P. Djèlí Clark has wonNebula , Locus , and Alex Awards for his short - formatting study , and he ’s got a novel novella , Ring Shout , get along in October . But today , io9 is throb to apportion a looking at at his first full - lengthnovel , A Master of Djinn — due next year and set in theauthor’smagical , alt - history version of Cairo .
Here ’s a brief summary to arrange the view :
Cairo , 1912 : Though Fatma el - Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy , Enchantments and Supernatural Entities , she ’s sure as shooting not a rookie , especially after preventing the destruction of the population last summertime .
Image: Tor.com
So when someone mangle a hole-and-corner brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famed men in story , al - Jahiz , Agent Fatma is called onto the slip . Al - Jahiz transformed the humanity fifty years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and unremarkable realms , before vanishing into the unknown . This murderer claims to be al - Jahiz , retrovert to condemn the modern age for its societal oppression . His dangerous wizard ability instigate tempestuousness in the streets of Cairo that threaten to talk over onto the worldwide level .
Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her cagey girl Siti , Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this shammer to restore peace to the city – or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems …
https://gizmodo.com/finally-some-good-news-september-is-overflowing-with-n-1844847411
Image: Tor.com
And here ’s the full covert , making its first appearance here on io9 :
at last , here ’s a very fun exclusive excerpt . Watch out for that bottleful !
Fatma leaned forward , puffing on her hookah . The maassel was a blend of pungent tobacco , drench in honey and molasses , with hints of herbs , nut , and yield . But there was another taste : sweetened to the distributor point of sickly that tickle the tongue . Magic . It made the fine hairs along the nape of her neck opening quiver .
The small crew that had gathered watched her expectantly . A big - nosed man in a ashen pillbox leaned so close over her shoulder she could smack the soot that covered him — an ironworker by the malodor of it . He shushed a companion , which only made others grumble . From the turning point of her oculus , she caught Khalid render both men a shrivel up glare — his wide face drawing close . Never a sound idea to upset the bookie .
Like most , they ’d probably wagered on her opposition , who sat across the octagonal mesa . All of seventeen she guessed , with a nerve even more boylike than her own . But he had already bested valet de chambre twice his age . More important , he was a he , which still hold exercising weight even in Cairo ’s flaunted modernity — which explained the smile on his dark lips .
Some more traditional ahwa still did n’t ply to women , particularly where hookahs were fume , which was most . But this poorly den , tucked into a disreputable back alley , did n’t care who it serve . Still , Fatma could weigh the women on one hand . Most leave gambling to the Man . Three sitting at a far - off table in the obtuse way were unmistakably Forty Leopards , in tawdry bright crimson kaftans and hijab , with blue Turkish trousers . From their contemptuous tone , you ’d cogitate them loaded socialites — not the most ill-famed larceny crew in the metropolis .
Fatma filter out everyone out — gambling human race , self-satisfied boy , and haughty lady thieves likewise — ready on the water bubbling in the nargileh ’s bulbous vase . She envisage it a flowing river , literal enough to wet her fingertips as she inhaled its scent . Taking a long clout from the wooden piping , she permit the enchanted maassel work through her , before give forth a thick chromatography column .
It did n’t look like regular smoke — more silver grey than hoar . Did n’t move like fume either , knit together alternatively of dissipate . It took some seconds to coalesce , but when it did , Fatma could n’t help feeling a fleck of triumph . A vaporous river snaked across the air as a felucca sail its surface , the triangular lateen sail canvas stretch taut , and depart ripples its wake .
Every oculus in the coffee shop followed the ethereal vessel . Even the Forty Leopards looked on in wonder . Across the table , her challenger ’s smile gave agency to open - mouthed amazement . When the magic was spent and the fastball cleared , he shake his school principal , setting down the tube of his water supply pipe in licking . The crowd roared .
Fatma sat back to praises as Khalid stood to gather up up his money . Enchanted maassel was a banned substance : a slapdash of sorcery and alchemic compounds that mimicked a drug . The addicted traded away their lifespan trail the next great conjuration . Luckily , a milder build had been popular back at the cleaning woman ’s college at Luxor . And as a bookman , she ’d taken part in a affaire d’honneur or two . Or three . Maybe more .
“ Ya salam ! ” the kid call . “ Shadia , you ’re as good as the Usta take . ”
Al - Usta was Khalid ’s nickname . The old Turkish deed of conveyance was addressed to driver , laborers , mechanics , or craftsmen — anyone really who was very good at what they did . She was sure Khalid had never done an honest mean solar day ’s work in his life . But when it came to handling bet , there was none better .
“ One of the best , I order you , ” the bookmaker added , sitting to count through a wad of bills .
Khalid had come up with that name , Shadia . The big Isle of Man was her guide into this seedier side of Cairo , where Fatma el - Sha’arawi , particular tec with the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy , Enchantments , and Supernatural Entities , would draw unwanted attention .
“ Wallahi ! ” the child exclaimed . “ Never ascertain a conjuring so real . What ’s your secret , eh ? ”
The “ enigma ” was what any first yr picked up in lessons on mental elemental manipulation — choose real experiences over reckon ones . Hers had been an uncle ’s gravy holder she ’d sail dozens of times .
