Group Reads Discussions 2023: "Djinn City" Discuss Everything *Spoilers*

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Come share your thoughts on this fantastical genre bender!

Some questions to get us started:

1. What did you think of Indelbad's situation?
2. What did you think of the world?
3. What excited you most or made you laugh?
4. What worked or didn't for you?
5. Overall thoughts?

Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions

[Trude]

(While reading, feel free to play Bowie’s The Jean Genie)

I read this book on Kindle. It opens as a witty, often lightly satirical text, where we follow ten year old Indelbed’s early years. Indelbed lives with his drunkard father in a dilapidated house. Once his family was wealthy and successful, now it is scraping along on donations from the extended family and even the few employed servants in the house. Anything of value has been sold off, meals are usually liquid or meagre and Indelbed has no education, his father will not let him attend school, and insists on homeschooling, but the quality of the intoxicated teacher’s lessons is questionable.

Djinn or Jinn are rather unknown for this Scandinavian, so I took to the Internet to befriend myself more with these Islamic spirits. Luckily I found a great video from one of my favourite YouTube channels, Let’s talk Religion, that took me far and well into the history of these mythological creatures. I think it paid off to have a little background knowledge of the djinn mythology, it spared me from having to look up some of the terms used in the novel, and maybe it made it easier to grasp the socio-cultural landscape of djinns.

Around the halfway mark I concluded that the story is intriguing, easy to read, lets the reader think a little about socio-political questions and plays a lot with both religion, mythology, science and above all humanity. Because even when we are talking about djinn, all their peculiarities can be found among humans as well – or as bad, maybe.

I won’t riddle this review with spoilers, but the ending of the book is hanging in the air and it feels like either the Kindle version is broken, or there has to be

(view spoiler)[(Yes it feels just like that!) (hide spoiler)]

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

haha Trude! amazing comment, the end made me laugh

[a.g.e. montagner]

I've considered reading this book, but many of the reviews I've read mention this problem.

I'm looking for my next Spear Cuts Through Water, but that novel was at once overblown and finely woven, and most of all it was carefully plotted from beginning to exquisite end. Suggestions?
Thanks, and sorry if this is off topic!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

the only thing like spear cuts I've read is Vanished Birds. Djinn is funny and angry and silly, not at all like Jimenez.

feel free to start a rec thread for more feedback age!

[Hank, Hankenstein's Modster]

Love your comment Trude. I too enjoyed reading it. The story was new and fun. Humour is, of course, highly subjective and it didn't hit me as funny as I hoped, somehow the witty banter I find in The Martian and many of Scalzi's books work better for me.

The end also took a bunch of my joy away. It almost felt like the publisher gave him and ultimatum, finish the book now or you don't get it published, so he did.

[Feliciana]

I listened to the audiobook a few months ago and thought it was fantastic. The world building was intricate, the politics were complicated and at times confusing, and I felt like I was reading something new (new ideas).

Poor Indelbad! I just wanted to give him a big hug!

I liked everything about the book. And then it ended. Abruptly. I would have liked an ending the tied all the loose ends together, but I still think it was an excellent read.

[Melanie, the neutral party]

I hate everything about that ending...

Also does Allison like the book so much because (view spoiler)[lawyering is how to be heroic (hide spoiler)]?

[HeyT]

I finished this morning and was really enjoying myself until that abrupt ending. I wouldn't been quite as upset if there was a sequel out or forthcoming but this was just a hard stop.

[Liane]

Finished overnight. I really enjoyed the buildup of the story, all the diplomacy and sciency bits. But absolutely agree that the ending was too abrupt. I assumed there must be another book waiting to be published too, but.... Oddly, in my library system of 16 libraries, only one copy of this book was owned, and that one copy was held "in storage"!?! Seems to suggest this wasn't as beloved by the general readership. Sad.

[Georgann]

I am so glad to read all these comments. I've been limping along reading this book, even though I liked it. But now I won't bother to finish it!

[Molly]

This book is very odd. I was vibing with it for about 3/4 of it even though I was baffled by a lot of what was going on. Its one of those strange book experiences for me where the book makes no sense, but I'm having a good time going through the journey of reading it. I was going to give this a 3.5 star rating, but the ending was absolutely atrocious. I now have no idea what the point of this story was meant to be and why the author made us go through it for that ending. I also didn't love the author's language use. He really loves to use the r-word and he also has some questionable discussions of Jewish characters and other topics. A definite miss for me

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I feel like I have to reread it! I remember the ending being quick but it made as much sense as the rest of the plot. Granted, I do think this author is not very strong at endings, but he does make me laugh. And I like how this plays with mythological ideas in a modern way, how we understand why Indelbad would not be a great person after his travails.

[Kaia]

I finished the audiobook today, and my overwhelming feeling right now is, “That’s the end?!?” I was expecting some sort of resolution beyond one of my favorite characters (Junie) dying, the bad guys essentially coming out on top, and no real ending at all for Indelbed or Kaikobad. It was a long journey with all of those characters for such an abrupt stop. Maybe there is supposed to be a second book? Even if that is so, the ending was still quite jarring.

That said, I did enjoy a lot of the journey, though some of it was a little brutal for my tastes (though certainly fitting in with the world in the story). The audiobook narrator was really good, too. I just don’t know if all of that is enough to overcome my disappointment with the ending.