My Name is Red

Well, I am fence sitting on this one. The overwhelmingly positive reviews from fellow readers make me the outlier on this.

For me I found it a complex and demanding read, yet it was also repetitive and at times numbing in its detail (something I normally find appealing!). While all aspects of the multi-layered story appealed to me, the detail of the miniatures somehow overtook the miniatures as a whole, and I wasn't able to take as much from them as I had hoped.

Without a couple of days off work with a cold, I would probably have laboured harder on this book at its 670 pages of dense text - a larger investment than I am often prepared to make with so many other books awaiting my attention, but it did feel overlong and in my view could have be through a harder edit to reduce page count without affecting the story.

However, I thought it wrapped up much quicker than was necessary (no spoilers so I won't develop that theme much more) with the conclusion to the story of Master Osman and the Sultan's enquiry into the murder left unresolved other than a brief mention.

I am usually a fan of stories with in stories, but I found most of these a distraction - although I realise the reason for having them in the narrative - the formulaic three fables thing seemed to add to the tedium for me as I read.

So, as you can tell, I didn't love this novel. I do think it was masterfully crafted with the continually changing perspective, and aspects were excellent, but for me overlong and drawn out.

On this basis a solid 3 stars.