oh p.b. kerr no
Dec. 3rd, 2009 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cinaedOkay, so when I was in high school, I read a YA book called The Akhenaten Adventure by P.B. Kerr, which was about twins who discover they're half-djinn, magical beings who live to be 200, hate the cold and love the heat, and are divided into good djinn and bad djinn.
In the first book, this evil djinn attacks them and their uncle, and murders one of their uncle's human friends, an Egyptian named Hussein who left behind an orphaned son. A son who was poisoned himself, to blackmail the father into betraying the "good" djinn, and then witnessed his father's murder when his father tried to help the djinn anyway.
Okay, sad, but the bad djinn is captured at the end of the book, and this is a YA novel, so we all know he's going to be suitably punished.
...Yeah.
See page 55 of the second book, wherein the girl twin is talking to her uncle about Iblis, the evil djinn, and learns of his punishment: being trapped in a bottle and sent on a ten-year exile to the planet Venus.
Does she say, "Oh, that seems awfully lenient. After all, he did murder someone and orphan a boy"?
Yeah, no.
Instead, this exchange occurs:
Phillipa: "I know he killed Hussein Hussaout. And that Hussein Hussaout had a son who know doesn't have a father. But it still seems like a terrible thing to do, to sentence someone to a ten-year exile on Venus. Can't we say something on his behalf?"
Uncle: *sighs heavily* "As a matter of fact, I have already tried. But the Blue Djinn [judge of all djinn], blessings upon her, has spoken."
...What. The. Hell. Ten years is HARSH? Uh, I'd like you to tell Hussein's son that to his face. What the hell? What am I supposed to read into this other than Hussein doesn't matter, either because he is a) Egyptian (the "good" djinn, naturally, are English, even though, hey, djinn originate from Arabic and the Qu'ran), and b) human, in which case it looks like even the "good" djinn don't care about the lives of mortals.
...I don't think I'm going to be continuing this book, or this series. Ugh.
In the first book, this evil djinn attacks them and their uncle, and murders one of their uncle's human friends, an Egyptian named Hussein who left behind an orphaned son. A son who was poisoned himself, to blackmail the father into betraying the "good" djinn, and then witnessed his father's murder when his father tried to help the djinn anyway.
Okay, sad, but the bad djinn is captured at the end of the book, and this is a YA novel, so we all know he's going to be suitably punished.
...Yeah.
See page 55 of the second book, wherein the girl twin is talking to her uncle about Iblis, the evil djinn, and learns of his punishment: being trapped in a bottle and sent on a ten-year exile to the planet Venus.
Does she say, "Oh, that seems awfully lenient. After all, he did murder someone and orphan a boy"?
Yeah, no.
Instead, this exchange occurs:
Phillipa: "I know he killed Hussein Hussaout. And that Hussein Hussaout had a son who know doesn't have a father. But it still seems like a terrible thing to do, to sentence someone to a ten-year exile on Venus. Can't we say something on his behalf?"
Uncle: *sighs heavily* "As a matter of fact, I have already tried. But the Blue Djinn [judge of all djinn], blessings upon her, has spoken."
...What. The. Hell. Ten years is HARSH? Uh, I'd like you to tell Hussein's son that to his face. What the hell? What am I supposed to read into this other than Hussein doesn't matter, either because he is a) Egyptian (the "good" djinn, naturally, are English, even though, hey, djinn originate from Arabic and the Qu'ran), and b) human, in which case it looks like even the "good" djinn don't care about the lives of mortals.
...I don't think I'm going to be continuing this book, or this series. Ugh.
