Subject: Pashazade, by Jon Courtenay GrimwoodN

From: [email-masked] (Alex McLintock)
Date: 10 Jun 2001 07:13:53 -0400

Pashazade, Jon Courtenay Grimwood
	Review Copyright 2001 Alex McLintock

There are few books that dare to have a gold coloured dust jacket, and
fewer still that actually deserve it. This is one.

I am metaphorically kicking my friends for not introducing me to
Grimwood's work earlier. Maybe it was because he has never been published
before in hardback and therefore lacked credibility. Maybe this is better
than his earlier books, I can't judge yet.

The achievement of this novel is the creation of a detailed and believable
alternate history in which the Arabic world dominates a large part of the
world, alongside the Germans and Asia. The US is little more than a
backwater country. Most of this story takes place in Iksandra (which I had
mistakenly assumed was Alexandria)

The hero protagonist, Ashraf Bey, is an American whose bad luck and poor
choice in friends and work colleagues seems to have turned for the better
when he gets broken out of jail and an all expenses paid flight to
Iksandra.  Everyone calls him "Bey", an honorific reserved for the
aristocracy and not a plain "Mister". It turns out that he is a Pashazade
- the son of royalty. Along with the title comes an honorary job in the
civil service, seemingly unending credit supply from his aunt, and an
arranged marriage.  To top it all off he has cyberpunk style wares
implanted in his brain at a very young age. The wares are like an
interactive survival manual, waking up and helping out whenever life-
threatening trouble is brewing.

Things go from trouble to fubar as the situation turns into murder hunt
with a bit more Dirty Harry than Columbo.

Most of the book is a gradually peeling back of layers as we learn more
about the protagonist, as well as throwing up new questions: Is he the
murderer? Is he just in it for the money?

We are presented with a relaxed Muslim world which is far more strict than
most Western societies but is less strict than current fundamentalist
muslim countries. In an interesting reflection of the American immigration
question "Have you ever been a terrorist?" Iksandra asks of its visitors
"Have you ever been convicted of murder?" There is a clear class system,
and it plays an important part in the plot. Everyone knows his place on
the social ladder and is trying to climb up.

Organised crime, honest cops, triads, and even a bit of love interest.
What more could you ask for?

This fast paced novel might not make it in the US of A because of
Americans unfamiliarity with other ways of living. But then book reading
SF fans are an intelligent bunch so hopefully I will be proved wrong on
that count.

%T	Pashazade
%A	Grimwood, Jon Courtenay 
%I	Earthlight
%C	London
%D	2001
%O	hardback
%G	ISBN 0743202848
%P	384pp
%K	science fiction

An html version of this book review appeared on the SF and Computing Book
Reviews website http://www.DiverseBooks.com

Alex McLintock  
http://www.OWAL.co.uk/ Internet *Software* Consultancy
http://www.DiverseBooks.com/   SF/COMPUTING BOOK REVIEWS