"The Dead Cat Tail Assassins" First Impressions *No Spoilers*

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Come talk about your initial, general impressions!

Please save all discussion of particulars, details from the story, character choices, plot questions, etc. for the full spoiler thread.

User-submitted content warnings on Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/d...

(More about CWs here.)

[L.G.]

Rating: 3.5 stars

I'm a fan of this author and I was excited to read this book. I enjoyed the Dead Jinn Universe novel and short story that I read during 2022. Somehow, I didn't notice until I'd finished the book that both The Dead Tail Assassins and the Dead Djinn Universe contain the word "Dead" in their titles. Not very observant of me!

[Alistair, chronically anachronistic]

Article from Reactor magazine:
https://reactormag.com/book-review-th...

[CBRetriever]

usually read several books off and on - this one "made" me read it straight through.

wonderful book and a very quick read and lots of plot twists. So, I'm starting out September on a pleasant note.

the only quibble I had with it was trying to "translate" two(?) characters' words as they were in some sort of pigeon english

[Becky, Protomodicule]

CBRetriever wrote: "the only quibble I had with it was trying to "translate" two(?) characters' words as they were in some sort of pigeon english”

It’s Gullah, which is an African creole language of the Gullah Geechee people. PDC used it in Ring Shout as well. Linguist Sunn m’Cheaux teaches it at Harvard and posts language/cultural/social informational videos about it on youtube and such.

I listened and read this book, which I highly recommend.

[CBRetriever]

Becky wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "the only quibble I had with it was trying to "translate" two(?) characters' words as they were in some sort of pigeon english”

It’s Gullah, which is an African creole language ..."

I figured it was something like that but it really slowed down my reading as I normally scan and don't read word by word

[Alistair, chronically anachronistic]

I've also jump started this yesterday. I plan to read a string of Bradburys that might spill into October, and I wanted to finish this one up front ahead of the VBC.
I've read the frst two chapters so far, or ⅙ of the novel. P. Djèlí Clark is highly regarded and there's really only one aspect of the narrative that doesn't convince me, which I guess I'll save for the spoiler thread.

[Alistair, chronically anachronistic]

CBR, I suppose you mean pidgin?

[Kai]

I'm only 20% in but I'm liking it so far. It's my first time reading this author but he's been highly recommended in the past so I hoping this will live up to the hype

[CBRetriever]

Alistair wrote: "CBR, I suppose you mean pidgin?"

I have no idea what it is (someone above suggested Gullah), but I had to sound everything out to figure out what they were saying

[Anthony]

Having read a lot of Clark’s work, I’m enjoying this quite a bit. At about 20% of the way through, he’s firing on all cylinders. His world-building is as fresh and evocative and polyglot as always, his pacing is crisp, and his humor is sharp and wry.

[Becky, Protomodicule]

CBRetriever wrote: "Alistair wrote: "CBR, I suppose you mean pidgin?"

I have no idea what it is (someone above suggested Gullah), but I had to sound everything out to figure out what they were saying"

He's referring to you saying "pigeon english" in your post before.

"Pidgin" is basically the simplified form of a second language that people speak when they aren't fluent.
Creole languages form from them when the next generation grows up speaking pidgin and it kinda grows and expands.

Gullah is a creole. :)

[Alistair, chronically anachronistic]

I wanted to comment on this aspect back when I finished reading.
Djèlí Clark acknowledges Kaymara Barrett for "a much-needed patwa tutorial".

Especially considering that they are vernacular, I suppose there are differences between Gullah and Jamaican patois, which is what this looks like to me. Am I wrong?

[Becky, Protomodicule]

Probably I'm wrong, Alistair. I just knew that Clark used Gullah in RingShout, so I (a very non-expert) assumed it was the same again here.

[Alistair, chronically anachronistic]

Then I guess he was tongue in cheek when he opened the acknowledgments with "Another novella!"

I'm not an expert on either, but this one reminded me of Linton Kwesi Johnson (see for instance https://genius.com/artists/Linton-kwe...).

[Alistair, chronically anachronistic]

Also very curious of how it is rendered for the audiobook.

[Michelle]

I started the audiobook yesterday, and I like it so far - the narrator is doing a fantastic job of giving each of the characters a different voice, and I'll report back how she does with the Gullah wording. There's a sprinkling of modern-feeling slang in here, which usually jars me out of a fantasy setting, but fits these characters well. I'm hoping we get to find out how the group acquired the name dead cat tails (as in, yeah, just the tails or the whole cat?) but that's likely to be just part of the set dressing Clark's done here.