The King at the Edge of the World

Like a Tudor/Stuart House of Cards, you never truly know who wants what and what theyre willing to do to get it. Some things telegraph themselves early, some things come out of nowhere, and you never truly know how things will end. Masterful.

Having travelled in several Islamic countries, I appreciated the point of view in this novel. The writing was a pleasure and the recognition of the prejudice and ignorance in Tudor England refreshing. Too bad the eminence of Arab scolarship in science and medicine were rejected by Europeans who believed that ideas and practices that originated with Jews or Muslims could not possibly be worthy of emulation. Quarantine and cleanliness could have saved many lives. Instead, a Friday night bath to prepare for shabat was enough to invoke persecution.
Hillary Mantel novels, the trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, are also pleasant ways to get some historical perspective, and this novel adds to the texture of the Tudor period.

I used this product for reading, the usual use of a book.

The novel leaves a learned young man from the Ottoman Empire stranded in England in the age of Queen Elizabeth the first. There is a great deal of interesting relativizing of the familiar–the things “normal” for us are often very odd to the stranger, and his perspective on the politics of the period is also fascinating. And–no spoiler, really, I think–the author leaves open at the end whether he finally goes home or is killed in England: his situation is such that either is plausible. The writing is strong but does not strive for elegance. Surely this will not be to the taste of many, but it’s thoughtfully and carefully done.

My rating on this book, about a Turkish doctor recruited (or forced might be a better word) to spy for the English on James VI of Scotland, is higher than my gut feeling about the book. However, as it was well-written and the characters fleshed out well, I felt it deserved the third star. But frankly, the book felt like a slog to me. Hopefully the following explains why.

I have read a lot of nonfiction about James VI and the agony the Elizabeth I’s councilors went through when she was was about to die without issue. The two complicating factors regarding who would follow her were the religion and/or gender of her successor. While there were a number of possibilities, a Protestant male was favored. As James VI famous mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was strongly Catholic, this leading character of this book was sent, as a doctor, to get clarity about the subject of James’ faith while he was only king of Scotland. Or to spy. All of this squares with history. Elizabeth’s chief secretary was running a spy network. As her older sister (Bloody Mary Tudor) had persecuted, yes, burned Protestants, the faith of the next ruler was important.

However, to me, the doctor is such a victim….endlessly…over 100s of pages, I just could not warm up to him. True, he is a stranger in a strange land, endlessly passed around like a pet dog….only with less affection. He is a good man with a better moral compass than the Christians who constantly abuse him. Yet, at times he seemed like a simpleton, although there is a twist at the end of the book that FINALLY proves otherwise. If you enjoy reading about such travails, you may like this book more than I did. Yes I felt pity and fear for him, but the feelings became boring.

The leading spy, who is running him, is a much more interesting character who, to some degree, redeems himself at the end of the book even though he originally presents as a blood-thirsty (intelligent) thug doing all in his power to catch and kill Catholics. His experience on the Elizabethan theater is very interesting.

And, finally, there is James VI of Scotland, soon to be James I of England. I have read some biographies of him, and he had more than his share of faults and demons — understandable given his upbringing by regents. However, he is depicted as a weak-minded fool whose only interest is his young French male lover, chess and hunting. His wife, Anne, is barely on the scene. One wonders how they managed to give six or seven children (only a couple of which survived to adulthood). One also wonders how such a fool (he has been called “the wisest fool in Christendom) was able to bind many of the wounds from religious strife in England after becoming king. One way he did it was by selecting a committee of religious leaders to come up with a common Bible, which we now know as the King James version. Huh!

And…finally…a spoiler alert. We never really know what becomes of the doctor. At that point I could have thrown the book across the room, except it was on my Kindle.

This was clever, entertaining and well written. The plot begins in 1591 as a typical fish out of water historical novel when Mahmoud Ezzerdine, a prominent doctor and man of science from the Ottoman empire, finds himself in Elizabethan London as part of a diplomatic mission. After an entertaining third of the novel, the plot shifts to a bit of a spy novel as Mahmoud to his dismay is left behind as his countryman sail home and he is enlisted as England’s spy to the court of James VI in Scotland – in preparation of the expected succession of James to the English throne. Lots of plot twists, colorful characters and Phillips’ typical dry wit. I did not like the ending – but of course will not describe it here.

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