BOOK REVIEW: Moghul by Alan Savage (1991)

** Stars

Alan Savage is but one of the pseudonyms of writer Christopher Nicole. He is ludicrously prolific with over 200 books to his name(s). If you think that quality would be a secondary concern, for someone who writes at such a pace, then you would be right. In this book a British blood line (the Blunt’s) is used to take a violent and lusty tiki-tour through the Moghul Empire.

However this tiki-tour has more in common with the Fist of the North Star than the sophistication of a James Clavell story which is also written in the historical-adventure genre. Moghul is very readable but absurd, it is gratuitous put not explicit. Each episode is based on one of five generations of Blunt’s rise and fall within a great army. These stories, despite the centuries of history covered, are almost all indistinguishable from each other and focus on the protagonist having sexual relations, almost dying from various external forces, befriending an up and coming leader and becoming a mighty warrior. Meanwhile, the enemy - as well as people around the protagonist - are vertically impaled and woman are raped and/or “pleasured” sexually. All of this occurs in a sweeping manner and there is little detail about such titillating events.

To Savage’s credit he does have an easy writing style and, despite himself, creates some satisfying dilemmas. For example, in one episode the protagonist takes a European woman to be his wife in an effort to save her life. In doing so the protagonist, who is now of mixed ethnicities, becomes caught between the culture of the Moghul that he has grown up in and the expectations of the West. He finds he has no true place in any culture. It should also be acknowledged that Savage is not precious about his characters. He always draws the protagonists as anti-heroes and is happy to kill them off in a couple of sentences.

In the final assessment this book could have been set on Mars and had the same effect; the history behind Moghul is inconsequential. The only reason it is set in the Moghul Empire is that it appeals to Savage’s own preoccupations. In this regard it is clear he is having fun and this inevitably extends to the reader. Ultimately though, this is a silly book that has little to recommend it beyond the over-the-top soft-core violence and sex.