Community Reviews
A Master of Djinn is a truly fun follow-up to P. Djeli Clark's Dead Djinn Universe. Two of the previous works in the series, A Dead Djinn in Cairo (short story) and The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (novella) are referenced throughout the book, and while they aren't strictly necessary to read first, they do help flesh out the world and explain some important parts of the plot.
Clark truly has an incredible talent at creating a fleshed-out world. Cairo, and Egypt as a whole, is a fascinating place in A Master of Djinn, and seeing the ways the world has developed after the djinn came into the world was absorbing. There are djinn, spirits, clockwork 'angels' with strange motivations, buildings with mechanical brains, automatons, and so much more. It feels like a real world in a way that many authors struggle to achieve with their works.
The characters are fun too, though this is where there start to be some problems. I loved the rookie partner, Hadia, but the main agent, Fatma, was a bit frustrating at times. It felt like she missed really obvious things, and often had leads just directly handed to her by witnesses. She wasn't so much solving a mystery as following what felt like a path someone else laid out for her.
Additionally, I felt like the resolution of the mystery was fairly weak. I saw the reveal of Abigail as the villain instead of Alexander coming from a mile away, and found myself frequently frustrated that I was putting together clues far quicker than the detectives working the case. Plus, even if I understand the motivations of the central villain, I still don't feel like I understood why some of the other characters involved in the mystery made the choices they did. It felt like the motivations behind some of the actions were simply hand-waved away, which made the resolution and reveal pretty unsatisfying.
Unfortunately, while A Master of Djinn truly has a lot going for it, I don't think it's as well-written as the short story or novella that preceded it. Even so, it's a solid 3.5 or 4 star read (I keep going back and forth and can't decide) and I do still recommend it.
Clark truly has an incredible talent at creating a fleshed-out world. Cairo, and Egypt as a whole, is a fascinating place in A Master of Djinn, and seeing the ways the world has developed after the djinn came into the world was absorbing. There are djinn, spirits, clockwork 'angels' with strange motivations, buildings with mechanical brains, automatons, and so much more. It feels like a real world in a way that many authors struggle to achieve with their works.
The characters are fun too, though this is where there start to be some problems. I loved the rookie partner, Hadia, but the main agent, Fatma, was a bit frustrating at times. It felt like she missed really obvious things, and often had leads just directly handed to her by witnesses. She wasn't so much solving a mystery as following what felt like a path someone else laid out for her.
Additionally, I felt like the resolution of the mystery was fairly weak. I saw the reveal of Abigail as the villain instead of Alexander coming from a mile away, and found myself frequently frustrated that I was putting together clues far quicker than the detectives working the case. Plus, even if I understand the motivations of the central villain, I still don't feel like I understood why some of the other characters involved in the mystery made the choices they did. It felt like the motivations behind some of the actions were simply hand-waved away, which made the resolution and reveal pretty unsatisfying.
Unfortunately, while A Master of Djinn truly has a lot going for it, I don't think it's as well-written as the short story or novella that preceded it. Even so, it's a solid 3.5 or 4 star read (I keep going back and forth and can't decide) and I do still recommend it.
K
L
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.
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