Even as the supposed Al-Jahiz wreaks bloody violence in the streets, Cairenes deal with income equality, racial and religious discrimination and all manner of believable, real-world problems.Ī beautifully-developed world is nothing without great characters and compelling stories, but A Master of Djinn has both in spades.

For all the incredible technology (automated carriages and clockwork automatons are only the tip of the iceberg) and otherworldly beings there are plenty of societal issues too, which Clark tackles head on in both the foreground and background of the main narrative. In Fatma’s world, Egypt – and in particular Cairo – is at the forefront of cultural and technological progression, but at the same time as it’s driving the world forward it’s still struggling with the conflict between modern and traditional values. Whether you’ve read the preceding stories or not, there’s so much to enjoy in this beguiling blend of Egyptian urban fantasy and detective drama, set in a vividly drawn world with a tangible sense of history and an intriguing perspective on ‘modernity’.

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. 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. 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. More of this wonderful world of djinn, angels and mechanical marvels in 1912 Cairo.

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.

A master of djinn