Reviews with content warning for Violence - A Master of Djinn

This book is really interesting because it ties in magical beings from fairy tales from all of the world. It’s set in 1912 in Cairo, where in recent years the magical creatures called the Djinn, and others, have recently been brought from the magical realm by someone and the world is still adjusting to magic being real. Cairo is fast becoming the next big international hub and is on par with cities such as London. The story brings in historical perspectives and politics from the time period, with a magical twist!

The main character Fatma is a Special Investigator for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities and she’s trying to solve a mystery of who killed all the members of a cult.

I really enjoyed the plot, setting and the perspective of Cairo’s culture both magical and from that time period! There’s a lot going on in the book and I especially liked that the plot wasn’t predictable. Also it works really well as a standalone book, despite being the first in a series.

I really liked the side characters since I had a chance to really get to know them and they’re quirks, plus how they interacted with Fatma. But on the other hand, it felt like I was missing something critical about her: like why she’s an investigator, what her motives are and who she is as a person.

I didn’t realize until after reading Master of Djinn, that there’s two prequels: a novelette, A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and a novella, The Haunting of Tram Car 015). I wonder if we learn more about Fatma in those?

Lastly, the audiobook of this book is amazing and the narrator Suehyla El-Attar really captures how each of the characters speak at different paces, nuances and with different accents! I listen to a lot of audiobooks and I’m definitely going to see what else she has narrated!

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micallab's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

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ha1yan's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

5.0

Such a fun listen on audiobook! Suehyla El-Attar was a delightful narrator and I loved hearing their improvement throughout the book! Super fun characters and worldbuilding with many moments that had me on the edge of my seat. Some plot moments/reveals could have had more buildup. Also, I could deduce certain parts of the mystery long before the characters themselves which confused me a bit.

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samsearle's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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tigger89's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This started off slow, but by the end I couldn't put it down. The layers of deception and mesmerization, not to mention the foreshadowing of such, were very well done. While a few short stories and a novella have been previously published in this universe, you don't have to have read them to understand A Master of Djinn. The one thing you might have trouble with is the Angels. I don't really understand what they were. I'm also not convinced that reading the previously published material would have shed any more light on that, as I think they're supposed to be a bit unknowable.

Unfortunately, I found the steampunk setting to be underutilized. I believe it might have played a significantly larger role in the previous stories set in the universe, but in this novel the focus was largely elsewhere. It's a shame too, because we all know about steampunk London, but I was really looking forward to steampunk Cairo.

I did really appreciate the dynamic between Fatma and her work partner Hadia, especially how their relationship grew over the course of the story. Most of the mysteries I've read lately have had the detective working mostly inside their own head, and it was refreshing to see a well-executed foil, even if it was reluctant at first!

This is the second P. Djèlí Clark story I've read, and I'm noticing a few patterns. First, his wry skewering of colonialism and white people who are being ignorant is very appreciated, and utilized well in this novel. And second, he seems to have a thing for writing women in sexual relationships with other women. To be clear I don't have any complaint with how they were written here, but if you're someone who avoids sapphic content written by men on principle, be advised.

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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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ashwaar's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-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

2.0

Set in 1912 in Cairo, A Master of Djinn follows Agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi, who works for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. Ever since the great mystic, Al-Jahiz, opened the veil to the magical world 50 years ago, Cairo has become a central hub of both technology and magic, and Fatma must navigate this new world as she investigates supernatural mysteries.

I have read Clark’s previous novel, Ring Shout, and his short stories set in the same universe as A Master of Djinn. You don’t need to read the short stories before this novel, but there are recurring characters and callbacks to previous events. I always find Clark’s worlds and ideas to be incredibly interesting, but I always end up feeling a bit left out, as it seems that everyone else adores this book and his stories, and I always end up disappointed.

My main issue with this book is the writing style. Although the premise is interesting, the descriptions and dialogue are wooden and uninspiring. Some fantasy novels I’ve read don’t provide any information about the world and still keep you hooked. In comparison, Clark feeds you spoonfuls of exposition at every opportunity, and it's just too much. Fatma describes every aspect of Cairo as we go through the novel, and it's so unrealistic. It's like if I walk past St Pauls Cathedral and say ‘ah yes, St Pauls, a Baroque-style structure built in the 17th Century by…’. Literally, no real person thinks the way Fatma does in this novel, and it really threw me off being able to connect with her.

I also found a lot of the themes to be very poorly explored. Clark brings up issues of wealth gaps, inequality, feminism, discrimination and social divides and it doesn’t seem like any of our characters really care about addressing that. It's like Clark is throwing everything at a wall and seeing what sticks and again, it's just too much going on. I know the story is about magic and djinn and investigating crimes but still... I expected more.

