The General and the Elephant Clock of Al-Jazari by Sarah Black

20416959Title: The General and the Elephant Clock of Al-Jazari, 2nd edition

Series: The General and the Horse-Lord: Book Two

Author: Sarah Black

Genre: Contemporary / Mystery/Suspense

Length: Novel (244 pages)

ISBN: 978-1-62798-840-7

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (December 19th, 2013)

Heat Level: Low

Heart Rating:  ♥♥♥2.5 – 3 Hearts

Reviewer: Thommie

Blurb:Fresh out of the closet, General John Mitchel and Gabriel Sanchez are settling into their new life together when an old army colleague taps them for a rescue mission to Tunisia. Eli and Daniel, two former Rangers working security, have been arrested in Carthage, charged with blasphemy, and thrown into prison.

With rampant unrest in the ancient city and an old enemy targeting them, John gathers a team to liberate the two captive men. When he discovers Eli’s boyhood obsession with Al-Jazari’s Elephant Clock, the rescue becomes complicated and strangely beautiful, and John and Gabriel have to risk what they love the most to bring their team home.

Purchase Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4580

Review: The General and the Horse-Lord’s sequel come to take us in a ride through John and Gabriel’s new life. As the first book ended, the couple was trying to settle after their coming out to society as lovers, their old family life in ruins, and the balance between calm and storm fragile. That hasn’t changed much and new clouds trouble their life. John is getting anxious with all this civilian life, feeling as if he has still lots to give yet trapped into a senile-like existence, Gabriel trying to get a hold on his children and their animosity toward the changes happening to their life, when a new challenge appears out of the blue.

A mission in Tunisia, the recovery of two soldiers who’d been charged with blasphemy and thrown in jail comes to take the entire family out of the country, introducing us at new characters and new relationships as well. Adventure, one might call it and very well so, because charging in an Islamic country when you’ve just made the cover of, Out magazine is not the easiest thing to do. Especially as waiting for you there are old enemies holding deep grudges.

The story, while thought-provoking, holding a flurry of activities, many fronts, and addressing cultural and political issues, is a bit droning. There is a non-stop pace that is unfortunately very sedate and monotone. The pitches in intensity were few and of a very short-range. One moment something exciting might happen only to be resolved on the very next page, thus not allowing you to make a connection, to pin perhaps for your heroes, making the ugly events happening seem like a game and not the severe events they were probably meant to be. While the references to old inventors and remarkable people who made a dent in history were admirable, it didn’t help the plot from being unattractive and lacking intrigue and interest. It severely failed to keep me reading for a length of time, and I never once felt myself enthralled in the story.

Even more unattractive though was the fact that some well-abused characters didn’t hold onto that feeling that comes with their situation. I found the fact that the heavily abused ranger Eli didn’t want to leave and seek medical help unrealistic. That our General went with it and tried to “make it right” in the middle of a diplomatic situation was ludicrous. So many things went completely of the sphere of reality and the thought “how much fiction is too much” came over and over again in my head. Even more disturbing was the fact that the entire “family” got involved. General Mitchel was hired as a negotiator and consultant along with the Horse Lord, and before we blinked our eyes, the kids (Kim and Abdulah) charged into the desert and intruded a JOB, for it was a job and a highly paid one at that. For me that was not entertaining, it rather drained all the pleasure from the book as much as one could gain.

To sum it up the sequel of one of my favorite books The General and the Horse-Lord did not meet my expectations and while good, it simply wasn’t good enough.