User Profile

harun el rashid

toreachpoise@wyrms.de

Joined 2 years, 11 months ago

just a guy who loves books

This link opens in a pop-up window

harun el rashid's books

The Satanic Verses (Paperback, 1997, Picador USA) 4 stars

Just before dawn one winter's morning, a hijacked jetliner explodes above the English Channel. Through …

Review of 'The Satanic Verses' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

Absolutely incredible. Took me ages to read but what a spectacular achievement. A wild story and deep reflections on the nation and religion, identity and myth. Some of the gender dynamics are a bit dated these days but otherwise absolutely bang on. Well worth a fatwa or two

Review of "Seaweed Collector's Handbook" on 'GoodReads'

3 stars

This book mostly contains random cultural notes on seaweed & its preservation. The illustrations are cool and they are interesting, though the sections often follow each other in confusing fashion. I wish there had been more seaweed ID information here, rather than random paragraphs about Harry Potter and Christopher Columbus.

Firethorn (Paperback, 2005, Spectra) 2 stars

Review of 'Firethorn' on 'GoodReads'

2 stars

The Adrienne Rich poem at the beginning set my expectations for this book way too high.

I thought this was going to be a badass adventure story about a witch destroying patriarchy. Instead it's about some woman becoming a medieval knight's fuck-sleeve (more or less the actual terminology used THROUGHOUT THE BOOK.) The world of the book sounds interesting but is never developed. Likewise for the magical lore, or even the MC's character development. Instead, we spend over 300 pages as the main character does nothing, with a barrage of rapey sex scenes that could only be hot to the most repressed of heterosexual housewives.

I literally threw this book out the window at the end, when after waiting for so fucking long to see what happens when they go to war, the story ends on a cliffhanger. I will not be reading the sequel. This shit sucked.