As the great shah falls dead he leaves his adviser and daughter, Princess Pari, grasping for power. Her story is told through her loyal servant the eunuch Javaher, who is at the same time attempting to learn what happened to his father, an official executed for betraying the shah. "Equal of the Sun" chronicles Pari and Javaher's parallel struggles for status and identity, Pari as a woman and Javaher as the genderless "gelding"--both living in a man's world.

The Good

Let me tell you: if you want to be transported to sixteenth century Iran, this is the book for you. I felt as if I could smell the incense, feel the brightly colored robes of the harem women. As someone who started this book knowing absolutely nothing about Iran's history, I feel that Amirrezvani explained the culture and court politics wonderfully without "telling" rather than "showing". I also greatly appreciate her author's note at the book's end explaining what is accurate, what isn't, and what we simply can't know. That shows the sign of a responsible historical fiction author.

I was a bit disappointed to realize that "Equal of the Sun" was not Pari's story through her eyes but hers and Javaher's through Javaher's. That said, the up side of this is that we are seeing our heroine through shrewd, sometimes unsentimental eyes. Pari is powerful but greatly flawed, sometimes to the point of frustration. I wanted to wring my hair at some of her actions, but I liked that. She was realistically flawed.

Javaher's story is also told with brutal honesty. He is not at all glamorized, and the story of how he became a eunuch in particular is told with wrenching detail. Although I came into his perspective dragging his feet, the position of a eunuch in the harem was rather fascinating and at times shocking. I was kind of surprised by some of the sexual politics in the harem. Javaher's struggles with his own sense of gender and sexuality were very sensitively handled.

All in all, the book is very well-balanced. I never got that sense of favoritism that I saw often get from historical fiction novels. Though some people were obvious villains, they were only doing what they did historically speaking, and had reasoning behind their actions. Most importantly--again, our heroes were not at all "good" people themselves. They were grasping and ambitious.

The Bad

Unfortunately, the political side of the novel does at times plod. There were definitely moments wherein the dialogue was often purely political, and I felt as if this should have been balanced with more character development. Similarly, I never got to be thoroughly convinced of Pari's political prowess. I was just told that she was the right person for the job, and I liked her personality.

Also, although I did enjoy Javaher's exploration of his sexuality, I felt as if too much attention was paid to his love interests. To be honest, besides the implications towards Javaher's identity, I really didn't care about these relationships. They took up time. They cluttered.

The Ugly

Ultimately, the main relationship, the foundation of the novel, is that of Javaher and Pari. It's an interesting relationship. It's not romantic, it's not purely platonic. It's amazing to read about! So why don't we have as many quiet moments between them? As many building blocks? Although I enjoyed that relationship, it was not as well-developed as it should have been.

The Verdict

Sometimes fascinating, sometimes slow, "Equal of the Sun" is uneven but worth the read--if you like historical fiction.