Alafret is a very tall and powerful man. He lives in a country that is perpetually at war against its neighbour. Alafret is constantly mistaken for a brute because of his unusual size, so it comes to everyone who meets him as a surprise to find he is as quiet, learned, and committed to pacifism as he is.

He is aiding people escape a bombing when he is injured, captured, and thrown in prison. He is treated with a highly experimental technique, then forced by a military leader to travel to the enemy, with a vengeful, violent and nasty guard. The aim is for Alafret to infiltrate the rebels and convince them to confront their leadership to stop the war.

The journey is long and difficult and fraught with dangers, even beforeAlafret and his tormentor/guard Qhudur make it into the enemy's floating city. There, they encounter suspicion and do fall in with the rebels, but to Alafret's dismay, even here, despite them admiring his writings, the rebels treat him much as his own countrymen do, with varying levels of disgust or dismay because of his appearance.

Premee Mohamed's works are fascinating, and grapple with weighty topics, but never feel didactic. This story drew me in immediately, and I got enough detail and background as Alafret moved through the novel to understand the world and the stakes. Mohamed nicely encapsulates Alafret's ambivalence about his mission: even though he hated assisting his country's military, he also wanted the war to end. Sitting it out, or providing aid to refugees was not hastening the end of the conflict, which has been brutal and unforgiving on both sides.

This was a wonderfully written indictment of war. It's understandably dark in tone, both in terms of what it has to say about loyalty to cause and country, and the cost of war.

Mohamed also shows how intolerance and bigotry are corrosive, and all too common, despite supposed high ideals espoused by some. Mohamed uses the fact that Alafret is disabled to explore these ideas; there is too often a sense that disability equates to stupidity, weakness or venality. Neither his culture nor the enemy's has any use for anyone who does not conform to what is seen as “normal”, which makes Alafret's size and missing leg an affront to everyone he must deal with on his mission. But his injury and size clearly do not stop him from making an arduous journey, and repeatedly figuring out solutions to problems. He also is principled, and kind, and many times understandably frustrated with the intolerance he experiences for his appearance, and his activism.

This was a fantastic novel, and I found myself rereading passages once I'd finished. Mohamed's prose is lovely, and the story, and the questions it raises, are worthwhile reading.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Rebellion for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I love Premee's work - but sadly couldn't get far into this one. It's just too close to home, with events going on in the world! Their writing is beautiful and the scenario intense... which left me more uncomfortable than engaged.

I'll be back. I promise.

The Siege of Burning Glass is a captivating fantasy novel that excels in delivering a gripping tale of magic, war, and personal transformation. From the first chapter, the book immerses readers in a world on the brink of collapse, where kingdoms vie for power and mysterious forces threaten to consume all. What stands out is how the author expertly balances intense action with moments of deep character introspection, making it a richly layered read.

At the heart of the story is a fierce protagonist whose journey is as emotional as it is thrilling. She is flawed yet deeply compelling, and her struggles with power, identity, and loyalty add a strong emotional core to the novel. Her growth throughout the book is remarkable, as she faces impossible decisions in a world torn apart by conflict. Readers will find themselves rooting for her as she navigates betrayal, forms unlikely alliances, and discovers the true extent of her own abilities.

A pacifist is forced to sneak into the territory of another nation with an assasin. A meditation on peace, war, and inhumanity that tugs at every emotion.

This book leaves you with a lot to think about. It is a beautiful meditation on war, nonviolence, and the mechanisms of propaganda. All of this combined with a very interesting floating city in a sci-fi world. The writing was very beautiful, but sometimes I thought the book moved a bit slowly.

Please see my review in the July/Aug 2024 issue of Analog Magazine.

https://www.analogsf.com/current-issue/the-reference-library/

Fantastic book. Mohamed is a rocketing star in the field. Excited for this book to resonate with readers for many years to come. Read this!!!

This book is absolutely sensational. It's just a bit of a difficult read, given the themes discussed are so deep and profound. To go with the themes, the writing is also very lyrical and full of prose, which makes the reading process a little more tedious. But, it's a brilliant anti-war novel and I think the idealogies perpetuated in this story are very much needed in the current world.

