I'm not sure what to make of this dystopian novelette, but it was lots of fun reading it.

Honestly, I don't know how to describe what goes on without detailing the book and then it will just sound absurd. Because it is. Everything in the book is absurd. Humans are absurd. Djinn are absurd. AI is absurd. Absurdity abounds.

Definitely not for everyone. Unless you like funny little books about an AI driven society colliding with the awakening of an ancient hyper-masculine djinn. Then you might like it.

WTF. ( )

The intense mythology of P Djèlí Clark meets the cutting wit of Christopher Moore in this biting satire set against a richly imagined, jewel-encrusted world.

Melek Ahmar, the Lord of Mars, the Red King, the Lord of Tuesday, Most August Rajah of Djinn wakes after a slumber of several millennia to find the world a markedly different place than he remembers. He falls in with Bhan Gurung, a gurkha with a dark secret. Together, they set out to wreak havoc in Kathmandu.

Between 4 and 4.5 stars. Not quite enough to justify rounding up. Its one flaw was that the lack of visual cues meant I struggled to picture what was happening. The descriptions feel very close to the characters, making it hard to envision the setting in which it all takes place. ( )

That was very entertaining. ( )

What a riot!

I was initially apprehensive - my only history with Hossain was a short story in the Djinn Falls in Love and those stories were really hit or miss with me. Luckily, I think he wrote one of the few stories I liked!

I loved how madcap all of the characters were. When the hugely powerful djinn who's the embodiment of chaos is not the craziest character in the story, you've got a good time coming. ( )

When Melek Ahmar wakes up something just does not look right. There are no humans to welcome him. Noone seems to care that the king of the djinn had escaped from his stone grave (or had awaken - whatever you prefer to call it). The only man he meets is the old Gurkha soldier Bhan Gurung - and the man does not behave as one would expect. Apparently being asleep for 4 millennia (or thereabouts) is not a good idea. Not that Melek Ahmar had a lot of choice but still.

While the djinn was asleep, humanity managed to mess up the planet - the air is unbreathable unless you have a lot of nano-machines to assist you and to top it all, the big city close to the mountain, Kathmandu. had given up everything and is not ruled by Karma - an all-seeing all-knowing computer which controls everything based on the karma of its citizens - you do good things, you win karma; bad things - you lose some and you pay for everything you nee with karma. The system is supposed to work, right? Well... ask Bhan Gurung - who was supposed to be dead but somehow managed to not be executed and instead lives outside of the city.

Melek Ahmar is really trying to figure out what had happened and how he can be a king again - and Bhan Gurung wants revenge (or wants the truth to finally be revealed - sometimes even he is not sure). The two of them end up allied, each of them for their own purposes and each of them believing that they are driving the agenda. Add another jinn and an old massacre into the mix and the calm and nice reign of Karma starts to get a bit less calm... and a lot less nice.

The novella was a lot more entertaining than I expected it to be. The story ends up being familiar - people are people, people with power will not allow anything to take away that power - but still, the storytelling and the exact details were interesting enough. And I loved the ending.

Apparently there is a second book coming out this year - I am not sure if it will be just the same world or a real continuation of the story but I plan to find out as soon as I can. ( )