Ahmed's strength is in action sequences. You don't see that often in fantasy, I've staggered through some painfully slow, confusing, and awkward fight scenes in otherwise brilliant novels. Ahmed's masterful at packing spare but essential detail next to perfect pacing – he got me looking forward to fights, which for a person who usually dozes off during explosions in movies is a real feat.

The in-between-fight-scenes often became bogged down in reiterations of the characters' feelings – I'm pretty sure we understood how horny/afraid/in love the teenagers were the first five times they looked at each other – and ended up reading as if they'd been artificially lengthened in order to pad out the book. But the storytelling really blossoms the moment a ghul shows up. I'd say breaking 'Throne' up into three episodic novellas (with more travelling and action!) in one volume would probably have worked better for both the style and pacing overall.

Five stars for the action sequences, three for everything in between, and here's hoping that Ahmed packs more of the former into his next novel! :)