This was not at all the book I expected it to be. I thought this might be a wartime fantasy behind enemy lines, but ended up being far more rich and complex than I imagined. This is a slow and steady anti-war novel, told through the eyes of a conscientious objector who is forced into serving for his country. The result was a slow-burn story that felt very poignant and literary, that was well written despite not being quite to my taste.

Siege of Burning Grass is a book that takes the ideologies of its characters and puts them through the wringer, to see who will hold true. The lead character Alefret has been imprisoned by his own country Varkal for refusing to fight against the Meddon army, following a friendly-fire incident in which his leg has been amputated. Trying to hold onto his morals despite his physical impairments and the situation he finds himself are a key focus of the novel. I loved the pairing of Alefret with the aggressive and loathsome personality of Qhudur, who harbours strong pro-war feelings, strong hatred for pacifists, and perfectly plays the chalk to Alefret’s cheese. The story comes entirely from Alefret’s viewpoint, which nicely balances the two competing armies to create no real ‘good’ or ‘bad’ side, as he feels both are as bloodthirsty as the other. Despite this, I loved how well the pro- and anti-war messages were articulated in the novel, as it stopped any of the characters losing believability.

I found this book to be a tricky read in all honesty, and I struggled with the pacing a fair bit. The prose feels quite heavy and densely packed, and I found myself rereading passages frequently when I’d missed important details amongst the philosophy. I will admit that this style of writing fit the narrative and themes of the book quite well, it just wasn’t quite my cup of tea. The final third of the novel felt more action-focused and the writing was more familiar ground to me, though I didn’t think the sudden increase in pace suited the book particularly well. The scenes and plot resolution felt too rushed for me, and while the story took time in developing some interesting and morally ambiguous characters, the final action scenes included lots of minor characters I hadn’t known long enough to care about.

Overall, I think the ideologies and reflective nature are going to be the bits of this book I remember, rather than the plot which rather fell away at the end for me.

«A very rapid sort of natural selection, like everything else in war. Survival of the fittest. But fittest didn’t mean the most fit. It meant the one who fit best into the tortured shape the world made around them. And that was changing all the time, protean, many-faceted.»

A desperate and profound mediation on violence and war, nationalism, courage, and identity. Alefret, antiwar activist and founder of Varkal’s pacifist resistance, has been maimed and arrested by his own country for the traitorous act and belief of pacifism. While undergoing torture and medical experimentation by Varkal’s zealot ‘visionary’ scientist Qhudur, Alefret is presented with a choice that, if he accepts, would mean an end to the everlasting war. Alefret ultimately, reluctantly, accepts and sets out on a journey with his torturer to infiltrate the floating empire Med’ariz; a journey which has him questioning his identity, morals and principles.

Alefret is a character you can’t help but be drawn to. He shows us that even the most upstanding individuals aren’t infallible — and that’s exactly why he’s one of the most relatable and interesting pacifist characters I have read. He’s also incredibly self-reflective, empathetic, and wise. Through beautiful prose, we are encouraged to question the steadfastness of our own morals and principles, and Alefret is the perfect character through which to do so. He really is a teacher at heart.

The exploration of non/violence, and of fanaticism, propaganda, and militarism, were nuanced and sometimes difficult to read just for the sheer realism. The fantastical elements were unique, but ultimately more in the background as the characters and the larger philosophical themes took focus.

I did find myself losing some interest in the middle, while the beginning was definitively my favorite part. One of my problems, which is entirely a me-problem, was the lack of chapters. The middle section felt so incredibly long that I took forever to get through it. I need shorter chapters to function. If this isn’t a problem for you, dear reader, then I think you’ll love this book.

I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys fantastical settings, sci-fi and fantasy, explorations of violence, fanaticism, monstrosity, and what it means to be a pacifist, or just human, in a war-torn world. And especially for those who like to have their morals and principles challenged.

3.5 rounded up. This is the first book I've read by Mohamed, although I've been intrigued by her work for several years. Her prose is absolutely gorgeous, and I think perfectly suited for this narrative that relies as much on character and philosophy as it does on plot. I did not find the ending very convincing, but the journey to get there was rewarding enough.

