"A Master of Djinn" Discuss Everything *Spoilers*

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Tell us all your thoughts!

A few questions to get us started:

1. What did you think of the world building?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. What worked or didn't for you?
4. Overall thoughts?

First impressions thread is here.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo buddy read is here.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I just have to say, the pacifist djinn and the introvert artist had be laughing out loud!

[Anna]

I laughed so many times during this, but I was listening to the audiobook while doing stuff, so I couldn't mark anything and don't have any quotes :(

[Weatherly]

I looooved this book. I read The Haunting of Tram Car 015 a while ago and loved it so much, and honestly the other one didn’t rly blow me away like that one but THIS??? loved. The dialogue was great, I love the way he structured the relationships naturally, and the action!!! The action was impeccable.

I do think there were times where he stretched out the story a little bit— a few times where Fatma probably should have at least suspected something was Djinn-involved (bc duh Fatma, come on bro, have you looked around?) when she kind of was like “so weird! Guess I need more clues!” But overall I rly liked it still and it didn’t throw me out of the story.

And even tho I SPOILER ALERT suspected Abigail early on (Clark is clearly a feminist and isn’t going to have a female character that utterly dumb and banal without some motive), I stilL thought the reveal was really satisfying.

Can’t waaaait for more in the series!

[Bonnie]

Chapter 17-18, at the palace
(I am not looking above this! ^^)
This chapter is great -- meet rulers and world leaders, learn how the magic worked in different regions and countries, like Germany scouring their old tales and coming up goblins! The changes to colonial history that al-Jahiz's magical breakthrough wrought, like the fateful Battle of Omdurman and the Siege of Khartoum? Very cool, and it makes logical sense with this world's story. I would think such magic would change some of the politics, but not all.

[Hank, Hankenstein's Modster]

Most everything worked for me, I loved the Cairo world but was a little puzzled how that world fits in or affects the rest of the countries.

For some reason I loved Ahmed the crocodile guy and a nice nod to Peter Pan

[YouKneeK]

I did this one in audio. I haven’t read any of the previous shorter works.

1. What did you think of the world building?
I really liked the world building. I haven’t read all that much set in Egypt, nor have I read too many books featuring Djinn, so I enjoyed the novelty of that, and I thought everything was fleshed out well. I don’t necessarily hate the trope where magic is kept a secret from the masses, but I was happy this wasn’t one of those books. I liked that the humans and magical beings had to learn to live together in harmony.

2. What did you think of the characters?
I liked them. I enjoyed the banter between the various characters, and I liked that we had some strong female characters who were actually written as strong people, as opposed to the ones we’re told are strong but then they act stupid and/or helpless, or the ones we’re told are strong but all they actually do is get mad a lot.

3. What worked or didn't for you?
I liked the humor, but I could have done with fewer clothes descriptions. I did appreciate the general humor of the whole clothes thing, and I think it would have annoyed me less in print because I could have glossed over those parts more quickly, but the audio narrator wouldn’t listen to me when I kept saying “No. Stop. Not again. STOP!”

Like Weatherly and AMG, I also thought it was pretty obvious who the real culprit was. I suspected Abigail before there were any logical story-based reasons to do so simply because the clues pointing to her brother were so obvious that I figured this would be one of those stories where the author went for the “least likely” person instead.

4. Overall thoughts?
The story didn’t hold my interest consistently, and I thought the “twists” were telegraphed too obviously, but I did mostly enjoy it. It helped that I liked the characters and the setting. I don't plan to go back and read the shorter works anytime soon, but if there are more books published in this series then someday I may come back and read it all in print in the proper publication order.

[Oleksandr]

I finished the book. my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Mindy]

Allison wrote: "I just have to say, the pacifist djinn and the introvert artist had be laughing out loud!"

I think that was one of my favorite parts of the book!

Just finished and totally loved the story, its characters, the world building, all the surprising twists, and ultimately the message of the book.

[E.D.]

I have not read any of Clark’s earlier stories about Fatma and tend to avoid jumping into book series part way through, even when they ‘stand-alone’, so I was a little dubious about joining this read.
I needn’t have worried. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. What held it together for me was the comfortable way that the author takes the often used idea of ancient gods lying low in the modern (well, early twentieth century) world, adds magical creatures integrated into that world, and then melds it together with the society and bureaucracy of Egypt. The issues of racism, sexism and equality are all included, not in a flippant way but not heavily enough to detract from the stories light tone.

I really enjoyed the theme of Abigail forgiving Fatma for ruining her plans for world domination. I must admit I didn’t see her as ‘The Imposter’ until the author made it obvious. Despite her hand being bitten off, I think that she got off rather lightly when her memories were removed, considering what she was responsible for.

[Oleksandr]

With the worldbuilding in the novel I have a problem - I like it as a thing in itself, but reading recently a modern Egyptian SF The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz as well as knowing that attitudes changed quite a bit since 1912, I don't "buy" a positive progressive Egypt without a darker side. Say, a lot of people will be surprised now, but India joined Antante's war efforts in 1914 hoping for colonies in Africa and Gandhi was then in favor.

[Mindy]

Some of the descriptions of Cairo in the book as a meeting place for many cultures, as a gathering place for erudition, scholarship, and education kind of reminded me of some descriptions of other world capitals such as New York City. I think maybe the world building may be "reimagined" in a positive, cosmopolitan light.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I liked the world building. I think it's somewhat plausible in that progress is cyclic so right after big movements of empowerment you see a brief bubble of astronomical social change, and then the backlash. In our most recent American setting, it's like how right after gay marriage was allowed you saw a huge uptick in gay/LGBTQIA movements and acceptance before the regression. But I also don't think this book was trying to capture the whole picture--I think it was focusing on the acceptance 2 characters had found and playing with the spaces they had created.

