Review of Review of The Tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman: The Arabic Epic of Dhat al-Himma by Unknown

The Arabic original is 5084 pages long, containing 455 episodes of which only 11 are translated here.

The limitations of this condensation are clear. Perhaps every translation is both an abridgement and an interpretation, but I feel like Penguin can afford to provide full translations of many if not all of the Eastern epics they have variously butchered.
I was glad to purchase their full 10-volume Mahabharata, the 3-volume Ramayana, and their bastardized Shahnameh and tilism e hoshruba. Yet, I always feel like I am missing something. Explicitly, I am missing about 20 volumes worth of material within my collection. There is much richness to be drawn out of the epic traditions of the region, but this particular rendition does not bear the power of those other sizable volumes. It was a quick read, reminding me variously of Xena the Warrior Princess and like renditions, though the main character here is not sexualized. She is often taken for a man – the veil helps – and the action is relatively tame.
The storytelling techniques employed are reminiscent of the Arabian Nights. Luckily, Penguin has published a 3000-page version of that (though many of the stories scream abridgement) – at least all 1000 stories were present.
I would have loved to follow this tale for 444 more episodes, but I fear a real English translation may never arrive.
Not everyone is as gung-ho as I to go in for such lengthy fare. Though when we read the likes of Malazan and Wheel of Time aren’t we settling for pale imitations of the original epic format? True, many Epic fantasies are sufficiently complex and well-written to stand proudly beside their millennium-old ancestors, but how can we be sure when we only sample a bite-sized sample in suspiciously modern prose?
For sheer entertainment value and distraction you could do a lot worse. But as a reader, I demand more. It is a shame we have to settle for this slim book. In an era dominated fan-fiction and serial online novels, I am not surprised such translations are labeled ‘classic,’ or ‘definitive,’ though the original creators would recoil at such a puerile simplification of their great masterpiece.
It is an interesting thought to wonder if scholars will be laboring over translations and interpretations of Malazan 1000 years from now, or if such colossal efforts will vanish.
The fact that the narrator of Arabian Nights was female, and that the woman in charge in this book bucks tradition might be taken as a significant sign of discontent among the feminine population of the time.
The blurb mentions: “Circe, Mulan, Wonder Woman, Katniss Everdeen,” as comparisons. They are trying to make easy sales among people searching out women’s empowerment fiction. But really, there are far better examples than Princess Fatima out there to choose from by the truckload if that is all you care about.