My latest blogpost is another interview on Black Gate. This time I spoke with Saladin Ahmed, author of Throne of the Crescent Moon. Obviously, I could not do a series on the best of modern Arabian fantasy without talking to Saladin, who got starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, and Library Journal for his debut novel.I asked Saladin, as I've asked all my authors, about the research process. His response:
Well, I’ve been taught about Arab/Muslim history, and have had living Arab American culture in front of me, all of my life. So by the time I wrote Throne, I had a certain amount of ‘research’ almost hardwired into me. But I certainly did tons and tons of historical research as well: books on daily life in medieval Cairo, books on the topography of Baghdad, books on the history of middle eastern religion/mythology, etc. Ultimately, though, I wrote a secondary world fantasy rather than a historical because I wanted all of that research to be something I could draw on, rather than something I owed fidelity to.He also gave some teasers about his next book in the Crescent Moon Kingdoms series. Head on over to Black Gate to read the whole piece.
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