De Castell’s trademark masterful plot twists pervade this brilliant read. A brilliant start to a brave, brave tale.

The story has a rich, rich world that is based on Islamic Mythology. The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A Chakraborty is woven from much the same source; hence, certain comparisons can be made.

It’s like the beginnings of a game of chess between two foes in which the game gets bigger than the chessboard, bigger than the players, bigger than the room they’re playing in

There’s enough action and thrill in this book to fill two books, and another author might have decided to extend the series by an extra book.

The ethereal threads of power are almost literally rolling off the pages of the book.

The book is a mixture of The Kingkiller Chronicles and HP, with a touch of Tolkien.

The author presents the Arabian world and all of its alluring mythology in an attractive manner, all the while adding more than a dose of her own formidable epic-weaving skills.

It’s a real-life lesson in leadership, an allusion to pretentious saviour-Stalins and Christ-Hitlers who believe that they can change the world by breaking it first.