Rebellion and Deceit: Empires and Kingdoms by David Eugene Andrews follows Aisha, the sister of Sultan Mehmet III, as she navigates the complicated and dangerous world of the imperial court while trying to uncover the truth about an English captive, Captain John Smith. Tension is rising from both inside and outside the palace with sipahi soldiers returning from the front and demanding payment, rebellions spreading through Anatolia, and officials in the Divan struggling to keep control while the Grand Vizier is away at war. All the while, Aisha seeks out a Dutch odalisque to help her understand John Smith’s story. All of this moves between the grandeur of the palace, the secrecy of the harem, and the instability of the empire, which makes the story feel layered and alive.

What stood out to me most about Rebellion and Deceit by David Eugene Andrews was how immersive it feels. You can tell the author put a lot of effort into the research, and it really shows in the detailed descriptions of Ottoman culture, politics, and daily life. The characters, especially Aisha, were easy to get invested in. She’s strong and curious, but also limited by the expectations placed on her, which makes her decisions feel more meaningful. That said, there are moments where the amount of historical detail, especially all the names, titles, and shifting alliances, can slow the pacing a bit and take some effort to keep up with. Still, it didn’t take away from my overall reading pleasure. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction.

David Eugene Andrews' Rebellion and Deceit is a fascinating, complex, and character-driven historical and military novel. The multiple subplots are skillfully expressed through well-researched and crafted reimagined history. The novel is set in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, in the Ottoman Empire and in Europe, in France, Holland, and Hungary. A number of the fictional characters were inspired by the lives of real historical figures. The major character is Captain John Smith, based on the real historical figure of Captain John Smith, an English soldier, who was captured by the Turks, sold into slavery, and who eventually escaped. He later explored and settled in the American colonies in Virginia. In the novel, John is captured by the Turks in battle in Europe and sold into slavery in 1602. He is sent as a slave to Aisha, the sister of Sultan Mehmet III, in Stamboul, Turkey. John speaks Italian, French, and Dutch. Aisha speaks Italian as it is the lingua franca in the Sultan’s palaces, which have many slaves of European origin. Through Aisha’s French and Dutch translators, John tells of his days as a soldier in significant European military campaigns in 1597. Aisha’s daily life, as well as that of the Sultan, his family, and his closest advisors, and the complexity of the Ottoman Empire, is interwoven into the overall novel in separate chapters.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Rebellion and Deceit. From start to finish, the novel springs vividly to life through dialogues, riveting settings, and immersive character development of key characters, Turkish and European. I particularly enjoyed the development of the subplots: Captain John Smith as a soldier in European military campaigns, and the growing issues of governance and rebellion in the Ottoman Empire. I liked John’s willingness to learn to fight, his keen observations, and his courage and resilience in King Henri IV’s intense military campaign to retake the French city of Amiens from the Spanish. John's life as a soldier and the military campaigns he fought in sprang to life through the narrative, maps, and sketches of different characters. The overall story also gained great depth through the detailed historical settings of cities, including Stamboul in Turkey, Amiens in France, and the Ottoman region of Anatolia in Asia Minor. What also drew me deeper into the novel were the quotations from historical records that each chapter opens with. These provided the basis for many of the reimagined historical characters and events. I highly recommend David Eugene Andrews' novel for its remarkable characters and incredibly detailed military campaigns, including those in late 16th-century Europe involving an alliance of England, France, and the Dutch against Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, and the rebellion in Anatolia in the Ottoman Empire.