I did not understand why this book is so highly regarded. I enjoy fantasy books. They take you into unexpected worlds and can delight you if managed well.
This book did not. It takes the hero, Balian, into waking and dream worlds and you are never sure which aspect of the tale takes place in his dreams, and which does not.
Does the book conclude in the temporal world, or does it end in the dreamworld?
Is it an allegory on perceptions and dreams? Or just a romp on the wild side of fantasy?
I don't know. Many people seem to have enjoyed it, so give it a go. ( )

The hero and guiding force of this epic fantasy is an insomniac young man who, unable to sleep, guides the reader through the narrow streets of Cairo-a mysterious city full of deceit and trickery. He narrates a complex tangle of dreams and imaginings that describe an atmosphere constantly shifting between sumptuously learned orientalism, erotic adventure, and dry humor. The result is a thought-provoking puzzle box of sex, philosophy, and theology.

In the eastern lands the heat and idleness breed among the inhabitants leisured and lethal fantasies. p. 71 ...the perplexed traveller may direct his steps according to the stars. Beware, though, for it is not unknown for the stars to move in their courses with the aim of misleading the unwary. p. 73 Nobody wants to die, but we all want to sleep... p. 75 The world is all made of one substance; it will suffice to examine any portion of it thoroughly. p. 97 Nothing balances against anything...The I that laughs and the I that weeps are two different Is. p. 100 Nothing ever happens in this place. Things are always being supposed to be just about to happen. p. 137

But surely a story within a story is the model of your situation, for what is a conspiracy but a story within a story? And what is a spy but a man who seeks to penetrate to that inner plot, the hidden truth?...You were a spy by temperment long before...You do nothing but wander about, solitary, suspicious and uncertain, and people talk to you. You seem to do nothing, but those big dreamy eyes take in everything...you were spying on life. Your face is like a mask; it therefore advertises your profession - conspiracy hunter. But conspiracies are only fantasies of simple men looking for simple explanations for events that are in truth very intricate in their causes and purposes. You will not find any one key to unlock events... p. 203

Now, let me point to Iblis's role in the story. The djinn in the story were all different manifestations of Iblis, for, though his name and appearance are legion, his evil essence is one. Iblis was the djinn in the toothed cave, the mate on the ship, the djinn fishing at the pool, the santon on the hill - all Iblis...The reason Iblis solved the riddle was that he set it himself in the first place. The story is all of his contrivance and intervention. p. 231 ( )

This brilliant book communicates its own obsessive thought-patterns to the reader in a way that dissolves the boundaries between literature, dream and magic. I'm not sure I've ever managed to leave Cairo even now.

Review by David Langford: http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/nightmar.html ( )