A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 22, 2021 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-and-sci-fi, mystery, egypt, historical-fiction, paranormal, steam-punk, genre-blender, alternate-planes-and-histories, era-mid-late-1800s, detective-mystery

3.5 stars

I enjoyed this book - I especially loved the characters and the setting, and the mystery was solid - but ... it was just too long. I get frustrated with books when the characters keep going back and forth instead of moving forward. (I am that reader who prefers short books, however.)

The structure of this book is: a long intro (a VERY long intro, it's almost like a novella itself), then in chapter three the reader is finally introduced to the crime and remaining main characters, and the 3.5 stars

I enjoyed this book - I especially loved the characters and the setting, and the mystery was solid - but ... it was just too long. I get frustrated with books when the characters keep going back and forth instead of moving forward. (I am that reader who prefers short books, however.)

The structure of this book is: a long intro (a VERY long intro, it's almost like a novella itself), then in chapter three the reader is finally introduced to the crime and remaining main characters, and then multiple conflicts occur between the protagonist and the antagonist in which the protagonist appears to be making zero progress, interspersed with occassional bouts of detective work in which Detective Fatma does not ask nearly enough questions for my liking, LOTS of extra characters are introduced along the way, followed by a VERY long final conflict (this one scene lasts almost 70 pages), and wrapped up with a short epilogue. That's ... a lot of pages. It took me almost a full month to read this! If I had been stranded on a deserted island with only one book, this would have been perfect! Alas ... this was not the case.

One of the things I especially loved about A Dead Djinn in Cairo is that it felt like a full experience, but it was contained in very few pages. That's a unique skill that many authors do not have. I was expecting the same type of taut storytelling here, too. But insted, it felt like the same amount of story, spread out over ten times as many pages.

I THOUGHT I had read all of the previous short stories in this series, but I had missed one (The Angel of Khan el-Khalili). At any rate, I had forgotten the details of hte stories I HAD read, which turned out to be a crucial precursor to this story, so I had no idea who Siti was when she first appeared in this book. The events in the shorts are casually referred to several times thorughout this book, so it was a little annoying that I had no idea what they were talking about. I recommend that you read A Dead Djinn in Cairo & The Angel of Khan el-Khalili prior to this book. Even better, read The Haunting of Tram Car 015, too. ...more

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Dec 26, 2022 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, egypt, steampunk, lgbt, read-in-2022

Fatma el-Sha'arawi works for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities in Cairo. It's 1912 and 40 years ago al-Jahiz bored into the Kaf and released magical creatures onto Earth. Now someone claiming to be al-Jahiz reincarnated has killed numerous people and Fatma, along with her new partner Hadia, has been assigned to the case. The first part of the book was pretty slow with a lot of world building. It picked up the pace a lot in the last 100 pages. I liked the unique sett ...more

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Sep 02, 2021 Anie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021, library, fiction, male-author, sff, ebooks, female-protagonist

Aiii this book is so good (as is this universe!). Cairene steampunk with djinn and airships... yes please, sign me already for this trope. Add in a cast of lovable-but-blessedly-imperfect characters, interesting and well-developed worldbuilding, and an exciting plot, and you've got a great book. (Unlike many steampunk novels, Clark also actively and openly interrogates colonialism, racism, sexism, religious bigotry, and general assholishness in a straightforward way.) ...more

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Dec 12, 2023 Lara rated it liked it

There are some lovely set pieces in this book and the descriptions of magical Cairo and Angel and Djinn palaces are top notch but I found the story a bit too simple, especially in comparison to the City of Brass series. If you've already been introduced to the Seal of Suleiman, the book doesn't have as much to offer. ...more

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