This is a new book that sounded interesting, in part as it relates to a part of the world I've not read about much.
But I quit about exactly halfway. The storylines are interesting enough, but the incessant drumbeat of anti-West, anti-capitalist assumptions wear me out. The usual statements to the effect that slavery by Western nations is unquestionably evil, slavery in Islamic or sub-Saharan situations is nuanced. At least the author points out that there were more slaves there over a longer time period. Also from the 2025 catechism: anyone that objects to migrants going wherever they want in whatever numbers is xenophobic and/or racist.
And I don't quite know how to place what I read, mostly because I still don't know much about this area. There is far more nuance than I realized about Sahara topography, variance in oases, tribes criss-crossing; this part is interesting. (The only time I had read about anything addressing this were the WWII books discussing the campaigns in north Africa.)
I didn't know there is a vast store of water underground - of course now there is rampant pumping and time will tell if this depletes the stores. So far it hasn't, though localized areas have gotten dried out.
Camels are more amazing than I realized.
As far as I got, this was an interesting follow-on to the focus on deserts in the monastic world.
