Despite the magic potion and occasionally flights of Asterix fancy, the series always aimed for something close to realism, but things get fantastical here with the arrival of a fakir from India on a magic carpet. He's looking for a Gaul to stop the drought back home - not Getafix, but Cacofonix, whose singing, it is revealed (for the first time, and we've seen him sing before) always causes rain. So this story is based on two silly ideas - a magic carpet and Cacofonix's ability to start things raining. As a result this is one of the poorer adventures.The idea of Asterix going to India is a strong one - it didn't need this silliness (anyway, aren't magic carpets more Arabic?) On the bright side, the fact that the carpet fairly zips along and the plot is a race against time (start it raining and stop a princess from being executed)means this is very fast paced. Also, it can't be denied - magic carpets are magical and capture your imagination, you'd love to be in the air yourself, zipping over Europe and the Middle East. But it disrupts the Asterix universe a bit too much, I think. There's only a little section in India, too - most of the story is taken up with the voyage. Like Asterix's encounters with the Normans, one is left hankering for more.
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