Pashazade is an alternate history set in a similar alternate world to his earlier ‘Cyber Noir’ series (starting with neoAddix) one in which the Napoleonic dynasty was never defeated and the Germans won the First World War and, most pertinent to this story, the Ottoman Empire never fell. It is also a detective story set in (I think) an alternate Alexandria called El Iskandryia. Whilst it is certainly speculative fiction and also contains elements of cyberpunk (though not nearly as much as that earlier Cyber Noir series) I’m not quite sure if it is actually science fiction (my normal fare). But never mind, I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway!
It is the story of a man with a privileged though barren Western upbringing ending in prison in Seattle who finds himself thrust into a position of aristocracy in Muslim North Africa and desperately trying to find a way to survive there and prove his innocence when his ‘patron’ is murdered. The result is a classic noir Chandler style detective story set very definitely in the 21st Century in the near (alternate) future. The writing is much slicker than his earlier work giving a harsh, gripping and yet sentimental feel to the story.
A thoroughly enjoyable book and I shall be continuing with this series.
It is the story of a man with a privileged though barren Western upbringing ending in prison in Seattle who finds himself thrust into a position of aristocracy in Muslim North Africa and desperately trying to find a way to survive there and prove his innocence when his ‘patron’ is murdered. The result is a classic noir Chandler style detective story set very definitely in the 21st Century in the near (alternate) future. The writing is much slicker than his earlier work giving a harsh, gripping and yet sentimental feel to the story.
A thoroughly enjoyable book and I shall be continuing with this series.
