Matt Boehm Boehm itibaren Archaggelos itibaren Archaggelos

The Harafish begins with the story of Ashur al-Nagi, an abandoned baby who grows up to bring justice to his Cairo alley as clan chief. Rather than use his position to enrich himself as other chiefs do, Ashur raises up the harafish--or the common people--of the alley while continuing his simple life as a cart driver. It's also the story of many of his decendants, who aspire to live up to his legendary greatness (greatness through modesty, that is) but mostly fail due to greed, ambition and sometimes madness. It's about so many decendents, in fact, that I wish I'd drawn a diagram to keep track of all the generations and characters. Several of them have the same names,too. This is truly an epic story, even for Mahfouz. These are good to great short stories individually. Together they chronicle hundreds of years of events in this one community. Though I can't be sure how many hundred without that diagram. Being able to cover this much time in a single book has an interesting effect, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the Cairo Trilogy because the characters don't have as much depth. It's hard to get to know somebody when he goes from fetus to old man in the course of a couple chapters. But I suspect the book is really more about the harafish as a group and their relationship to their leaders. The story really seems to be about legends, heros, tyrants and whether ordinarly people wait for great leaders to bring them justice or decide to seize it for themselves.

The Pledge combines two of my favorite genres, dystopia and paranormal, and actually reads more like a fantasy novel. For me, this is a good thing as I loved reading about the world where an evil queen uses magic and cunning to rule and the special girl who can stop her. Kimberly Derting has created a fascinating world were language is used to separate the people into an oppressive caste system. The caste you were born into determines your education, vocation, friends and pretty much the rest of your life. Charlaina, or Charlie, is born into the vendor class of people. Her family owns a small restaurant and Charlie is fiercely loyal to her parents and four-year-old sister. While Charlie is passionate about her family, friends and then about Max after they meet, that seems to be the extent of her character development. I don’t really feel that I got to really know her or the other characters. You know that moment in the novel where the main character, even if they have been cruising through the story, makes a determined decision that’s do or die? When they get it together and commit to a course of action that may even cost them their life? In The Pledge, it was such a small thing, fast event in this story that you almost miss it. I waited for this moment because I thought it would be a huge turning point for the flatness of Charlie’s character and I was let down. There is some insta-love between Charlie and Max and I wish their romance was more developed. Also, there are some plot twists in the story that are very predictable. While I’m being critical of The Pledge, I did enjoy it, I just wanted more from the story. The fantasy elements are awesome but the book feels like it needs to be longer and much more detailed. I do think this is a good start to a new series and I am very much looking forward to the sequel to see where Derting takes the story. Content: Kissing, violence, drug use, underage drinking. My Rating: Just Fine.