Reviews and Comments

There's an interesting premise to this book, and I enjoyed the opening sections of it, but the more the story moved away from Maria, the less interesting it became for me. The other characters and their schemes weren't as interesting and I found little depth to them, especially as they were prone to speak at each other in Victorian pastiche rather than sound like actual people.

A really fascinating book. I wanted to learn more about the Islamic Revolution and this was a very good overview of how it happened and the different forces that were at play in the country leading up to it. It was also good in telling how the processes of the Revolution developed into the Islamic Republic that followed it, and didn't treat the end as a fait accompli, showing some of the different paths that were possible and how varied peoples' expectations were. Well-written and clear, was definitely worth tracking down a copy.