Overall it's a really interesting, original story, but it was just too poorly executed for me to recommend it. Clark clearly has a lot of this world thought out, not just in Egypt but across multiple countries, and he tries to introduce some of that in A Master of Djinn, but it just leaves too many loose threads. The story doesn’t feel neat, the characters don’t feel developed and Fatma isn’t someone I really want to root for. It's pretty disappointing honestly but I know what sort of fiction I enjoy, and I just couldn’t get on board with this.

Rating: 2/5

Recommendations: Build Your House Around by Body by Violet Kupersmith, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

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ekcd_'s review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

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

2.0

Universe
This book is advertised as the author's debut book, but apparently, he has also written some short stories that are in the same universe. When I started reading, I felt like I had accidentally picked up a sequel or accidentally picked up a book halfway through. A lot of the character's cryptic references were actually major plot points from the short stories that were not addressed at all in the book. It wasn't mysterious and gripping it was pretty confusing trying to piece together who Fatma is, what happened to her, what is important to her, etc.

Setting and Cultural Context.
I was raised in a euro-centric Christian culture, and so this book was not written for me. As such, there were a lot of little things that I missed. Maybe I would have been more invested in the characters if I had been better introduced to the characters and/or known more about the culture. I have to wonder if the short stories established some of the Islamic / Muslim / Religious / Cultural themes that would have made the book more cohesive to me personally. Because I am unfamiliar with this part of the world and its customs, I can't comment if it is accurate or problematic. Just be prepared that if you don't know much about 20th-century Egypt, you probably will feel lost. Had Wikipedia pulled up the whole time and learned a lot, but the book wasn't good enough to warrant doing this again.

I love fantasy, and sometimes being dropped in the middle of the world gives the reader an endearing "stranger in a strange land" vibe, but this was just frustrating.

Writing Style
The prose was so purple that I stopped paying attention to the paragraphs of character descriptions and clothing descriptions. The descriptions were not detailed; they were just long. You could line up all the character introductions without their names shuffling the order and genuinely not be able to identify them.

The dialogue was choppy, and some of the words made no sense - I can't tell if the book was translated, or again, it's just little cultural norms or cues that I am missing, but some of the speaking words made no sense with the situation. I'm normally not picky with this; no one is perfect, but after I noticed it, it was like noticing I had popcorn in my teeth, and I was in a terrible mood until I got it out (i.e., finished the book).

*Spoilers Follow*

Characters

Fatma:
Wearing a suit and tie as a woman is not a personality trait. Quoting your mother's overly metaphorical but ultimately meaningless maxims is not a personality trait. This character has so much potential as a queer WOC, and it was completely squandered. Fatma also is

incredibly inconsistent but not in a "loveable unreliable narrator" or "character flaw way" but in a "does the author even know their own character?" way.

. In the final two chapters, Fatma

mentions being against slavery, yet within seconds of putting on the ring starts to control the Djinn. Then moments later, the Seal compliments her on how pure she is? What??

The ethical dilemmas she faces had the potential to be rich and detailed, but all of her choices are rushed by crisis, and it feels like a cheap narrative tool to avoid discussing bigger ethical and social justice subtleties.

Antagonist (MAJOR SPOILER):

Abigail as the villain is super weird. She's somehow one-dimensional and inconsistent at the same time. The book would be identical if you just removed her completely from the story. The "reveal" is one sentence and not very thought out.

Sexism, Colorism, Bigotry, Colonization, Slavery, etc
Once again, I feel like there was a secret book I missed here. Many other reviews laud this book as a great commentary on big social justice issues, and I did not get that impression at all. Bigotry, religious intolerance, sexism, colorism, and racism were mentioned maybe once or twice each (in a 400-page book) and

it was always just a small comment from one of the characters. The issues were not addressed or acknowledged otherwise. There were no significant plot issues driven by these themes or plot points that interacted with them.

Wasted potential ? False advertisement? Personal opinion? Yes.

Plot Holes
This is not a procedural, it is more of a fantasy call to adventure. There is no police work happening here, no induction, deduction, or sleuthing. Not a good or bad thing, but certainly not a mystery as advertised.

Overall
I will forget about this book the second I submit this review. It left very little impression on me. I am disappointed because this has been suggested to me both by humans and algorithms, so I had high expectations. Not worth 400 pages, I will not be reading it again and will not suggest it to other people.

THAT BEING SAID, it did whet my appetite for Egyptian mythology and folklore, and I already have some non-fiction on the topic being queued up.

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