qudsiramiz's Reviews (589)

I have read at least 10 books about the history of Islam and have never come across the fact that Ayesha took arms against the Caliph himself, or that Fatima never approved of one of the Caliphs. Both are arguably the most prominent women in Islam. Surprisingly, Mom (a well read woman in Islamic history) didn't know either.
I guess we (the Islamic scholars) tend to write the history forgetting any instance which may stain the otherwise pristine sheet of Islam. Unfortunately though, the history shows it has it's own share of blots.

For most of the book the writer mentions the status of women in various Islamic countries. How pitiful they all are, and what a dismal life they all are living. Though mostly true, one can feel certain bias in reporting. Or may be it was just me. She got the bull's eye though while explaining why the status of women is what it is. Yes it is the hypocritical society of ours and the fact that men dominates.

Almost everything that is wrong with Islam is wonderfully summarized in the concluding chapter of the book, "It becomes insufficient to look at Islam on paper, or Islam in history, and dwell on the inarguable improvements it brought to women's lives in seventh century. Today, the much more urgent and relevant task is to examine the way the faith has proved such fertile ground for almost every antiwomen custom it encountered in its great march out of Arabia. When it found veil and seclusion in Persia, it absorbed them; when it found genital mutilations in Egypt, it absorbed them; when it found societies in which women had never had a voice in public affairs, its own traditions of lively women's participation withered."

Yes, this is the problem. A large part of Islamic world can no longer differentiate between the customs adopted because of geographical expansion and those that were actually asked in Islam. Same goes for the non-Islamic world. They too need to study and understand that everything that a Muslim does is not necessarily what Quran has asked. It might have been born out of the land he grew up in.

Okay, Brandon Sanderson is a genius. The twists he put in his story were well awesome. Some of them were so unexpected. So yes as far as story goes it was marvellous and the ending was superb too. But his writing still irritates me. Such a grand story deserves more than the sorry language he uses. His language is plain, and though I know of certain authors who wrote in very plain and unfanciful language their writing still had certain kind of grace and charm. Sanderson's writing style lacksa either the grace or charm. And almost at the end of the book I finally got to read what I craved sinvce book one. The epic address or speech given by leaders to the soldiers. He kept mentioning that some leader said something amazing but he never wrote what they said. At the very end he wrote 3-4 lines which
Elend said addressing his soldiers and that is the only place where one could feel some graceful writing.
Anyway, it was worth a read. :)

Brilliant, brilliant story. The plot is awesome, the little twists in tale are generously and brilliantly placed. The language of this is much better than that of Mistborn series (at least the first three novels, yet to read the next four). And as with the Mistborn series, I like the way magic is performed. Spren are another beautiful imaginary species he has come up with and their true nature is so alluding and full of potential. Like, there is so much one could do with them.
Overall, I won't say a must read, but definitely a great read. :)