From Slave Girl to Queen: Hurrems Story

 

Colin Falcon at has given the reader an easy to read novel of historical fiction that  gives graphic insight Into the dark inner workings of the Ottoman Empire. The story centers around a slave girls caught in a raid and given over to the Sultan Harem. Burden as she was called rose in power until she ran the empire right from the sultan harem.  She would eventually rise to queen. She rises to power by use of deception, trickery and !murder.

There are some side stories that play into the main story. In Venice a young Moorish Abbas falls in love with a noble woman named Julia. It does  not end well for Abbas. He is !mutilated by the woman's disapproving father. He can never marry nor have children.

Years later they find themselves in Istanbul. Abbas works in the kings harem. Julia is caught in a slave raid. Abbas provides for her release and care under a friend named ludivici.  Abbas to keep Julia alive must play along with her intrigues.

In the end Hurems  machinations lead to civil war and the death of Suleiman sons. She becomes the first woman to become queen. Most of the Sultans wives were slave girls.

Stephen Kings “Otherworld”

 

Stephen King’s “Otherworld” offers a distorted version of our very own world. It has dwarves, mermaid and the living dead. There are wagon, bicycles, tricycles and gas powered lights. It conbines elements of the Wizard of Oz and HP Lovecraft. In fact there is a god down there named Gogmagog. Like Cthullhu he is a tentacled beast with wings who wishes to destroy the world. 

On the surface world in Illinois lives Charles Reade. His father is an insurance salesman. His mother died crossing over a bridge when she was hit by a car. In charlies neighborhood there lives a very strange and antisocial hermit who lives with a vicious dog named Radar. Charlie lives the life of anormal child who has an alcoholic father dealing with the loss of his wife. Charlie prays for a miracle and says he will do anything for his father to get sober. His father gets sober and Charlie has a good deed to do. 

Howard Bowditch falls off a ladder and breaks his leg. Charlie is walking by and heres the cries for help. From this point on his life will change. As he helps the isolated Mr, Bowditch, Charlie find s out that everything the man owns is outdated and old fashioned. Contained in his safe are gold pellets worth lots of money. The once threatening dog is now getting old. There is a shed in the back and every so often weird noises come out from it. Mr. Bowditch and Charlie become friends and Charlie learns an awful secret. 

He learns about it after Mr. Bowditch dies from a heart attack when his kills a giant roach in his shed. Charlie learns there is a secret entrance to another world called Empis or Lilmar. This fairy tale world with iron girders has seen the overthrow of the royal party by a discontented brother. By calling on Gogmagog he transforms his world and almost everyone in it. Charlie come here with Radar in order to make her younger. He gets captured and is forced to fight and he realizes he has a destiny in this world. 

Charlie is a custodian. Meant to keep this otherworld safe from the human being of the upperworld.