Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Give This The Miniseries Treatment!

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

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I was pretty excited to finally pick up and find the time to read A Master of Djinn. I had previously been delighted by P. Djèlí Clark’s alternative, magical steampunk 1910s Cairo. The setting is just so damned fun. The novellas I had read before Master of Djinn—The Haunting of Tram Car 015 and A Dead Djinn in Cairo— were masterful in how they managed to be so descriptive for short form works, so was I curious as to how he would adapt an entire novel into this […]

“The three of them sat there – a Ministry agent, a half-djinn, and a cat (likely), staring out past the balcony to the sleeping city they somehow had to find a way to save.”

A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn, #3) by P. Djèlí Clark

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Another book in this world, please! I continue to have a really good time with these audiobooks. I loved Suehyla El-Attar’s narration—even though she mispronounces some words, which would normally make me lose it, but that’s how much I love her voice—it’s so melodious it squashes my inner pedant. We’re back with Fatma el-Sha’arawi—agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities—in this first full novel (the first two were novellas) in this alternate-history, fantastical version of 1912 Cairo. Decades previously, a man named […]

Ladies do buddy cop stuff in early 20th century steampunk Egypt

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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To be clear from the get-go, I hope A Master of Djinn is the first of a series. It’s got an interesting world, a twist of the classic steampunk which takes the perspective of the Egyptians not the English with a strong reliance of the local folklore/mythology (as opposed to the European traditions), it’s got some interesting characters, like Agent Fatma a queer lady Agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, Siti her capricious lover, and Agent Hadia rookie partner. Some of […]

Believing is seeing

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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In A Master of Djinn, writer P. Djeli Clark takes his readers back to Cairo, 1912, and a world where magical creatures such as djinn have become a normal part of life along with their incredible magical mechanical inventions. This book, which is a full-length novel rather than a novella like his previous works, features Agent Fatma el-Sha’arwi, special investigator with the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. She was the main character in A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and it’s wonderful to […]

Even in an Alternate History, the Great Game is Still Played

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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A Master of Djinn is phenomenal. At the most basic level it is a very good murder mystery. On top of that it is a fantastic alternate history fantasy. The whipped cream on this sundae of a book is the smart commentary. It is layered, atmospheric, tense, and sharp. The two novellas that came before, A Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015 are wonderful in their own right, but utterly necessary as an introduction to Clark’s world. I love it […]



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