The Muslim Prince (Audio Book) by Roger Ley

 

The Muslim Prince (Audio Book) by Roger Ley.

Narrated by Craig Bowles.

Released 18th November 2020.

Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins

From the cover:

What if Princess Diana hadn't died in the Paris car crash in 1997? What if there had been no crash? What if she'd converted to Islam and married Dodi Fayed?

In this alternate reality, Prince William succeeds to the throne and his mother, Princess Diana, rejoins the Royal Family as a Muslim Queen Mother. 

Meanwhile, her grandson James, the next in line to the throne, is under the spell of a Saudi Arabian Princess who want him to convert and become the first Muslim King of England.

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Anyone familiar with Roger Ley's epic time travel adventure Chronoscape (review here) will know that there was a timeline in that book where Princess Diana avoided certain death in a Paris tunnel and went on to cause ructions within the house of Windsor by marrying Dodi Fayed.

In this story, Roger Ley fills out this part of the original book in a spin-off adventure that gives all the details we need to understand quite how these 'ructions' played out to bring Britain to the brink of becoming something rather different than the place we know so well today.

I don't really want to go too much into the ins and outs of how this one unfurls, because it's so entertaining that you really need to get yourself a copy to read, or listen to the dulcet tones of Mr Craig Bowles with the audio book, to experience it first-hand, but I am not giving too much away when I say that a Lady Diana who converts to the Muslim faith has quite an effect on the Royal family, especially the younger members - and it's not so far beyond the realms of possibility to have been something that could have happened, had Diana's fate been different.

This throws up a whole raft themes around racism, religious tolerance, church vs state, the establishment and political intrigue, and I guarantee it will give you lots to speculate about. There are even some hilarious moments, such as when Diana gets her revenge on some former members of the Royal family who triumphed over her in the past, that had me laughing out loud.

It was rather like meeting up with an old friend hearing the voice talents of Craig Bowles again, and I easily fell back into the style and rhythm of his narration after having listened to Chronoscape previously. Talking of which,  The Muslim Prince can and does essentially work as a standalone, but it is oh so much better if you know the full story before embarking on this second book, so I recommend you read or listen to Chronoscape first - and honestly, it's mind-bendingly good, so why wouldn't you?

The Muslim Prince is available to buy in e-book, paperback and audio formats from your favourite book retailer now.

Thank you to Craig Bowles for sending me a free copy of this audio book in return for an honest review.