A Master of Djinn, P. Djèlí Clark. A brilliantly-plotted, excellently-written novel set in Clark’s evocatively named, supernaturally steampunkish Dead Djinn Universe. The book follows the further misadventures of Fatma el-Sha’arawi, the youngest woman agent of Egypt’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities in an alternate Cairo. A multiple award winner since its 2021 release.
I thought this delivered a fun and rewarding read. The plot had enough twists while moving to its denouement that I was never quite sure how it was going to unfold from chapter to chapter. The quality of the writing is high, and Clark did some really cool character development -- particularly with two of the supporting personalities -- which give the novel some much-appreciated depth.
This is the longest in the series (and may be Clark’s longest, based on a scan of his author page) which may explain one weakness. The connective tissue Clark uses to bridge between episodes of action got a bit repetitive and formulaic in places. Surprisingly, Clark also gets dinged on my personal “smirk factor” meter, packing more than a dozen uses of the dreaded term in the novel. This surprised me, since unlike most novels that suffer from this, I didn’t key on this as I read it. The overall writing quality is still very high.
Interestingly, if this were software it would be the first major release in the series. The previous shorter works were books 0.1 (A Dead Djinn in Cairo -- second entry in the search results, 0.2 (The Angel of Khan el-Khalili) and 0.3 (The Haunting of Tram Car 015). I hadn’t realized there was a 0.2, which sounds like an opportunity for a quick read! It also bodes well for future additions to this excellent series.
Smirk factor: Acceptable: 1 pt (13 smirks! I didn’t pick this up while reading, so gets a point bonus.)
Immersion factor: Chest-high: 1.5pts
Writing quality: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Character/plot development: Above-average: 1.5 pts
Innovative/interesting: High: 2pts (I zipped through this, and am ready for more!)
Total: 7.5/10
Collect them all!