Reviews

Cyber Mage by Saad Z. Hossain

quicksilvermoon's review

5.0

In a time when infrastructural showpieces bask in the spotlight denied an actual, ongoing natural disaster, a much-awaited release from hands down my favourite Bangladeshi author (no point in pretending otherwise) comes as a welcome escape.
This one is a continuation of the story that began with Djinn City, set in a post-apocalyptic future, where climate change and human conflicts have done everything we were warned about. Much of Bangladesh is under water, and whatever is left is mostly toxic and unlivable, except for a few ultra-privileged, fully corporatized enclaves. Our protagonist, Marzuk, a hacker prodigy famous online as The Cyber Mage, must face his greatest offline challenge : to navigate the jungle of school politics and win the favor of the girl he loves - and save his city from a hostile takeover by a supernatural AI. The world-building in this story is like Yuval Noah Harari on acid. I don’t know enough about nanotechnology or blockchain or even gaming to say if the science would hold up IRL, but the rules of this Djinn City are so thoroughly codified, it is an immersive experience reading it. The plot is simultaneously violent and cheesy, laugh-out-loud funny, and unbearably tragic at times. Saad Z Hossain holds a razor to the jugular of present-day socio-economic realities in a way that makes it hard to confront and even harder to look away. Definitely the best thing I’ve read all year.

ohanch's review

Annoying protagonist 

mehrangezmr's review

4.0

I'd describe this book as... a lot. It's very funny, very complicated, very violent. Saad Hossain is an incredibly talented author, one with a highly individual voice, sort of like Neal Stephenson on steroids. Like Stephenson, Saad Hossain goes deep into the details of the world he creates, and he doesn't care if it's kind of dense and overwhelming, and he doesn't care if you don't get his references (as someone who grew up in Dhaka, I got and laughed at the Dhaka references; as a non-gamer, I probably missed a ton of references). As someone who enjoys authors like Stephenson, Tim Powers, Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, who also like to mix frenetic action with philosophy and wisecrackery, I really enjoyed this.

TL;DR: It's Ready Player One if Ready Player One were actually... you know... good.

coflan's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

tazzbird's review

funny informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

half2happy's review against another edition

4.0

Would absolutely recommend anything by Hossain at this point, phenomenal concept exploration about what our future could be.

Incredible composition, fantastic characters, and probably the most fun I have had reading in a long time. Knocked a star off because some of the hacker speak was overwhelming and I did not 100% love the teenage protagonist, but I guess that would be pretty accurate for a teenager.

martyb80's review

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

thirdcoast's review

3.0

Disappointing compared to the wonderful novella The Ghurka and the Lord of Tuesday. Also confusing as this novel comes before the novella. Again, I like the world; but it felt like the author constantly repeated himself with explaining the world. Also, it felt like there was too much going on or a lot of fat that should have been trimmed. Overall, this would have been a wonderful book if the editing had been better and the plot tightened up. It’s too messy. It’s trying to do too much and in the meantime it fails at the most important job: being a compelling narrative.

nevtelen's review

2.0

I really like Saad Hossain's work. I like Escape from Baghdad, I absolutely unreservedly loved The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday. This one didn't do it for me. I'm not exactly sure why. I didn't really like the main character, maybe, or the plot went through one too many convolutions, perhaps, or the pacing was off.

Anyway, I'll still keep reading the author's other works (I bought Kundo Wakes Up recently and I'm excited to get to that this summer sometime), but I probably won't come back to this one anytime soon.

rachelleahdorn's review

adventurous challenging inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0