Mohamed in her afterword talks about the difficulty of second world fiction, worlds which are after Earth (or Earth themselves) which sometimes present as fantasy. The Siege Of Burning Grass only really reveals its hand at the very end, it is a story of near endless conflict between two warring states, one of which seems technologically superior (not least in that they have flying cities). Magic is never mentioned, but the technological level reached in the actual warfare doesn't seem to be that high, our protagonist has had a leg amputated for medical science, and is being treated by a mad scientist via the means of pharmacological wasps. All of which is the say The Siege Of Burning Grass is chock full of lovely details, but surprisingly abstract when it comes to its bigger picture.

Out protagonist Alefret, the leader of the pacifist movement of Varkal has been captured, imprisoned and tortured by the state he is offered a deal. For his freedom, and more importantly, to end the conflict, they want to smuggle him across enemy lines to make contact with the oppositions underground anti-war movement, to enable them to bring down their own monarchy, government and end the war (in a way that would be beneficial to Varkal). There is a lovely moral dilemma backed into this issue, Alefret want the fighting to end, but to what extent will he involve himself in the conflict to stop it. It becomes more problematic when he agrees and is paired up with the brutishly simplistic Qhudur to get there. The picaresque portion of the book tests the positions of both characters philosophically, not least the amount of pain Alefret is constantly in. Again there is lovely detail about how the war is being run - the Varkal's using pteredons for airpower, versus the opposition's flying drones.

Its a solid read but there is a tension in the book between the allegorical aspect of the book about all conflict, and the specifics of this conflict, not least when the origins of the world is uncovered. Some of the choices made to leave it as an open parallel to earthly conflicts pushed against the specifics, and its final act never really takes a side as to whether a pacifist should employ violence to prevent greater violence, and the scenario it ends up with cannot help try to answer that question only for a low technology world with flying cities. Thought provoking and interesting, particularly on the PR battles of modern warfare.

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The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed

I would like to thank Jess from Solaris for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Publisher - Solaris

Published - Out Now

Price - £18.99 hardback £7.99 Kindle eBook

The Empires of Varkal and Med’ariz have always been at war.

Alefret, the founder of Varkal’s pacifist resistance, was bombed and maimed by his own government, locked up in a secret prison and tortured by a ‘visionary’ scientist. But now they’re offering him a chance of freedom.

Ordered to infiltrate one of Med’ariz’s flying cities, obeying the bloodthirsty zealot Qhudur, he must find fellow anti-war activists in the enemy’s population and provoke them into an uprising against their rulers.

He should refuse to serve the warmongers, but what if he could end this pointless war once and for all? Is that worth compromising his own morals and the principles of his fellow resistance members?

War is an ongoing theme in Science Fiction and Fantasy but often one where it’s a device for action, glory and resolving a storyline. Moments of heroism fighting the hordes, saving the world and sometimes using amazing weapons. It feeds art of our soul which raises questions about us. But there are traditions too exploring the power of peace. In Premee Mohamed’s powerful The Siege of Burning Grass we have a story that gives war no glory; we see it for the pointless endgame it always is and we see it through the eyes of a remarkable character who has sworn never to fight. One of the most thoughtful fantasy tales on war I’ve read.

Alefret lives in the Varkal Empire an immense land hungry country forever at war and constantly watching its citizens. Alefret though is now a prisoner for being part of a pacifist group known as the Pact. Refusing to take part in the latest war against the equally powerful (perhaps even more) Med’ariz. he is being tortured and left in a prison likely to be executed at any moment. However, the Varkal military have a desperate plan to end the war they can’t win and this involves getting Alefret into a Med’ariz city alongside the fanatical soldier Qhudur. It’s a journey that gives Alefret a new perspective on war from those fighting on the front lines and a dilemma as to can any action be required that will not break his principles?

This is a fascinating story that challenges our traditional war tales in our genres. A tale that reminds me more of stories from a post WW2 period where writers like Le Carre and Greene highlighted in their own genres the banality, transactional nature and overall pointless cruelty of conflict decided simply because it must be fought. Mohamed timely challenges in many ways the standard ways we think still of war stories in fiction and reminds us to delve a little deeper into what really may be going on.

