I am many things to many people. Teacher. Thinker. Inventor. I have been called other things. Saint. Madman. And to those of whom you speak, who perished in fire, I was vengeance.
A Master of Djinn
by P. Djeli Clark
Genre: Adult Fantasy
About: Fatma works for Cairo's Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, and her latest case certainly falls into the strange and inexplicable. Fire that burns flesh but not clothes, a prophet back from the dead, and a secret even djinn dare not speak of... But unravelling the mystery could cost her everything, and Egypt might not survive the truth.
Thoughts
Fantasy detective fiction is such a treat to read. You get magic, mystery, twists, conspiracies, and the perfect blend of dark and cosy. Yes, A Master of Djinn is all of these things. Plus romance, friendship and astounding world-building. This book had me smiling and just loving the characters and the world I was drawn into. The djinn are especially hilarious. They're all kinds of treacherous and dripping in illusion and wit. Anytime a djinn was on the page, I was hooked.
Of course a defining part of the book is its strong female characters. Fatma is a great lead. She's eccentric enough to hold her own against any and all supernatural beings, not afraid of admitting her mistakes, brave beyond belief, and a lovesick puppy I was fully rooting for. Nor is she the only badass woman to watch. Her lover, her work partner, the chief forensics scientist, a princess healer, the leader of the Forty Leopards... There are a lot of women in this novel that really shine and make their mark on the story.
The same cannot be said for the men who sadly blurred together in the background for me. So, while I can't stress enough how much I loved the women in this story, I do think the balance was tipped a little too far and could have wished for at least one man to be an interesting character with an actual role to play in the story. At best I could say Ahmad provides this, but his storyline is what I often get annoyed at in other books for female characters having, where their sole motivation is a tragic love story and nothing is given beyond this.
I also think the villains were quite weak... The more I saw of the imposter, the less I was intrigued, I wish we'd seen or understood more about the angels who were such a cool concept, and the big bad Ifrit weren't as interesting to me as S. A. Chakraborty's versions.
But apart from me feeling a little lacklustre about the male characters and the villains, the novel had everything else I could wish for. The world was dazzling. The djinn were in all my favourite scenes. The female characters had such great development and the writing, from the very first chapter, let me know I was in solid hands.
Overall, this was an excellent read that played out as a movie in my head, one I wanted more of. I want to solve supernatural murders with Fatma every day of the week. Let Zagros kicked me out of his library, let my lead witness cut out his tongue, let angels summon me and make me question the identity of my cat. It's all I ask.
Comments