Both the depiction of hell and the invention of Reavers to be bad guys without any definite theological underpinnings seem designed more to avoid offending believers of any stripe than for telling a good story. In this book not only do we have Reavers, but Jaz goes to Hell, and we are again left totally without a clue as to how her Hell relates to any religion, if it does at all. Is Jaz's world's Iran some *other* kind of woman hating theocracy? If so, what kind?" This would seem like important information! In book two, we are introduced to Reavers - mystical bad guys who seem invented for poorly thought out reasons and who don't make much sense. Obviously, this would not be tolerated in our Iran, and then you realize: "hmm, Islam has never been mentioned. Apparently Iran in her world is still a nasty, woman-debasing theocracy, but when just when you think you have the general picture, Jaz stumbles into a pagan goddess's temple in the middle of Tehran. In this book, Jaz spends most of her time in Iran. That's fine, but apparently there are other differences too, which we can't guess, and which we aren't told about. We're in a world very much like ours except magic works, there are vampires, witches and the standard Urban Fantasy types.
#Read biting the bullet jaz parks online free series#
Here are some of the problems I have with the series in general and with this book in particular. I thought the first one was average, the second so-so and this one sub-par. OK, I've now read the first three Jaz Parks books, which I bought sight unseen pretty much on the concept alone, and I have to say I should have bought just the first one and then thought about it. Still giving it four stars because I found it enjoyable enough to buy the next book, but I would not recommend it to anyone who is of Persian descent or values historical and cultural accuracy. I can set aside my disbelief of the James Bond-esque weaponry and gadgets, but such cultural discrepancies made it difficult to remain immersed in the book.
Moreover, in a world where Islam was not the predominant religion in Iran, there would have been no reason for women to wear chadors at all, and the Islamic Revolution never would have happened, so there would be no reason for Iran to be at odds with the West. I can only speculate that the author was trying to avoid the pitfall of demonizing the Muslim religion by making everything Zoroastrian instead, but the parallels to Islamic terrorists were still striking, and the depictions of Iranian culture were frankly insulting. From the women all wearing chadors rather than hijabs often pulled back to show hair, to the hanging that took place from a gallows rather than a crane, to the Zoroastrian temples on every corner rather than mosques, to the weird capital letters in the middle of names, it felt like the author had failed to do even the most perfunctory research on the country. The portrayal of Iran was laughably inaccurate.
0 kommentar(er)
