Reviewed by: Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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As I have always loved the Arabian Nights stories since early childhood, I am constantly hoping that somebody will write a novel with such a setting. Usually I am disappointed, but here is Scheherazade the storyteller and her dangerous husband King Shahriyar twenty years later, traveling from their home in India to Baghdad, where at last she will come face to face with the city of her dreams. Trouble is, she has only just arrived when she is kidnapped amid a mighty storm and many signs and portents, which are foretold in the Sibylline Prophecies. Enter Theodred the monk, waving a torn scrap of parchment bearing some doggerel and instantly the prophesied seven rescuers must be found. These appear to be a newly-arrived and extremely motley crew of sailors who are not exactly suitable to cross the Sahara, especially when they are told that only one of them will return alive…can Scheherazade manage to tell a new story that will keep her captors entertained until she is rescued?

One of this book's strengths is its novelty, and if you think of Chris Bunch and Terry Pratchett mixed with UK TV series Auf Wiedersehn, Pet then you won't be far off - but minus most of the humor, which somehow seems to be a pity. Some of the characters could have been filled in a little more with greater description but otherwise O'Neill delivers a wry and well-rounded story where Old Baghdad comes to life and the terrors of the desert are excellently delineated, so keep a drink handy when reading. Colorful, rather wordy but entertaining and unusual enough to lessen any faults.