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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
India 1838 - Adventure and Romance, January 3, 2003
This review is from: A Singular Hostage (Paperback)
A Singular Hostage is the first book in a projected trilogy by Thalassa Ali. I can't wait till the next book in the series, apparently to be titled 'A Beggar at the Gate' and out in 2003, as the ending to this one is a cliff hanger and I wanted more! The heroine has been sent out to the India of the Raj and the East India Company to find a husband. She accompanies Lord Auckland on his march of thousands to the durbar with Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Punjab in 1838, where the British hope to enlist Ranjit Singh's aid in what will become the first Afghan war. There is little actual romance in A Singular Hostage, as the hero and heroine, strangers to each other, come into random contac, unknowing that the future will bring them together. However, it seems this romance will develop in the future books. Mariana, the heroine, is a rather naive and headstrong girl, who is not having much luck in securing a husband, and faces the dreaded fate of returning home an unmarriageable spinster. On the march to the Punjab she develops an unfashionable, and suspicious from the British point of view, fascination with Indian culture and language. This brings her into a plot involving the baby Saboor, grandson of a Sufi sheik, held hostage by Ranjit Singh and ultimately into contact with his father, Hassan, the hero, who will become her husband against her will. Thalassa Ali is herself a Sufi, and there are allusions to Sufi mysticism through the book. The author draws the flavours of the India of the Raj and the Princely States very well too. If you enjoy M M Kaye, Rebecca Ryman and Valerie Fitzgerald's historical romances of 19th century India I would recommend Thalassa Ali. The only problem I had with this book was that the ending is abrupt and obviously the story will be continued in the sequel. I wish the trilogy had been published in one go, as this means waiting yearly for the next installment!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exotic Adventure & Romance In British Held India, April 7, 2004
This review is from: A Singular Hostage (Paperback)
Mariana Givens, age 20, is sent to visit her aunt and uncle in Calcutta, India, in 1838, ostensibly to 'get' a husband. However, she finds herself more attracted to the adventure of the trip and the discovery of the new country and cultures than to husband hunting. In Victorian England, young women who could not afford to 'come out,' or who did not find themselves married at the end of a season, would travel to India where Englishmen were plentiful due to the Honorable East India Company and the British army. Mariana is an attractive young woman, but not in the fashionable or traditional sense. Her looks are too vibrant and she is much too intelligent for her own good, military history being one of her favorite subjects. She chafes at the restrictions placed on her by English society and gets into many scrapes in the effort to satisfy her unquenchable curiosity and see sights usually forbidden to proper young ladies. After almost a year in India Mariana is no closer to the married state than when she arrived. Although there have been many suitors who have asked for her hand she has found none to be acceptable as her life's mate. Early on she acquired an enigmatic native tutor and has occupied herself with the study of Urdu, becoming quite proficient at reading, writing and speaking the language. These skills are to prove very useful given the novel's plot. As it happens, 1838 is also the year that Great Britain attempts to invade and gain political control of Afghanistan. Before launching his Afghan campaign, Lord Auckland travels twelve hundred miles across India, with an enormous cavalcade - his entire government, a ten thousand man army, and animals, food, clothing, shelter and servants to take care of all necessary services - to meet with the dying Maharajah Ranjit Singh, Lion of the Punjab. Auckland's mission is to enlist the Maharajah's aid with the invasion and seal the pact by signing a treaty. Accompanying the Govenor-General are his two spinster sisters and Mariana Givens, their translator, appointed at the last minute when the regular translator took ill. In the Punjab the Maharajah holds hostage an infant boy, Saboor, and his mother. He does this in order to control the baby's grandfather Shaikh Waiullah Karakoyia of Lahore, a renowned, visionary Sufi mystic and Saboor's father, Hassan, who serves as the Rajah's courier. One of the Rajah's jealous queens poisons Saboor's mother and the women of the harem mistreat and abuse the baby without his mother to protect him. It is likely that the boy, who supposedly has mystic powers similar to his grandfather's, will die if not removed from the harem. The Shaikh and his family are desperate to rescue Saboor. Mariana, the Shaikh and various others have had dreams which foretell that Mariana is destined to save and care for Saboor. Author Thalassa Ali treats the reader to vivid descriptions of the cavalcade as it wends it's way across India, the traveling British and their customs, local soothsayers, scorpions and vipers, elephants, dancing girls, child kidnappers, a harem, Indian wedding rituals, eunuchs, a visionary mystic, suspense, conspiracy, intrigue and an unexpected romance. This is a book that is difficult to put down, although I did find the reading to be at a young adult level. Supposedly this is the first book in a trilogy. I look forward to Book Two. Recommended.
JANA
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Story, Dazzling Period Detail, Real Insight into Islamic Culture, April 3, 2006
This review is from: A Singular Hostage (Paperback)
You can read this marvelous novel for the spell-binding story alone, but you'll take away much more. Especially if your mission as a reader is to find out about Islamic culture through richly imagined fictional characters that come alive before your eyes. You will be transported through sight, sound and smell to the Punjab of the 1830's, undisturbed by a single anachronism. Dialogue among the Brits is perfectly rendered pre-Victorian, but it's the Punjabi family of mystics that you shall not have seen the likes of elsewhere. At a time when the West is struggling for an accurate understanding of Muslims, wondering, "What do they really think, anyway? And how do they really feel?," this novel, set far away and long ago, is fascinatingly pertinent. A visit to the writer's Web site, www.ThalassaAli.com, shows that her life has superbly prepared her for her work. If you enjoy defeating ignorance while being royally entertained, this book is for you.
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