The Bird King

I have not yet read G. Willow Wilson's first novel, Alif the Unseen, but I really want to now, because this one was beautiful. I really enjoyed this story, watching Fatima mature through her travels and change from the sheltered Sultan's concubine/possession to become - well - what she becomes.

The Bird King is the story of Fatima, concubine, and Hassan, mapmaker, on the run from the Inquisition. They were both members of the house of the last Sultan in Iberia. When the Spanish (and the Inquisition) came to negotiate his surrender, one of their conditions was they wanted Hassan, because of the magic he used in his maps. Hassan has been Fatima's only real friend; he's the only man that wanted nothing from her, because he's gay and unmoved by her beauty. His sexuality has been largely ignored by the court; his maps were too important to the war effort, so it was tolerated and just not spoken of. When Fatima discovers the Sultan intends to turn Hassan over, she runs away with him. She has some unexpected help in her journey, which, along with Hassan's mapmaking, makes this a kind of magical realist historical fantasy novel. It's not really alternate history, because nobody's actions change how history plays out on a large scale.

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This was a beautiful, leisurely piece of magical realism set in the last years of the Emirate of Granada. It had a nice, fairytale sort of feel to the writing.

G. Willow Wilson is really a master at culture weaving. How many fantasy novels set in 1491 at the during the annexation of Muslim Granada into Catholic Spain featuring an Eastern European protagonists in a platonically romantic relationship with a gay Muslim protagonist and also a Djinn do you know? History and fantasy are woven together in a truly inspiring tale about self-worth, freedom, and love. If you enjoyed Alif the Unseen, there is a very important crossover character, but otherwise this contains the same emotional tones in an entirely different setting. I was lucky enough to see Wilson's book launch at the Boulder Book Store, and would also add she is a charming and fascinating human.