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Sep 16, 2019SCL_Justin rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Starting off in the last remnants of the Iberian sultanate, The Bird King is the story of Fatima, a spoiled concubine and her cartographer friend in the palace. Hassan's maps bend the rules of reality and when the Inquisition learns of his talent he becomes part of the price for making peace, which is unacceptable to Fatima. The story follows them as they try to escape the powers of empire with a little magickal help along the way. Most of the book is a good "plucky heroes try to escape an empire" kind of tale, but in my opinion, it's the last quarter of the book that really makes it stand out. It reminds me more of something like Un Lun Dun (by China Mieville) or even the ending to Lev Grossman's The Magicians than the basic page-turner it had been until then. Fatima is a great viewpoint character and her complicated relationship with Hassan (and the other characters they meet along the way) is knotty enough to be satisfying. I quite liked this.