Throne of the Crescent Moon

My appreciation of this story grew in the reading. At the beginning I marveled at the lovely marriage of a typical fantasy magic story with an underpinning that was not medieval Europe and savored it like a good cardamom tea. But it grew so far beyond just that underpinning. This book is not a gimmick. It's a well-told tale that inverts the journey! You are led to believe a band in the making will set out on the road from Dhamsawat to find a hidden mystery only to have theta,e turned inside out. It's a brilliant master stroke that keeps the reader guessing. Along the way you realize you are also reading a zombie story and some of the classic tropes are woven seamlessly into this other world of dust, Khalid's, caftans and ghuls. It's a delicious blend.