Review of “Mamluks of Thunder Island” by Aly Brisha

Score: 92+/100 (9.2+ out of 10)

Mamluks of Thunder Island is a haunting, eye-opening novel by Aly Brisha, an award-winning Middle Eastern journalist.

This book isn't so much a novel as it is a full-length warning: a warning about what could happen when totalitarian governments and dictators reign, when authority goes unquestioned, and when personal choice and autonomy are non-existent.

This isn't really a book that centers on one particular character or group of characters, although there is a somewhat-central story of a family desiring to have a child. This is really a book about a whole society, starring a society—a society that is frightening, uncomfortable, foreign, and yet still so familiar and close enough to trigger anxiety in the reader. This is intentional.

This book is the amalgamation of all of Brisha's experiences covering horrific, traumatic stories in the Middle East, from Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and Egypt (where he resides).

Imagine a land ruled by one man (the sultan) and his family. Imagine a land in which speaking out or questioning your ruler(s) is unheard of and utterly forbidden. There is no freedom of speech or expression. There is no freedom of the press. There is no narrative outside of his narrative. There is no marriage outside of what is decided, no childbearing outside of what is allowed, and no future other than what has been predetermined.

This is the frightening universe of Mamluks of Thunder Island.

Something that really stood out to us about this book is how it made us feel. Putting us into the shoes of someone living in the world of this book, the narrator made us feel controlled, confined, and trapped. The narrator constantly refers to how things are the way that they are. No one dares question the way that things are. No one dares question authority.

The world of this book is barbaric, inhumane, and medieval by modern standards and, yet, a lot of what's happening in this book is what's happening in places around the world.

The people in this book have little to no freedom. Their choices are not their choices. Their wills are not their wills. Their lives are not their lives. They belong to the state.

And what about those who don't fit the mold of what the state wants? Torture and execution awaits.

The tortures and executions in this book are absolutely brutal, and they're presented in such a matter-of-fact, casual manner because—well—they're an everyday occurrence. A “dissident” in this book isn't just crucified, but he's brutally maimed and burned beforehand, and these acts are performed in front of his family. It's truly horrifying and tragic.

Something else that horrific and tragic is the way that disabled and deformed children are treated. Rather than being given a chance to grow up and become productive members of society, they are violently killed off. Society even finds ways to rationalize these abhorrent acts by saying that lionesses eat their newborns if they're sick or weak, or that the child's soul will go to the afterlife sooner.

This book serves its purpose of acting as a warning and in raising awareness of human rights abuses throughout the world.

This is why humanity, compassion, and freedom matter.

Check it out on Amazon!