The Siege of Isfahan

Rating:
Summary: Exotic location, intrigue, reminiscent of G.A. Henty
Review: Rufin has given us an excellent piece of historical fiction reminiscent of the works of G.A. Henty and James Mitchner. As one who travelled overland from Mashad, Iran to Herat, Afghanistan in March 1971 and April 1972, while an American Peace Corps volunteer in Iran, (6/70-6/72), I can relate to the setting. Shah Tahmasp II was ruling as the last of the Safavid Shahs of Persia, when two Afghan 'sardars', Mahmud and Ashraf conquered Isfahan, the Safavid capital, as well as the earlier capital Qazvin. Mahmud and Ashraf were from the Hotaki (Ghilzai) dynasty. They imposed Sunni rule briefly on Shi'ia Persia. The book has much suspense and is historically accurate. An excellent read.

Rating:
Summary: Exotic location, intrigue, reminiscent of G.A. Henty
Review: Rufin has given us an excellent piece of historical fiction reminiscent of the works of G.A. Henty and James Mitchner. As one who travelled overland from Mashad, Iran to Herat, Afghanistan in March 1971 and April 1972, while an American Peace Corps volunteer in Iran, (6/70-6/72), I can relate to the setting. Shah Tahmasp II was ruling as the last of the Safavid Shahs of Persia, when two Afghan 'sardars', Mahmud and Ashraf conquered Isfahan, the Safavid capital, as well as the earlier capital Qazvin. Mahmud and Ashraf were from the Hotaki (Ghilzai) dynasty. They imposed Sunni rule briefly on Shi'ia Persia. The book has much suspense and is historically accurate. An excellent read.

Rating:
Summary: Light-weight adventure
Review: THE SIEGE OF ISFAHAN is perhaps the perfect bedtime read for a school night. While mildly entertaining, you wouldn't be tempted to stay up and finish it in one sitting and thus lose sleep.

Physician Jean-Baptiste Poncet lives with his wife Alix in Isfahan, the capital of the decaying Persian Empire, in the first quarter of the 18th century. Francoise, a former servant in the employ of Alix when Poncet and Alix were but unmarried lovers in Cairo, appears after a separation of fifteen years. She reports that her husband, Juremi, a good friend of Jean-Baptiste's, was captured by Tzar Peter the Great's troops while serving in the Swedish army, and was exiled with other captured prisoners to an area north of the Caspian Sea. Loyalty, and a desire for adventure, sends Poncet and his adopted son, George, off to Russia to rescue his old friend. During Jean-Baptiste's absence, a ragtag Afghan army lays siege to Isfahan, causing hardship for Alix, the Poncet's daughter Saba, and Francoise.

Author Jean-Christophe Rufin's story is imaginative enough. However, he never puts any of the principals into such genuine peril that the reader fears for their lives. There's no real drama or edge-of-your-seat tension as the plot unrolls. Indeed, the manner in which Jean-Baptiste and Alix are reunited has the elements of a farce.

One of the most interesting minor roles is that of Bibichev, a member of the Russian secret police who's attached to Poncet's party as it travels into southern Russia and beyond. Bibichev's imagination and paranoia ascribe all sorts of conspiratorial motives to the most ordinary of Poncet's actions, and the agent's reports back to Moscow HQ make for amusing reading. Unfortunately, Bibichev's role in the meandering storyline becomes less visible as it progresses until, at the end, he's barely in evidence. It's too bad because Bibichev was, in his own sinister way, one of the book's more engaging characters.

THE SIEGE OF ISFAHAN was good enough to finish, but I rushed through the last sixty or so pages just so I could be done with it and move on to something better. This in itself became a chore as the sappy ending seemed to go on forever. Enough already.

Rating:
Summary: Adventuring from the comfort of your sofa
Review: ______________________________________________
Fluff or not? Not ALL Fluff - thus the 3+ stars.
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A sequel with the same loveable characters, the same exotisicm, and the same lack of lyricism in the translation - its an easy, relaxing read for a lazy summer afternoon. There's love, tomb raiding, elephants, a siege, and finally a good dose of self realization and a nice wrap up for our adventurers Poncet, Alix, Jerumi, and Francois. Admittedly not a literary treasure this book is still worth it as I liked it better even that its precursor.

+: fun and imaginative with loveable charaters and historical depth - an easy read and a satisfying finale.
-: low on lyricism, a little choppy, and left me feeling a little cheated - it seemed as if there was so much left out.