Customer Reviews (7)

Be Careful What You Wish For...
The book is actually two novellas molded into one. The storyscape is theage of the Arabian nights that lasts unchanged for thousands of year, filled with Sultans, scimitars, true love and the rules of magic.

The first tale, depending on how you look at it, is either the story of Haroun, a poor youngstruggling merchant, or possibly his cat Boabdil, or is it the story of the genie Khalid who discovers he is in love with fellow genie Tamar but mucks up his first assignment by forgetting to tell Haroun that he is limited to just three wishes?

In the second story Haroun is married to his heart's delight Nur and, because he wields the Sword of Solomon, has become the hero of her father's kingdom, fending off attackers and reigning in her 76 brothers' ambitions by helping them win kingdoms of their own.However the protagonist of the story becomes his young teenage son Hafiz who releases the evil genie Azem and has to redeem himself by rescuing his baby sister, his best friend Rashid and ultimately the kingdom.

I picked it up because I had read a later collection of short stories edited by Friesner and enjoyed both her taste and what she herself had written.
Freisner is witty and charming,though there is one span where a genie pontificates on too much magic that is a bit too heavy handed. Thus my actual rating wavers between 3 and 4, settling on a 4 because of a strong characterization of characters of both sexes and the cadence of the writing.As an adult I found it warm and delightful - the age level was suitable for young teens and one should have no issues in reading it to children as young as 8 or 9.GenerallyFriesner's play with magical rules was enjoyablebut I did feel that the first story did not so much end as run out of steam and the "explanation" near theend of the second story didn't quite follow from the magical framework.

It did keep me smiling.

Hilarious fantasy for everybody
My daughter, who is 14 really liked this book, but I found it first ! (I reccomended it to her !) There is a little bit of a love story in it and alot of wise-cracking. The mishaps that the genies and humans go through are hilarious. As a parent I was happy that the language was clean and yet still funny. It was a real light-hearted read, and after reading it, we immediately bought a copy.

The book
This book is extemely boring in the beginning just talking about the genie but some how this arabic book had some sense in it. This book is not for everyone since to some people it's not interesting. But this book is worth buying

READ THIS BOOK!
This is the best book I have ever read. I think the very beginning of the book was a little boring though.

A GREAT READ!!!!!
This hilarious book has the same great kind of humor that peppers Patricia C Wrede's "Dealing with Dragons" series. ... Read more