By Mika Waltari The Wanderer (1st First Edition) [Hardcover]

By: Mika Waltari

Ever since reading The Egyptian, I have been checking out used book stores for anything by Mika Waltari, wish more of his books were still in print. He wrote superb medieval fiction and it was well worth the search to find a copies of both The Adventurer and The Wanderer. The first part, The Adventurer is an adventure novel set in various parts Europe in the early sixteenth century with rich descriptions of both characters and places, it is the story of one man's life Michael, a bastard born in Abo, Finland sometime in the year 1502 or 1503 he believes. Book Two, The Wanderer continues the adventures of Michael the Finn from Abo and this time the settings are throughout the extensive kingdom of Suleiman the Magnificent, supreme ruler of the Ottoman Turks. After setting out from Vienna at the end of The Adventurer, Michael and his friend Andy are captured by pirates and compelled to convert to Islam to avoid death, he eventually ends up as the slave of Ibrahim, the Grand Vizier, second most powerful ruler after Suleiman. Michael's skill with languages is his gift and propels him to the front of the action again and again, traveling to Istanbul, Baghdad, Tunis and Budapest and experiencing many battles and sieges. A great deal of the action also takes place in the shadier, behind the scenes world of the harem, where concubines and eunuchs take power by more subtle means. I highly recommend both or either of these books to anyone who enjoys medieval fiction with detailed and vivid scene descriptions and characters with depth. The Wanderer is particularly unique as instead of the usual Crusades style story of Christians fighting Moslems, these characters embrace the other religion and move through the other world.

• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: B00RWU8K1M
• ISBN13: 8601407191401
• Release Date: June 1951
• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons