Journey to Fusang

Rating:
Summary: Finn is great, but Yusuf steals the show
Review: Although the narrator, the Irish con-artist Finn, is a wonderfully engaging character, its his Jewish sidekick Yusuf that really stands out. While he IS a caricature of long-suffering 'Hollywood' Jews, his intelligence and quick wit are readily evident, as are his morals, which set him apart from Finn, who is almost totally amoral.

As for the setting - wow. I've read several alternate history novels where the New World is colonized by the Islamic kingdoms and the Chinese, but this is definitely the most inventive and entertaining, much more so than the staggeringly boring 'Years of Rice and Salt'.

This book is a comedy with a heart - the gags fly fast and furious, from a mule named Francis to a satire of an infamous John Wayne character to sly references of Oliver Cromwell as an inveterate gambler, but underlying it all is a great story that deals with complex issues like the slave and drug trade, war and conquest, and friendship and love. 'Journey to Fusang' is well worth buying... I only wish Sanders would write a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Finn is great, but Yusuf steals the show
Review: Although the narrator, the Irish con-artist Finn, is a wonderfully engaging character, its his Jewish sidekick Yusuf that really stands out. While he IS a caricature of long-suffering 'Hollywood' Jews, his intelligence and quick wit are readily evident, as are his morals, which set him apart from Finn, who is almost totally amoral.

As for the setting - wow. I've read several alternate history novels where the New World is colonized by the Islamic kingdoms and the Chinese, but this is definitely the most inventive and entertaining, much more so than the staggeringly boring 'Years of Rice and Salt'.

This book is a comedy with a heart - the gags fly fast and furious, from a mule named Francis to a satire of an infamous John Wayne character to sly references of Oliver Cromwell as an inveterate gambler, but underlying it all is a great story that deals with complex issues like the slave and drug trade, war and conquest, and friendship and love. 'Journey to Fusang' is well worth buying... I only wish Sanders would write a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: could have been better, but still good adventure alt hist
Review: I sought out this book because its author attended the same college that I did some decades before me, and I found an entertaining and thought-provoking piece indeed. This book is an interesting examination of an alternate history in which it was Asia and the Middle East, not Europe, which established major presences on the North American continent. I was surprised to learn that the writer wrote it as a humor novel; although there are undeniably funny parts to the book (Mr. Sanders slips in references to western conventions and other items of interest at intervals), and the main character Finn is a classic rogue and makes a marvelous narrator, the themes and action are as serious as they come: slavery, conquest, intercultural interaction and contamination. The book features characters from nearly every race (whites, blacks, Asians, Natives, Middle Easterners; if there were any Islanders or Inuit, I passed over them, and Hispanics were referred to but hardly seen), and although ethnic categorization (for the most part it's not harsh enough to call stereotyping and Mr. Sanders doesn't seem to mean any harm, though I can see how some would find it objectionable) flies pretty free, we see "good guys" from virtually all of them, with the main heroes being an Irish con man and his more intellectual Jewish friend, two character types that have been derogated in the fiction of earlier decades and are allowed to prosper (more or less) here.

There was room for improvement; some of the characters could have used a bit more attention (Alfred the Englishman, for instance: we hear more about him than we actually see of him, and although a devout Christian, he evidently has no compunction about bedding any available woman; if this attitude was acceptable according to the Christianity of the times, Mr. Sanders should have tipped us to it), and after having our interests built up about the Mexica Empire, we never get to see it. I kept getting the feeling that Vladimir Khan was supposed to be a historic figure, but I couldn't figure out who. And the novel's three or four references to gays were marred by blatant stereotypes; attitudes toward homosexuality were different in the East of this era, and a closer look at those attitudes' carry-over to the New World would have been interesting. And interesting though it was to see a world in which it was the whites who were the minority, often enslaved and denigrated, this situation wasn't given quite enough attention; I kept wondering where the word "Nasrani" came from, too, although it was obvious what it meant ("Christian").

Furthermore, the title really doesn't have much to do with the book itself (nor does the cover with the plot, although that's obviously not the writer's fault; why didn't the publishers use a scene of Finn facing the Cossack-Native-etc. army? That would have actually related to the story and still have demonstrated the alternate earth premise); the "journey to Fusang" only comes up in the last fifteen pages or so. The interactions between the Chinese in "California" and the Muslims in "Louisiana," and those of both with the Natives (no "America" here, so we can't say "Native Americans"), demanded more attention, as did the opium/slave trade (I thought opium was introduced to China by the British, who in this world are in no position to do so; interesting that slavery apparently knows no racial boundaries here, but slavery has been denounced in every culture in which it has occurred, and we hear little abolitionist talk (the heroes regard it as immoral, but don't seem to consider it something that can be fought).) and the "new" versions of various nations and continents, and certainly there should have been some new religions or "heresies" that sprang up as a result of these various interactions; the book should have been longer, with more space for such details, or better yet, had a sequel, or a few. The novel ends with the perfect opportunity for Finn and partner Yusuf to set out for new areas (the Mexica Empire, the unexplored North, or back across the sea to Europe or Africa or elsewhere), and, upon checking, I was surprised that the writer didn't return to this world; I'd certainly like to. Although all in all only somewhat above average, for what was apparently a first novel, this was a remarkable piece of work.