The Sultan's Harem Paperback – May 24, 2005

I did enjoy reading this book but was disappointed in the characters and their total lack of redeeming qualities. I kept thinking that Abbas (the eunuch) would eventually act on his conscience and refuse his deadly orders. I thought maybe the Sultan would use his own intuition (and brains) regarding his sons rather than listen to the poison spewed by his favored concubine. It was interesting, and eye-opening, to understand that the "religion" of Islam is focused on making war. The Quran dictates that anyone who does not succumb to the influence of Islam, should be conquered and murdered. One Sultan tried to change that but could not escape his "duty" to make war. Also, I think that if the book is written/translated in the English language, the author should not use so many foreign words. I was totally confused with some of the words. If a book is for an English-speaking reader, write it in English without trying to show off a knowledge of another language by injecting foreign words here and there. It was very distracting. A fairly good read but because there was no honor to any of the characters, it left me empty.

I've read a lot of novels about Harems now, and they're all pretty different. Some focus on the sex element some on the capture of the women, some on the feminist element. And then there are those which focus on power and revenge. This is one such book."The Sultan's Harem" is a novel of Süleyman the magnificent (or the lawmaker), who is seen as the last of the great warrior sultans of the Ottoman Empire, and the power play that went on in his life between him, his five sons and the three women he honored with attention out of his Harem of 300.In the beginning Süleyman is a man not happy with his position. Haunted by the bloody way his father took the throne, he is determined to leave no such situation for his own heirs, and thus has never slept with more than woman a blond named Gülbehar, who is the mother of his only child, a son. But the lack of heirs bothers his mother, who schemes to place another in his bed. Though she has no idea what kind of woman she is inflicting upon her son.Hürrem is a red head Russian girl from the steeps but she is no country hay seed. Filled with hatred about her enforced imprisonment (luxurious as it may be) she is determined to become as powerful as she can. After gaining her place in the Sultans bed, she sets about using any means possible (blackmail, murder, poison...) to maintain her power. When her position is threatened by a young black haired Venetian girl named Julia (captured by Pirates) she takes a particular viscous revenge which endangers Julia's life, and if not for an old friend, would have ended it.This is a novel full of power plays, danger, and brutal punishment. No one is what they seem and everyone's motives are questionable. Revenge is the watchword and everyone but the Sultan seems to know it. And in spite of the male dominated society of the Empire it is the women in the novel who are the only ones who seem to know what is going on.Though he admits to using a great deal of speculation about Süleyman's life and his women, this is a very well done historical novel with an immense amount of detail. Weather or not is anything close to the truth it is an entertaining and educational novel.This is a pretty well written novel but it somehow comes off as a bunch of short stories-there's just something about the way it switches from character to character that makes it seem fractured and that keeps you from ever becoming fully absorbed. None of the characters are particularly likeable and most are impossible to sympathize with but it is their ruthlessness (or lack of sense when being lied too) that keeps them interesting. Apart from that the only issue in the novel is that it is brutally frank is describing all sorts of disturbing scenes, from the violent to the sexual to the violently sexual. If that doesn't bother you then forge ahead, if it does, don't read this book.All in all I still think the best harem novel out there is  The Fourth Queen: A Novel  but this one isn't bad. And there's definitely something interesting about the authors writing-if his other books don't contain the fracturing issue I'd be very interesting in reading them.Three stars.

I LOVE this book. It's one of his best books, together with "Venom" and "Fury"

I could not put this book down! Author really brings you into that period of time, and how the people lived. After I finished the book, the only thing I could think was "a beautiful face "does" hide a black heart' ...........great book!!!

Although I have read a book with a similar story line I enjoyed the depth this book went into. One thing that could have made it better was to have a reference page for explaining some of the words and names of persons, places or things. Otherwise a rare find and awesome story.

This is really the story of three women. Gülbehar, the sultan's favored concubine and mother of his son, the next in line for the throne, Julia, a kidnapped Italian noblewoman who finds herself in the sultan's harem and soon in mortal danger, and finally Hürrem, a ruthless, red-headed Russian who hoodwinks and deceives the sultan to turn him away from Gulbehar and over to her side. Insanely jealous, deceptive, cunning, and irresistibly beautiful Hurrem soon has no trouble convincing the sultan to break numerous traditions on her behalf and schemes to make her son the next sultan. As Hurrem's victims mount and the sultan's power grows fainter and fainter it soon becomes apparent that Hurrem is in over her head and has made more enemies than friends. In all honesty, I couldn't get through this book all the way. It really peeved me because I was more than halfway through it too. I picked up this book thinking it would be incredibly sexy and romantic. It was nothing like that. Basically it boiled down to a court battle set in the Middle East.Soon there were too many characters to keep track of. I never knew who knew what, who was planning what and how some of the characters were interrelated. I got the connection of Hurrem to Gulbehar, but to me Julia was a complete mystery. Her existence did not further the plot at all and this irked me as Julia was one of the few characters I felt had any depth or warmth to her."The Sultan's Harem" wasn't awful, it was full of intrigue, color, and historical references that made the general story seem decently real. On the flip side, the novel lacked true excitement, understandable plots, and relatable characters. The reading was slow going and frustrating. Towards the end my patience waned and finally left me completely. I can see why some would like or even love this book...I just wasn't one of them.

This book is very historical, yet written in the form of a novel. I found it fascinating to the point that I could not stop reading it.

LOVE, THE BOOK, AND THE END FULL OF SURPRISES