their messes as they flew willy-nilly to the next disastrous relationship. They were a shockingly shallow group of 20-somethings, utterly absorbed in themselves and their own perspectives on politics and people—like I’ve never seen that before. How strange. 

 

However, this story did stab several points of political interest square in the chest; a none-too-subtle allegory for anyone who’s been paying attention to Middle Eastern politics and governments for the last half-century (or this year). The social commentary behind the fiction churned in the old thinker, suggesting that the generations-old conflicts between neighbouring nations, thought to be based on their spiritual or religious leanings, really has its roots in something older, far older, some entity entirely other... 

 

Considering the political landscape from the Red Sea to the borders of The Stans at the edge of Mesopotamia, these are issues and ideologies ripe for consideration (when are they not?). They were the meat and bones of the novel, but I found that the characters—in dialogue, relationships and action—detracted from the severity of the issues with their pettiness and narcissism, and while this all ended on a ding with a lightbulb, it took far too long with too many flighty fickle types to get there. 

 

I have heard that this is a spin-off from another, more complex series with characters that grip you by the guts and garters. I’d go for that by this author, she certainly can tell a story.