At the heart of this is our lead character Alefret. If I said Alefret is 7 feet tall, hunchbacked very strong and has a face people avoid looking at that gives you an idea of him. But if I said he is also a schoolteacher in his village; incredibly bright and eloquent and one of the key leaders of the pacifist group then suddenly your view may change. Mohamed lets us into Alefret’s thoughts via the third person narration. We see a man still trying to make sense of a cruel and mad world even from his imprisonment. He is being tortured for information and bizarrely also receiving amazing medical treatment to regrow a leg he lost in a bombing. A prize prisoner and yet also hated for doing something people cannot understand - not fighting - especially with his strength and power. Alefret is a more cerebral person; fond of myths and working out what they say about the world, loves wordplay and yet has the dilemma of does he die in prison or take a chance to end a war peacefully? He’s not going to be the type of hero to use the mega weapons or bring about an army to his command he is something refreshingly new.

We are used in wars for a glorious quest with adventures to achieve a goal and here again Mohamed gives us something different. While this is very much the last gasp chance to end the war it’s more a sneaky desperate final attack. To mirror Alefret we get his guard Qhudur and it’s a fascinating dynamic as these two are in some ways similar. From nearby parts of the empire, both share a love of stories and world games but Qhudur is very much the man who believes in the war and the good cause they fight for and he loves the violence far more than many of the soldiers we go on to meet. He hates Alefret for his choices and reminds him of it constantly. While Alefret is about deciding a course of action Qhudur is all about reacting and often with wild and intense violence. Alefret may be the only person capable of stopping him but his decision not to fight puts him in a quandary.

The plot takes the duo into the battlefields and I loved how Mohamed shows no glory. Alefret is troubled to find the armies are now down to their youngest fighters; that supplies are running out; even at his prison knives are now used for executions to save on bullets. The more senior commanders all know it’s lost but go through the motions of fighting as to stop a war would be madness. There will so no good guys. The Varkal empire is shown to be greedy to conquer, spies on its own citizens and yet their opponents the Markel have a secret police; special protections for their own leaders and some disturbing thoughts in the purity of the race. Frustatingly both have amazing technology - The Varkal use insects as technology from lighters, tanks to incredible medical supplies. The Med’ariz are capable of vast cities with bountiful supplies and both sides think the other is inhuman. All these years fighting and never considering what the other options could be.

In the final stages of the book Alefret and Qhudur are involved with the resistance of the Med’Ariz and we see a battle for ideas. Some are drawn to Qhudur’s love for action to get a result. Others are seeking just glory, power or profit from war and tension mounts - will they be found out, betrayed and can Alefret stop further bloodshed? Can violence ever not be the way to win? Things build and get more desperate in an excellent finale that we can’t guess the outcome until the final pages.

The Seige of Burning Grass is an eloquent but brutal look at war’s futility. A timely reminder that there is little glory in it and how peace is felt a worst outcome for the most spurious of reasons. It asks questions of the world and the reader and that is a sign of the best stories and cements Mohamed as one of the genre’s most interesting authors. Strongly recommended!

Alefret is a prisoner of his own country, a pacifist in a time of war, a victim of his own country’s bombs and torturers. Reluctantly he agrees to infiltrate the enemy’s last remaining floating city with one of his guards/torturers, to try and persuade them to surrender or call for a ceasefire. There’s much to think about in this novel, war and peace, resistance, violence and its uses, the use of propaganda particularly in the dehumanisation of the enemy and much more.
There’s also science fiction elements, the floating city, strange weapons and tools that are part animal/part mechanical, including wasps that are used for injecting drugs.
It’s an interesting read and some parts I found really engrossing, in other sections the pacing is a bit slow.

Mohamed’s The Siege of Burning Grass reminded me of Orwell’s 1984 and Dostoyevsky in the best ways. An unflinching examination of the rhetoric of war and what non-violence means in a world set on creating enemies to tear down. I will be haunted by Alefret and his wasps for a long time. On that note, I think this book made me like wasps a little bit?!

"Bombing children. Bombing children as if to say, See what you have made us do. Fight without honour because you fought without honour. Forced our hands."


