I have no idea where this one came from. It's been on the list for a while, so who knows?
A caliph has power go to his head. If scholars dare to contradict him, they end up in prison. One day, a merchant comes and sells the caliph some swords where the words on them change from day to day. An old man was able to read them one day, but not the next so Vathek burned off half his long beard...rude! The merchant disappears before the caliph is done with him, but when he's caught the merchant is turned into a ball and kicked by the caliph and later the town until he falls into a chasm.
Later, the caliph does all sorts of things to make the merchant's spirit (?) give him the keys to a Palace of Underground Fire. Normal things, like sacrificing 50 children. The caliph has numerous chances to repent and change his ways, but the caliph, his mistress (that he basically stole from someone he was staying with) and his crazy mother (that traveled around on some kind of zombie camel and had mute ninja-type slaves) are doomed for eternity.
This story was so weird, and I could go on and on about the strange things in it. I kept thinking I was reading it wrong or missing something. It wasn't that long, and I was about to quit on it when it ended. I was at the 37% mark, and I guess the rest of my copy was notes. Since I finished it, I looked up the story to see what I missed. I hadn't missed anything. The story was just weird. I think the biggest mystery was: how did it end up on my To Be Read pile?
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