''Throne of the Crescent Moon'' is a fantasy novel written by American writer

Saladin Ahmed Saladin Ahmed (born October 4, 1975) is an Eisner Award winning American comic book writer and a science fiction/fantasy poetry and prose writer. His 2012 book ''Throne of the Crescent Moon'' was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel and w ...

. It is the first book in ''The Crescent Moon Kingdoms'' series. The book was published by DAW Books in February 2012. The book was nominated for the 2013

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

for Best Novel, 2013 David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer and the 2012

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of profe ...

for Best Novel. It won the 2013

Locus Award for Best First Novel The Locus Award for Best First Novel is one of the annual Locus Awards presented by the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus''. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year. The award for Best Firs ...

Plot summary

The book follows Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, an aging

ghul A ghoul ( ar, غول, ') is a demon-like being or monstrous humanoid. The concept originated in pre-Islamic Arabian religion, associated with graveyards and the consumption of human flesh. Modern fiction often uses the term to label a cert ...

hunter based in the city of Dhamsawaat, who would really like to retire from having adventures and quietly drink cardamom tea. Events rapidly transpire to force the Doctor and his assistant, Raseed bas Raseed – a

Dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from fa, درویش, ''Darvīsh'') in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity A fraternity (from Latin language, Latin ''wiktionary:frater, frater'': "brother (Christian), brother"; whence, ...

warrior sworn to a holy path – to face a dark sorcerer. To aid them in this, the Doctor recruits his two old friends Dawoud and Litaz. Dawoud is a mage whose spells draw upon his own life energy and Litaz (his wife) is a highly skilled

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

. The final member of their band is Zamia, a young Badawi tribeswoman who has been gifted with the ability to take a lion's shape and whose band has been slain by the sorcerer. In addition to the magical plot, there is political trouble brewing in the city as the mysterious Falcon Prince foments revolution against the Kalif.

Reception

Reviewers have praised its Middle Eastern sourced setting novel for being different from the typical Euro-centric fantasy novel.

Annalee Newitz Annalee Newitz (born May 7, 1969) is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, who has written for the periodicals ''Popular Science'' and ''Wired''. From 1999 to 2008 Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column call ...

reviewing for

io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...

praised the characters and riveting

worldbuilding Worldbuilding is the process of constructing a world, originally an imaginary one, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task fo ...

References

2012 American novels 2012 fantasy novels DAW Books books Arab-American novels Lebanese-American culture Egyptian-American culture American fantasy novels Debut fantasy novels 2012 debut novels {{2010s-fantasy-novel-stub