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Worlds Without End Blog

WoGF Review: Arslan by M. J. Engh Posted at 3:47 PM by Val

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Women of Genre Fiction Reading ChallengeGuest Blogger and WWEnd member, Rob Weber (valashain), reviews science fiction and fantasy books on his blog Val’s Random Comments which we featured in a previous post: Five SF/F Book Blogs Worth Reading. Be sure to visit his site and let him know you found him here.


ArslanFor my tenth read in the Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge I picked Arslan by M. J. Engh. I’ve read a couple of more recent works in the past few months so I thought I’d pick an older one this time around. Arslan is Engh’s first novel and was published in 1976. To date, only four novels by Engh have appeared but with that small oeuvre she did manage to make quite an impression. She was named author emerita by the SFWA in 2009. Engh is also a scholar of Roman history. Something that clearly influenced this novel. The edition I’ve read is the Gollancz SF Masterworks edition. I guess the editors of that series have a knack for picking controversial books. Personally, I’m not sure I would have included it.

Some time during the later stages of the cold war, a figure from the small nation of Turkestan rises to prominence in the world. Caught between China on one side and the USSR on the other, he cleverly uses a combination of politics and extortion to gain control of the armies of the major powers in the world. What he means to do with it remains unclear but the inhabitants of the small town of Kraftsville, Illinois get a shot at finding out when the new dictator of the world settles there for a time. His motives are unclear but he brings great change to the town. Whatever Arslan is up to, he has changed the world for good.

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