Community Reviews
Thanks to Macmillan-Tor for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This was one of the most unique and engaging books I've read in quite a while. The world is my favorite I've come across since the Stormlight Archive, with its utterly intriguing mix of steampunk and magic. The world feels so fleshed out and realized, acting as a parallel to ours had magic come back to the world in the late 1800s. Cairo of this version of 1912 is bustling with people, automatons, djinn, angels, and more and I just want to know more and dig into Cairo and the rest of the world.
The central plot was very intriguing. I love a good murder mystery, and while I admit I had worked out the "who" midway through the book it took a while before I landed on the "how" and "why." And even once I had, a chapter or so before Agent Fatma, there were still pieces and aspects I hadn't seen coming. The last act is appropriately epic.
Any complaints I have are minor quibbles. I thought that Fatma was a little slow to the draw on figuring out what was happening in certain scenes, and I thought the plot might have been a little drawn out to pad the story into a full novel. But the book remains, as a whole, one of my favorite I've read in a long time and I will eagerly be diving into P. Djèlí Clark's back catalogue soon.
This was one of the most unique and engaging books I've read in quite a while. The world is my favorite I've come across since the Stormlight Archive, with its utterly intriguing mix of steampunk and magic. The world feels so fleshed out and realized, acting as a parallel to ours had magic come back to the world in the late 1800s. Cairo of this version of 1912 is bustling with people, automatons, djinn, angels, and more and I just want to know more and dig into Cairo and the rest of the world.
The central plot was very intriguing. I love a good murder mystery, and while I admit I had worked out the "who" midway through the book it took a while before I landed on the "how" and "why." And even once I had, a chapter or so before Agent Fatma, there were still pieces and aspects I hadn't seen coming. The last act is appropriately epic.
Any complaints I have are minor quibbles. I thought that Fatma was a little slow to the draw on figuring out what was happening in certain scenes, and I thought the plot might have been a little drawn out to pad the story into a full novel. But the book remains, as a whole, one of my favorite I've read in a long time and I will eagerly be diving into P. Djèlí Clark's back catalogue soon.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.