4.5 stars rounded up.

I swear, the more Premee Mohamed I read, the more I fall in love with her unique style of storytelling and writing.

Similar with authors like Cassandra Khaw and Vajra Chandrasekera, her style is definitely not for everyone. But if strange, almost otherworldly, SFF is your thing, you should definitely check this one out.

I'll admit though, it took me some time to get used to the prose because it read very clinical and detached in the beginning. It was hard to get to know the MC, Alefret, because the narrative feels very impersonal.

But once the story unfolded, it was easier to understand Alefret's fears and motivations through his exchanges with the other characters, particularly with Qhudur and Cera. This is the type of book that doesn't hold your hand, so you'll have to figure out each character's dilemmas and how the world functions on your own. It was quite a workout, let me tell you that.

But somehow, I ended up loving this mental exercise.

And slowly, but surely, the prose became more and more poetic as the story went on.

I loved how war and the role of pacifism is explored in this book. Several times over, Alefret's loyalty is questioned by various characters due to his pacifist stance.

I also loved how the author explores Alefret's large, disabled body as its own contentious and political topic. The fact that he even exists in a world that persecutes people with physical disabilities becomes a form of activism in itself. This quote below sums it up:

"How good it would be, just once, to be the monster everyone said he was—not forever, not for a lifetime. Just long enough to kill the corporal. But then could you return to humanity after that. Some would say yes. He was not sure."


I highlighted many quotes from the arc that I'll share here. Please note that they're subject to change in the published copy.

"Survival of the fittest. But fittest didn’t mean the most fit. It meant the one who fit best into the tortured shape the world made around them. And that was changing all the time, protean, many-faceted."


'[...] If the Meddon are human, how can they do what they do?”

“They are human,” Alefret said. “What are you talking about? The border wasn’t even drawn between our countries till a few hundred years ago. We all come from the same people.”'


"A child martyr could not consent to martyrdom. The youth of these soldiers pained him as if they were his own students, back in the village, out here sheltering under a carcass and waiting for old men to tell them to die."


"He could not imagine these teenagers fighting desperately, ferociously, for fear or anger or revenge or love of their country— for any reason, any emotion—when they were at the same time treated like assets in a business decision. Now we none of us are what we wanted to be, he imagined himself saying, solicitous, his teacher voice. A father to these children. But couldn’t you be anything else? Anything?"


"The idea slipped away again and again and finally he grasped it, and thought: They have butter here. And in Edvor they are running out of rats."


"War is practicing human sacrifice. You kill and you pray to the gods and you say: I have given you blood. Now you give me victory. The fact that they do not call it that, or admit to the prayer, does not make it any less true."


"...he could see that the loss had made her hard and hollow, and hard and hollow things broke easily under stress. He wondered how many times she had broken, during the war, and been alone, and rebuilt herself."


"The war was full of soldiers who had been forced to kill; and a small, unspoken contingent of those who wanted to kill. Who had only been waiting for the mass disaster of a war to unleash what they’d wished they could do all their lives."


Thank you to Solaris and NetGalley for this arc.

Premee Mohamed is incredible. I'm steadily becoming convinced that everything she writes is a remarkable work of art. And (not "but") this is a dark, challenging work to get through. While The Butcher of the Forest was most like a fairy tale and was gorgeous and then got swiftly dark and briefly brutal but then gentled up, this brilliant reflection on war and resistance ends on a hopeful note but the path to get there is grindingly bleak.

If you're up for that, the world-building is phenomenal. I love the snippets of myth and old cultural tidbits from Alefret's village. The sheer astonishing weirdness of Varkal's biotech, perfectly ordinary to Varkallagi residents and thus not meriting much mention, is wonderful and is presented so seamlessly by the author that lizard guns seem, in the moment, to make perfect sense. War has such an awful lot of inertia. I loved how, in this exploration of how the systems that support and continue war function or cease to function--as well as how resistance movements function or cease to do so--along with the complex ethics of pacifism, nobody is idealized. Neither side (Varkal or Meddon) is Right, and no one, even among the resistance, is uncomplicated to sympathize with (well, maybe with the exception of Cera).

