This book is heavily Muslim from beginning to end, with many Farsi/Arabic words thrown in. They are always explained in the text. The author meant them for atmosphere, but I found them distracting. The middle half of the book bogs you down with the minute-to-minute life of a lion; eat, sleep, lust after female lions, sleep some more. Then toward the end we finally get to the castle and things perk up.
If you're a Beauty and the Beast fan, there are a few differences in this telling that are worth reading the book for. Other than the djinn turning the prince into the beast, there really isn't any magic in the entire book. The candles don't light themselves, food isn't magically provided, everything must be gained the old-fashioned way; by stealing it from the neighbors. Belle isn't as sweet and loveable as I'm used to her. There's a third character in the castle with them, a baby fox named Chou Chou. Beast can't speak at all, and has to communicate by scratching in the dirt with a claw. (If he had done that at the beginning with his father, it would have saved him a lot of trouble.) The biggest difference is that the book is told exclusively from the Beast's point of view.
I do recommend this book for fans, but I recommend more Robin McKinley's Beauty and Mercedes Lackey's The Fire Rose.
A sample bit from Beast, so you get a feel for the writing style. His mother is speaking to the prince before a religious sacrifice.
"I'll leave you to prepare, then," she says, straightening up. "At the prayers before the sacrifice, be sure to make your rakatha - your bows - deep and low, and to linger a moment before rising. That way I can pick you out from the other hajjiha and send you my strength." Mother leaves.
Her strength? A prince should rely on no one. But it is too late to protest; she is gone.
If you're a Beauty and the Beast fan, there are a few differences in this telling that are worth reading the book for. Other than the djinn turning the prince into the beast, there really isn't any magic in the entire book. The candles don't light themselves, food isn't magically provided, everything must be gained the old-fashioned way; by stealing it from the neighbors. Belle isn't as sweet and loveable as I'm used to her. There's a third character in the castle with them, a baby fox named Chou Chou. Beast can't speak at all, and has to communicate by scratching in the dirt with a claw. (If he had done that at the beginning with his father, it would have saved him a lot of trouble.) The biggest difference is that the book is told exclusively from the Beast's point of view.
I do recommend this book for fans, but I recommend more Robin McKinley's Beauty and Mercedes Lackey's The Fire Rose.
A sample bit from Beast, so you get a feel for the writing style. His mother is speaking to the prince before a religious sacrifice.
"I'll leave you to prepare, then," she says, straightening up. "At the prayers before the sacrifice, be sure to make your rakatha - your bows - deep and low, and to linger a moment before rising. That way I can pick you out from the other hajjiha and send you my strength." Mother leaves.
Her strength? A prince should rely on no one. But it is too late to protest; she is gone.
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