Agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi, special investigator with the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, knows she’ll need all those magical elements, and a few more, to get to the bottom of the latest investigation to cross her desk. The bodies of several prominent Cairenes, most European, are discovered burned to death at the mansion of a powerful Englishman, apparently gathered as part of a secret society. But these are not just any burns. The unfortunates had all their flesh burned away, but none of their clothing. To Fatma, that means one thing: a very powerful kind of magic, the likes of which hasn’t been seen before. The sole witness to the culprit, the magnate’s daughter, describes a man in a black mask and robes, seemingly able to disappear and reappear at a whim. But it is his name that sends the biggest shiver down Fatma’s spine: al-Jahiz, the mystic who opened the portal between the spirit world and the mortal decades earlier before vanishing. If he has returned, it could mean a serious threat to life in Cairo, where magical technologies have made Egypt a world power, but could open a portal for the most serious and destructive magical power to wreak havoc on humanity and djinn alike. In other words, a real mess for Fatma to sort out.
A Master of Djinn is being billed as P. Djeli Clark’s fantasy debut, but the claim is misleading. Clark’s fantastical Cairo of 1912 has been featured in the novellas A Dead Djinn in Cairo and The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (which I greatly enjoyed last year) and it is a pleasure to return to the rich world he has created. The steampunk/fantasy of Cairo has elements that are familiar but with a twist. A peace conference in Cairo is set to avert the trouble brewing in Europe, with Kaiser Wilhelm and French president Poincare in attendance—and the goblin king with whom Wilhelm has allied himself.Airships and fashions of the late Edwardian era reside, sometimes uneasily, alongside the traditional Muslim culture and the resurgent old gods of Egyptian religion. There’s an optimism and a tension in the air, as Cairo and the rest of Africa bursts with the promise of new technology and freedoms that come from throwing off its colonists, but also the underlying sense that magic could easily spiral out of control. While Clark keeps his story accelerating ahead and can be read for sheer entertainment quality, the undercurrents he presents—where power comes from and, if wielded irresponsibly, how it might be broken—puts A Master of Djinn squarely into the issues of 2021. The longer format also works well to expand Clark’s strong cast of characters. Fatma is a complicated investigator, prickly at the thought of being forced to work with a newly assigned partner, with a hard exterior that suggests a rich backstory ripe for dissection. She grows through all the hurdles djinn-rich Cairo experiences, especially her relationship with her lover Siti, whose own exterior hides secrets.
Characters and events from the previous books are referenced in A Master of Djinn, but those books do not have to be read prior to this novel. A Master of Djinn is heartily recommended for readers who love old-fashioned adventure, complex and rich world-building, or alternative history/steampunkish worlds. The Cairo and its inhabitants Clark has created is incredibly rich and brimming with promise for future stories, and hopefully readers will see more of Fatma and company soon.