Djinn City

By: Saad Z. Hossain

Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi

From the author of the cult classic Escape from Baghdad! comes one of The Guardian's best fantasy books of the year.

Indelbed is a lonely kid living in a crumbling mansion in the super-dense, super-chaotic third-world capital of Bangladesh. His father, Dr. Kaikobad, is the black sheep of their clan, the once illustrious Khan Rahman family. A drunken loutish widower, he refuses to allow Indelbed go to school, and the only thing Indelbed knows about his mother is the official cause of her early demise: "Death by Indelbed".

But when Dr. Kaikobad falls into a supernatural coma, Indelbed and his older cousin, the wise-cracking slacker Rais, learn that Indelbed's dad was in fact a magician - and a trusted emissary to the djinn world. And the djinns, as it turns out, are displeased. A "hunt" has been announced, and 10-year-old Indelbed is the prey. Still reeling from the fact that genies actually exist, Indelbed finds himself on the run. Soon, the boys are at the center of a great djinn controversy, one tied to the continuing fallout from an ancient war, with ramifications for the future of life as we know it.

Saad Z. Hossain updates the supernatural creatures of Arabian mythology - a superior but by no means perfect species pushed to the brink by the staggering ineptitude of the human race. Djinn City is a darkly comedic fantasy adventure, and a stirring follow-up to Hossain's 2015 novel Escape from Baghdad!, which NPR called "a hilarious and searing indictment of the project we euphemistically call 'nation-building.'"

©2020 Saad Z Hossain (P)2020 Scribd Audio

Be careful getting involved with djinn

I read an interview with Martha Wells recently, after the release of her latest addition to the Murderbot Diaries. She was asked to recommend new authors. It motivated me to check out Saad Z Hossain's Djinn City.

I didn't know what to expect when I started listening. It's a story about djinn. It's also a story about Bangladesh. It's rich in culture, its complexities, the depth of familial connections and the vast intertwining business of everyday life in the country.

Djinn City eschews a single character driven tale and instead shifts between a large cast of characters, like an epic fantasy. It's well written and intelligent. Every character, no matter how minor, is well rounded with depth, dimension and distinct personalities, making the entire story completely believable.

A few of the characters have greater parts in the story, but on the whole you're following the ins and outs of all the characters, their choices, and the complicated connections and fall out that results. It spans Bangladeshi society from the immensely wealthy to urchins living on the streets and includes the djinn, who are living alongside the human populace, but independent of it, with their own complex social system, riddled with infighting and power grabs.

It was an interesting story. Not necessarily a happy one, because first and foremost, you have to keep in mind that any legends featuring djinn emphasize they're amoral, with no love for humanity and should not be trusted. There are benefits to be gained by contracting with them, but there are severe detriments as well. Everyone in the story is dancing on the knife's edge, with success giving them untold riches, fame, wealth, power and failure resulting in cataclysmic disaster, endless imprisonment, excruciating torture and or death. And not necessarily in that order. There's a lot of back and forth. On top one minute and in desperate straights the next. And irony. There's a lot of irony too.

Fajer Al-Kaisi, IMHO, is the perfect narrator for Djinn City. I found his voice very pleasant to listen to and his narration is _excellent_. Deft and subtle with a wide range (his female characters are totally believable), he articulates the varied accents of Bangladesh society as well as many international characters too. I greatly enjoyed the wry wit and dry humor he added to certain characters dialogs, making for amusing interactions and scenarios. All in all everyone stepped off the page for a vivid, three dimensional experience.

Well worth the credit.