Reviews of The Stone Lions
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Publishers' Weekly
Debut author Dandridge explores the complex world of 15th-century Islamic Spain in this fantasy. Ara, the unruly daughter of the sultan of Alhambra, and her shy cousin Layla are swept up in a magical plot to destroy the palace and usurp its rightful ruler. Working with a visiting Sufi “mathemagician” named Tahirah and the magically transformed harem eunuch Suleiman, Ara and Layla must learn the secrets of symmetry—an integral part of Islamic art and central to the magic of the Alhambra—to stop a great evil from tearing apart their home. Dandridge brings a deep respect for historical accuracy and Islamic culture to the story, and although her interpretation of Sharia law may sometimes err on the stricter side, her depiction of women’s everyday lives in aristocratic 1400s Spain is spot-on. Her prose is slightly stiff in exposition dealing with the principles of symmetry, but Dandridge plays her own academic background for laughs with the scholarly Tahirah. More importantly, the story never stops feeling like a Rowling-esque adventure, pitting brave girls against seemingly impossible odds—mathematically speaking, of course. Ages 8–up. (BookLife) The Children's Book List Review ...This original and culturally rich novel will appeal to readers with curious minds just like the strong female protagonist Ara. Recommended. Amazon Review
This a great book with a lot of tension and suspense - the main characters know what they need to do, but obstacles keep coming up at every turn as time is running out. I couldn't put it down; it's the kind of book where you just have to read 1 more chapter, then 1 more chapter... I also enjoyed learning about mathematical symmetry and some Spanish history along the way, and the 1400s Alhambra setting with the harem and its cultural and religious traditions was interesting to think about. |
Amazon Review
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From GoodReads:
Stone Lions is highly entertaining read, honestly more so than I expected. It has a great flow, interesting characters, a good amount of humor and action. Along the way it introduces some interesting magic, based on symmetries and mathematics which can protect or harm people. In a nut shell, the story follows the 'overly' curious daughter of the Sultan who stumbles on a plot to capture the legendary place of Alhambra. The action is firmly in the young girl’s hands since she can't expose the plot directly without admitting she was where she shouldn't be, outside the harem. To help her she recruits her best friend, her tutor (who happens to get turned into a medley of animals with some pretty funny results), mystic Sufi mathemagician and a pride of Stone Lions. Together they go up against an evil mathemagician, the Sultan’s chief adviser. The key to victory is that the girls must find increasingly difficult broken symmetries and fix them. Each symmetry must be found in half the amount of time they took to find the last one. This means there is a steady increase in tension throughout the book that rushes to a satisfying ending. One real stand out about the book was the way characters and the setting worked so well with each other. The author does a great job of involving the interesting little details of the palace and harem life without bogging down the story with too much description. It made me want to go to Alhambra to see its lions, water channels and tile patterns everywhere. Maybe even do some symmetry hunting while I'm at it. Along the same line characters seem well rooted in their time and place (something historic fiction can have trouble with). The author does a good job of bringing up serious matters (slavery, oppressive gender roles, etc...) and pointing out the unfairness for the modern reader but accepting them as a fact of life at the time. Again keeping the focus on the fun stuff; the action and intrigue. |
The Stone Lions is out in both paperback and ebook format
