I did not like the book. I believe it was written and edited in a rush. I have doubts about it. But I'm thrilled that someone from my country, Oman, iI did not like the book. I believe it was written and edited in a rush. I have doubts about it. But I'm thrilled that someone from my country, Oman, is trying to break through barriers of what a book should be about. This is an attempt at Omanizing a certain fantasy concept that is solely a Westeren invention (correct me if I'm wrong). Though I have doubts about the book, I still think it's a breath of fresh air. But better to come clean about it: I only read 15 chapters and that's all I could take. Guilty as charged! I thought the story is heavily clichéd and is cringeworthy. I could not go on beyond 15 chapters for the life of me, though I do not also know why I could make it to 15. It was torture. Maybe it's not fair to review a book without having finished reading it but that's the way it is. I marked it as read so that I could write a review of "how I feel about the first 15 chapters of Sarim." And here's the main review:
I could see that the author is trying to immulate certain popular fantasy concepts/narratives into his book to tell an originally Omani story. Such concept like organizations that fight evil, in this context it's a supernatural evil. What works do I know that have organizations that fight evil? Well, Men In Black; X Men; Martin Mystery; Totally Spies. I'm bringing examples from TV and film because I don't know of any books that tackle such narrative. This tells me that the book is heavily influenced by popular culture of TV and film to a great extent. Is it a good choice of concept? Why not? Excpet that it ought to have been treated carefully to bring it in an original light. I did not see enough originality in the first 15 chapters. Maybe slightly. I still have my doubts. I haven't read enough fantasy to draw a certain conclusion, but I've watched a lot of TV to reach my aforementioned conclusion that popular culture was a major influence on the author during the process of composition.
This takes me to my second argument. Is it Omani enough? Apart from it being set in Oman, an Arab country and one of the countries of the so-called "Arabia," and apart from the characters having Arab names and other Arabian touches, I thought the story lacks something. I do not know what but it does. Maybe I need to go back and re-read it, but I can't. I'll leave it for now and come back to it later. Mishal having difficulty reading Quran after Possession; a Shayeb (old man) who has magical powers; haunted houses; wadis and other Omani elements are present in the story. That's right. But is it still Omani enough? While reading I thought that I'm watching just another blockbuster movie. It's like the author was trying to bring a penguin into Arabian desert but the penguin died from heat. I mean you could still nurture a penguin in Arabia by placing it in an artificial Snow Park. But Sarim, I reckon, did not do that. The Omani influence in the story is there but the concept is what I'm having a problem with. I guess the author should have brought a purely fresh idea, an idea that is Omani. But instead, he recycled an already popular and old one. So, no, I think the book is not Omani enough.
I guess that's all I could see in the first 15 chapters but, to conclude, these are my final remarks:
I do not like how the Sarim series is popular among readers as "The Harry Potter Books" on social media. I see it a lot on instagram and it kills me dead. This is a baseless and unjust comparison. The book is not like the Harry Potter series in anything except in the use of magic. Still the two stories are way different from each other. I think the author should defy this conception about his work for favor of a wholly original idea to be held by his readers. I would also like to draw the attention to the fact that the author rushed in publishing the books. I could feel it from reading those 15 chapters. Sarim was poorly edited and it made it unpleasant to read. I also thought that the book is less imaginative than what fantasy books are thought of. The author used clichés and wrapped them in an Omani Leisu (head scarf). Plus, I did not enjoy the language and the style of writing. I thought that it was written for school students. True, they'd enjoy it much. It suits their level.
3 stars for the sake of the author's genuine attempt at writing an original fantasy story, but, I am afraid I cannot waste my time any longer with thi3 stars for the sake of the author's genuine attempt at writing an original fantasy story, but, I am afraid I cannot waste my time any longer with this book, or any other similar book. The first chapter made me want to read more but, by chapters 2 and 3, I felt that the book is a drag. Sorry, Kindi, I only read 5 chapters that is all my guts could take. I marked the book as read so that I could write a review about the first 5 chapters.
This book blows itself and hisses at the reader as a cat blows itself and hisses at its groomer. The groomer wears protective gloves and has other apparitions and equipment, so no harm can be expected of the cat. Similarly, a reader is protected by his own mind if cultivated enough. When he's a well-read person, he knows a good book from a bad one. Similar to the purpose of the cat's hissing, a book can also be intimidating. This book intimadates you and pretends to be serious while it is not. Like this:
The page formatting made the 10-chapter book amounts to 380 pages, whereas if it was formatted like any other book from any major publisher, it could be of 70 to 90 pages. So this book is really a short story or a novella, not a novel. Now let me get to page formatting: there is just too much margin space, too much indentation and line spacing. Too much empty space to the extent that each page has from 2 to 3 paragraphs, or just a few lines one after the other. Now the paragraphs are centered and all. The terrible formatting made chapters lengthy and tedious. I cannot stress more how the formatting of the book is god-awful, it made it unreadable.
Now let me review what's the book is about: the story is built upon a great concept, though I doubt its originality. The dominating superpower in the world of the story is imagination. You can harness your imagination to manipulate your world, summon weapons and spells. At the beginning, the hero, Arumat, says that he wants to cultivate his imagination but his actions in later chapters defy his original purpose. He goes on to fight evil for whatever reason (there is no apparent reason).
I did not comprehend the heroes' journey and purpose, even until reaching chapter 5. The main heroes being a human called Arumat and a beast called Girish. The heroes' journey and purpose, it appears to me, are loose and inconsistant. And it looks like each character, when introduced to the story, each character knows Arumat. How come everybody knows him and when new characters are introduced to him, they seem to know who he is without betraying any kind of emotion of how they came to know him. Who is Arumat? I do not know. There is something off there.
The worldbuilding is okay but a little shaky. Fantasy seems to have no rules but, in fact, it does. The worldbuilding, though fantastical, must have a set of rules governing that world. It seems that there are no rules governing this world. You can summon about anything you want. ANYTHING! It feels impossible even in fantasy. They look like Gods. There are a few rules, like when Arumat cannot keep his fist of fire longer than he can take. That's okay. But I think this aspect in the world building needs re-working.
Also, Something is off in the way the author describes fantastical scenes like memories, conjurings and dreams. It looks theatrical and TV-ish. It took the three characters in the cell, Arumat, Girish and Styx (the beginning) so much time just saying, "we gotta get out of here," while they had a superpower in hand that they can use any time they wanted with immediate effect, one of them being an expret in immagination-training, that is Styx. But, no, they kept saying "we gotta get outta here," over and over again. Suddenly someone conjurs something and things happen and they get out of the cell. This part needs further re-working.
Finally, I could see that the author is trying hard to be lyrical in composition but, time and time again, he conjurs images and phrases that are stock language. Those stock phrases are repeated over and over again. An example stock phrase being, "Let's get out of here." But I liked the writer's language in general. His style betrays someome who's fluent in English for a non-English speaker. I hate to make comparisons but this book's language is advanced more than Ammar Alnaimi's Sarim series that is basic. The language is fantastical, though, as I intimated before, the use of stock language is very much apparent.
Good luck for M. Al Kindi. Oh! One last thing! The editing. I think the editing of this book is not mastered. There are still mistakes in almost every page. One major mistake being in the dialogue. Some dialogue does not have quotation marks. Sometimes the quote is closed before the character ends his speech and the rest of the speech is unquoted. I do not know what happened there but it really needs re-working so much.
ibrahim (بُرَيْه)
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