Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi | it’s not for me
LLIBRARY15 | S O C I A L M E D I A |
I had relatively better time than you did probably because I listened to the audiobook. But as a person from a Muslim country, I can tell this book was written for Western audience and not for people from those cultures this book has drawn inspiration from. As for the historical accuracy, I completely agree with you. Amina’s views of feminism and homosexuality in a 12th century Muslim society doesn’t sound authentic when in most modern Muslim countries we’re still dealing with these issues and we’re definitely nowhere near where Amina was at that time.
I thought Daevabad was good, nothing great. I tried the writing sample and knew it wasn’t for me. One thing which I find a lot of authors to be doing (R F Kuang is another example for me with Babel) is trying to superpose 21st century sensibilities in whichever period they are writing about. Which can “feel good” to read but I feel undermines the long (and ongoing) struggle to overcome certain challenges through centuries. Wonderful discussion. The only historical fantasy I’ve kind of liked since Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke is The Shadow Histories by H G Parry (I found the books through your channel so many thanks for that). Yes it was a bit dry but it was very well-done imo. When people mess with history and pass it off as “authentic” (not just the author but the entire editorial team since this is traditionally published), I’m like “just no”. Please stop it. Please.