I enjoyed this book but it was no patch on Q. For most of the novel the protagonist is an observer rather than a participant, and that damages the narrative a little. The final section [spoilers] draws us into Manuel's mind as he participates in a battle in an attempt to provide the information necessary to allow his side not to be defeated, and for that section the race-against-time aspect and the notion of sheer luck as a historical force is both powerful and dramatic. It is so well written that I can vividly see in my head the worlds of late medieval Istanbul and Venice, and it made me excited to learn more from conventional history books about Yossef Nasi, of whom I had never heard before. ( )

Premessa: Altai non è Q, ma d'altronde neanche io sono la stessa persona che ha letto Q.
Avevo 20 anni allora e, per un ventenne esistono ancora miti inarrivabili. Ora di anni ne ho 41 e i miti inarrivabili non esistono più: le cose si analizzano in modo più attento e critico e i facili entusiasmi sono molto rari, non si tratta di aridità ma di maturità, la capacità di riconoscere le cose belle esiste ancora e Altai è proprio questo: un bellissimo romanzo.
( )

sulla fascetta del volume occhieggia - a titolo di merito - una lapidaria stroncatura di Libero: Una boiata pazzesca.
Mi scoccia proprio di trovarmi in sintonia con la feccia del giornalismo italiano... ( )

Heel clever boek van mijn favoriete schrijverscollectief Wu Ming. Onlangs in het Nederlands vertaald. ( )

This is - loosely - a sequel to Q. We move on from the brotherly bloodshed in Europe between Catholic and Protestant to the great tectonic plates of Ottoman versus Europe - the great religious wars when Islam battered the gates of Europe, with Venice at the cross roads of the empires and the Jews on the sidelines - or were they? It's a gripping tale of the extreme dangers of playing politics with the highest of stakes. And while we may know the outcome at a global level, at a personal level this is nail biting stuff