Tag Archives: P. Djeli Clark

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark – Josh Reynolds Guest Review

Hello and welcome to this guest review here on Track of Words, where the fantastic Josh Reynolds – author of (amongst other things) the Royal Occultist series, the Daidoshi Shin books and some of the most entertaining Warhammer stories of all time – is here to talk about A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark. I couldn’t be happier to have Josh on the site as a guest reviewer, not just because he’s one of my absolute favourite authors but because he’s talking about a book that I utterly adore! It really is an incredible book, and Josh has done a great job of illustrating why that is in this clear, concise, persuasive and spoiler-free review.

Continue reading →

A Master of Djinn – P. Djèlí Clark

P. Djèlí Clark’s debut novel A Master of Djinn builds upon the world already introduced in several fantastic shorter tales – A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Angel of Khan el-Khalili and The Haunting of Tram Car 015 – and delivers more in every sense. More of this wonderful world of djinn, angels and mechanical marvels in 1912 Cairo. More scope, more scale, more danger and adventure, and more of the marvellous agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi from the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. The streets of Cairo are fired up when the man responsible for a horrifying mass murder proclaims himself to be Al-Jahiz, the legendary mystic who ushered in this new age of magic and wonder, returned from his long absence. As tensions rise, Fatma has the unenviable task of hunting down and stopping a man who, whether he truly is Al-Jahiz returned or not, wields fearsome powers and seems to know exactly how to get the poor and downtrodden of Cairo on his side.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: The Angel of Khan el-Khalili – P. Djèlí Clark

One of several fantastic stories set in an alternate early-twentieth century Cairo, P. Djèlí Clark’s The Angel of Khan el-Khalili is a standalone tale (featuring none of the other stories’ characters) exploring secrets, grief and worker rights. Late at night, when most of Cairo is long asleep, young Aliaa visits the market in search of an angel, hoping to bargain for a miracle. There she finds the Angel of Khan el-Khalili, and asks for its aid in healing her sister who has been grievously injured in a fire at the factory where they both work. The angel’s price seems small at first, and Aliaa pays it willingly, but it’s not long before she realises the cost to her own soul.

Continue reading →

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 – P. Djèlí Clark

Set in the same world as his short story A Dead Djinn in Cairo, P Djèlí Clark’s novella The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is another slice of alternate-world urban fantasy, full of characterful storytelling and vibrant world building. Agent Hamed Nasr of Cairo’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, along with his younger colleague Agent Onsi, are called to Ramses Station to investigate a haunting in one of the city’s trams. When it transpires that it’s the tram car itself which is haunted, what Hamed assumed was going to be a simple task becomes much more complicated, as the agents attempt to identify the spirit and coax it out of its mechanical host…to varying degrees of success.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: A Dead Djinn in Cairo – P. Djèlí Clark

When a djinn is found dead – exsanguinated, to be precise – it’s Fatma el-Sha’awari’s task, as an investigator for Egypt’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, to find out how and why, in P. Djèlí Clark’s intriguing urban fantasy A Dead Djinn in Cairo. What at first appears to be a simple case of suicide (however unlikely that may be among immortals) quickly develops into a mystery involving djinn mythology, mechanical angels and flesh-eating ghuls rising from Cairo’s slums. Whatever it is that’s stirring amongst the city’s supernatural denizens, it’s up to Fatma to put a stop to it.

Continue reading →