It's very, very good, but prepare yourself for Cormac McCarthy levels of bleak and dark. CW for an awful lot of things <spoiler>including psychological and physical torture, but no sexual violence</spoiler>.

I love Premee Mohamed's work. Her prose and care are unparalleled. Those skills are represented here: The sentences in this novel about a pacifist sucked into a general's scheme in a war-torn fantasy land are, without exception, both clear and beautiful, and the author's care with the thorny, unpleasant ideas at play is resonant and thought-provoking.

Unfortunately, I do feel like Mohamed is best at the novella level, where both her prose and her ideas get to shine to their full potential. In a novel-length work, neither one of those things is really able to sustain the length of the project, in my opinion. The plot here, believe it or not, did not feel particularly meaty despite all the espionage and threats of death, and there were many moments where I wasn't really able to understand why Alefret went along with a plot that was so contrary to his principles at almost every point.

I would recommend this book for those who like secondary-world fantasy or ideas-driven fiction.

"It's that 'fair' is a meaningless word if someone really wants to hurt you. There are no equal fights. Even if there were, you cannot tell by looking. So don't fight."

I absolutely adore what Premee has to say and how she chooses to say it. I would argue that this is the heaviest of the three books I've yet read from her, but incredibly worthwhile.

A man -born huge and strong, the kind of person people think is an indelicate, brutish monster on sight- who is actually a scholar and a pacifist is forced to go on a two-man mission with his enemy-- someone who looks like your neighbour or best friend but whose very bones sing with violence and war propaganda. Along the way he reflects often on the state of war and of stories, on the value of nonviolence, the lies we tell ourselves.

The world-building details are not the main focus, but build up an interesting setting in the background. From the floating city to the village bred lightspiders that can be depended on even in a blackout to the wasps with stings that can regrow human limbs. In many ways the two nations and their technologies (cold and mechanical vs alive and evolutionary) remind me of the Darwinists and Clankers in Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series, and I think it works very well in this much more Adult novel.

I will be reflecting on the ideas presented here for a long while. Thank you.

"A very rapid sort of natural selection, like everything else in war. Survival of the fittest. But fittest didn't mean the most fit. It meant the one who fit best into the tortured shape the world made around them."

As you would expect from Premee Mohamed, this is a carefully constructed secondary world, with a deeply tendentious story playing out inside its rules. Moral greyness and relativistic morality are always welcome sights in the secondary-world fantasy genre. Meditating on what makes a villain villainous, what makes it possible to fight and kill in service of peace (as George Carlin famously observed, "Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity"), all the while still feeling Very Certain of one's own cause's Rightness. No one in one of Author Mohamed's worlds is Right. That being the reality of life on the Earth I like seeing it shown this way in very appealing fiction.

Bioengineering plays a very significant role in this fantasy world. (Including a use of wasps that absolutely *never* would've occurred to me!) I think it is best to leave the whats and hows of that fact alone, as there are surprises in store that hang on those hooks. If I am transparent about it, I would have been five-star warbling my fool head off had some of those fascinating facets found even greater, and sooner, uses in the story.

While I comprehend the metaphorical use of a flying city, I am deeply skeptical of any use of them because they use unrealistic tech to solve...nothing. There is no actual, practical benefit to a flying city that is not outweighed by real, unaddressed increases in the complexity of urban living. I guess the metaphorical "coolth" and visual appeal is just too much to resist, and the people with the flying city in this story definitely seem like the sort of culture that would develop one. Still...just no. Resist the pointed contrast of tech "coolth" to natural development and augmentation!

The absolute joy of the read is the very carefully natural debate between the competing moral certainties of pacifism and Security Über Alles from the alleged same side of the war. This is, to me, the best use of fiction: Don't give one side the monopoly on the good stuff or the bad stuff. Humankind doesn't, hasn't, and won't ever work like that. As you are telling this story, albeit set on a different world, to Humankind, follow our rules when it most counts. This being one of Author Mohamed's storytelling's strong points, I always enjoy her stories.

So, while not a masterpiece, this story of pacifism and its moral greyness, warmongering and its honest, if misguided, aims, and what men will do to WIN, is one fine read, indeed.