[E.D.]

At the time the book is set, in the real world I believe that Alexandria was considered more of a cosmopolitan city (and had been for several centuries as were many others in the eastern Mediterranean).

On the issue of a 'darker side', I believe that Clark hints at it without making it a prominent theme. Had he done so, in my opinion it would have been a far less amusing (and more political book). After all, it is a fantasy world he has created to tell an adventure story with humour and romance, not a historical novel.

[Oleksandr]

E.D. wrote: "After all, it is a fantasy world he has created to tell an adventure story with humour and romance, not a historical novel."

Definitely true. However, it tries to be a turn from our history a generation before the story is set and even tries to say that the same rivalries that led to the WW1 are present, so it is not a thing in itself.

My personal issue I guess is that it is a bit similar to Russian alt-history books where the majority take place whether with no 1917 Bolshevik revolution or during WW2 when a time traveler brings uberwaffe to Stalin to win quickly and decisively. In both cases the Russian (communist) empire is even bigger, people are happier and only enemy spies and agitators are unhappy.

[Christopher]

This one just didn't do it for me.

I had read The Haunting of Tram Car 015 which I only sorta liked, but have not yet read A Dead Djinn in Cairo or the short story (which I suspect meant I was missing out on some important backstory).

1. What did you think of the world building?

The world is pretty nifty and the best part about the book. In a weird way it reminds me of the RPG setting of Shadowrift in that it imagines some rift being opened to bring back all manner of fantastical beings to earth.

2. What did you think of the characters?

I never really connected with any of them. Hadia and Fatma felt like the generic buddy cop team that begrudgingly grow respect for each other over the course of the story that I've seen and read a million times before. The villain seemed too mustache twirly to take seriously.

3. What worked or didn't for you?

This felt maybe more like a comic book where the characters keep having battles against the bad guy and getting incrementally closer to the solution to the mystery, but I just didn't care if they ever did solve it or if they won or lost those battles. It seemed like no battle wounds lasted for long so the stakes felt very low.

4. Overall thoughts?

I think this was meant to be a fun romp in a lush setting with some interesting ideas about how the world might have been should things have gone slightly differently. For me it just fell flat and I found myself re-reading chapters as I'd forgotten where I was or what had happened and the fight scenes bored me. As I stated in the first impressions these detective novels often aren't my thing either as they are too formulaic -- get a few clues, some false leads, and gradually get closer to solving the crime before some big showdown at the end.

I kept getting annoyed while reading this that I was wasting time I could be spending reading something else (like Steerswoman #2).

[Feliciana]

1. What did you think of the world building?
I loved the world building. I read this back in July, so I'm trying to remember everything I enjoyed about it. I had read other works by P. Djèlí Clark, and am a fan of all his work. I had also previously read A Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015, which included characters from the novel. Neither needed to be read prior to reading this.

2. What did you think of the characters?
I loved the characters, and thought they were a lot of fun.
I want to know more about Ahmad a.k.a. Lord Sobek, Master of the Waters.

3. What worked or didn't for you?
I agree with Christopher about the relationship between Hadia and Fatma, and would have like their relationship built a little differently. It didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book though.

4. Overall thoughts?
I loved this book, and had a lot of fun reading it.

[Kevin]

My GR review

4 stars
The worldbuilding was fantastic, I enjoy steampunk but just about every steampunk book I've read were either set in London or felt like London. Clark's Cario is nothing like London. I think the worldbuilding is helped along by the real and subtly subverted world history details that only a historian would think of including, the bigotry for example.

I love books about books and while this wasn't strictly the case, plenty of the
(view spoiler)[
clues for the mystery were either in books, or revealed through books when the character was spellbound not to speak or write about something.
(hide spoiler)]

Endless books. Everywhere. In shelves. Stacked onto tables. In towering piles that looked like orderly mounds of art. But it was the size of the room that stood out. The apartment was immense, with archways and columns, and a wide stone floor. She looked back through the still-open doorway that showed the narrow stairs and then to the scene before her.

“It’s bigger on the inside than the outside?” Hadia whispered, incredulous.

Apparently so. Djinn magic was sometimes perplexing.

I liked Fatma and Siti the best but "creepy" Ahmad almost stole the show.

I haven't read any of the authors other stories but I'm so glad I now have three more trips into this world.

[CJ]

Read this for the 2025 Read All the Books by the Dozen challenge.

I generally find steampunk stuff a bit irritating not because of the world but because the characters tend to be so, so tropey (especially if it's Victorian era-ish or Wild West America characters). But this novel moves so far outside of that, it's genuinely refreshing. I like the character development in this, I feel Clark did due diligence to virtually all the characters, Fatma, Hadia and Siti all were varied enough to feel distinct and individual, and yes, Ahmad was very smartly utilized thorough out the novel.

My main complaint is it felt like this was 2 books worth of story crammed into one, but at the same time, I suspect Clark made a wise choice here and avoided spreading the plot too thin by making it more than one novel. I'm not much of a whodunit/mystery reader and while some of that did feel formulaic (I guessed who the villain was when they had the lock of hair), I felt the characters made the final act really enjoyable, especially Fatma's annoyance with Abigail and Abigail's amusingly insufferable sense of privilege. I think Clark really enjoyed himself with writing Abigail.