I foud this review and comparison of three recent books interesting: your mileage may vary.
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com
"Over the last few years, I’ve read three alternate history books about a world in which the Muslim community or an Islamic country is the predominant cultural and political global superpower. Empire of Lies by Raymond Khoury, The Mirage by Matt Ruff, and Through Darkest Europe by Harry Turtledove. The United States has been locked in a perpetual war throughout the Muslim world for most of the last thirty years, and so it is perhaps unsurprising that speculative fiction writers have taken to considering the possibility of the converse; imagining a universe where Islamic countries are the center of finance, culture, military and political power, and the Christian West is a backwater, home to religious extremists and terrorists and not much else. All three of the books are interesting, and take different approaches to exploring the realm of possibility, but it’s ironic that Turtledove, a competent but not particularly innovative author, wrote what may be the most subversive of the books. Though these novels are about other worlds and universes, the assumptions built into the storytelling expose more about the biases and preconceptions, the limits of the author’s imagination, even when they are purposefully constructing an imaginary world. Through Darkest Europe has some serious problems as a book, including a very stupid point of divergence and the absence of an actual plot, but it’s the only one to portray a truly modern Muslim World."
Dar Al-Islam Ascendant: Visions of an Islamic Present
Over the last few years, I’ve read three alternate history books about a world in which the Muslim community or an Islamic country is the predominant cultural and political global superpower.…
nathangoldwag.wordpress.com
"Over the last few years, I’ve read three alternate history books about a world in which the Muslim community or an Islamic country is the predominant cultural and political global superpower. Empire of Lies by Raymond Khoury, The Mirage by Matt Ruff, and Through Darkest Europe by Harry Turtledove. The United States has been locked in a perpetual war throughout the Muslim world for most of the last thirty years, and so it is perhaps unsurprising that speculative fiction writers have taken to considering the possibility of the converse; imagining a universe where Islamic countries are the center of finance, culture, military and political power, and the Christian West is a backwater, home to religious extremists and terrorists and not much else. All three of the books are interesting, and take different approaches to exploring the realm of possibility, but it’s ironic that Turtledove, a competent but not particularly innovative author, wrote what may be the most subversive of the books. Though these novels are about other worlds and universes, the assumptions built into the storytelling expose more about the biases and preconceptions, the limits of the author’s imagination, even when they are purposefully constructing an imaginary world. Through Darkest Europe has some serious problems as a book, including a very stupid point of divergence and the absence of an actual plot, but it’s the only one to portray a truly modern Muslim World."
R, Turtledove was the only one of the three not to be Islamophobic/Middle-Eastphobic in how his story was written? That's nice.