“ As Khalid — the Usta — said , I ’m one of the respectable . ”
The kid huff . “ Would n’t have figured it . ” He tilted a Kuki at her suit — an all - blank routine with a matching vest that see sublime on her russet - brown pelt . Fatma melt down finger down the length of a gold tie , certain to show off the glisten handcuff links on her non-white blue shirt .
“ green-eyed ? ”
The child snorted again , folding munition across a suntanned caftan . Definitely green-eyed .
“ How about you give me what I came for , and I ’ll send you to my sartor . ”
“ Gamal , ” Khalid state . “ rent ’s get on with business . Shadia ’s been patient enough . ”
More than patient . That trait was n’t her stiff suit . But undercover employment call for it . Thieves were inherently distrustful , and only some penchant for their vices ever put them at relief . She checked a golden pouch watch fashioned like an antique asturlab . Half past ten .
“ Night ’s not getting any younger . ”
The kid sashay his head . “ What do you say , Saeed ? Shadia depend like a business partner ? ”
Gamal ’s companion , who sit beside him , stopped chewing his nail long enough to maunder , “ Let ’s be done with it , okay ? ” The lanky youth looked even younger than Gamal , with jutting ears and a aureole of hand-build hair . His eye never met Fatma ’s , and she hop it was because of the persona she hop to affect : a young socialite willing to give heavily for pilfered goods .
“ Then let ’s go somewhere private , ” Khalid bid . He gestured to a back elbow room and rose to go . Fatma smoothen back her mop of cropped black curls before putting on a black bowler , educate to stand . She stopped halfway , noticing neither young man had moved .
“ No , ” Gamal said . Saeed look as perplexed as they did .
“ No ? ” The style the big man stretch out the Word of God should have cowed anyone . But not the kid .
“ cheat on off to secret places and you give people idea . Maybe amount up on one of us on our direction out and assay to retrieve what that enigma is . We can conduct our concern right here . What ’s the big mountain ? Wallahi , no one ’s even paying us any mind . ”
Fatma was sure everyone was pay off them every bit of mind . In a place like this , you mature eyes in the back of your pass , the side of meat , and the top . Still , nipper had a point . She cope with Khalid ’s inquiring regard . He looked ready to abduct the kid bodily out of his chair . But as entertaining as that might be , probably best to not make a view . She frown back into her seat . Khalid sighed , doing the same .
“ So countenance ’s see it , then , ” Fatma demanded .
Saeed unslung a brown satchel from his shoulder and set it on the table . As he touch inside , Fatma found her hand gripping the lion - head pommel of her cane . Patience .
“ Wait . ” Gamal put out a restraining arm . “ Let ’s see the money . ”
Fatma gripped tighter . This child was becoming irritating .
“ That is n’t how we conduct business , ” Khalid chided .
“ It ’s how I conduct it , Uncle . ” His eyes fixed on Fatma . “ You have it ? ”
She did n’t answer mightily away . Instead she met his gaze — until some of his bravado wilted . Only then did she reach into her jacket to rend out a roll of banker’s bill . The blue - unripe report affixed with the regal stamp shine in the kid ’s eye , and he work out his lip before nodding . Saeed search relieved and drew out an target from the satchel . Fatma ’s hint caught .
It look like a bottleful made of alloy rather of glass , with a pear tree - shaped bottom inlay with flowering gold excogitation that ran up a tenacious neck opening . Its open was maculate a dull bronze , but she guess it was nerve .
“ It ’s quondam , ” Saeed noted , fingers tracing the engravings . “ I ’m opine perhaps from the Abbasids . That ’s at least a thousand years . ”
Good eye . So under that unquiet regard was a scholar .
“ We found it fishing . I was conceive it was meant to hold scent or used by former alchemist . But this . . . ” His hand went to a showstopper at the bottle ’s top , run away along a nag ceramic Navy SEAL engraved with a firedrake . “ Never seen it ’s like before . Chinese maybe ? Tang ? Do n’t recognize the authorship either . And the wax is fresh , like it was just put on yesterday — ”
“ You have n’t removed any of it , have you ? ” Fatma cut in .
The keenness in her tincture sent his centre wide .
“ Usta Khalid tell us not to . That the seal intact was part of the sale . ”
“ Glad you listened . Or you might have lay waste to all our sentence . ”
“ Aywa , ” Gamal sighed . “ What I want to know is what ’s so special about it ? Saeed and I witness lots of debris . Every day , wallahi . Everything citizenry throw into the Nile comes up again . We trade them to racy people like you . But no one ’s ever offer so much , wallahi . I ’ve heard other things — ”
“ Gamal , ” Saeed skip in . “ It ’s not the prison term to start that again . ”
“ I think it ’s a fine time , ” Gamal answer , centre set on Fatma . “ My old setty used to severalize me story of jinnee incarcerate in bottles being bewilder into the ocean — long before al - Jahiz brought them back into the human race . She said fisherman would sometimes find them , and when they free the djinn , it would grant their large desire . Wallahi ! Three wishes , that could make you a mogul or the copious mankind in the human race ! ”
“ Do I look like your setty ? ” Fatma asked . But this metre , the kid ’s bravado did n’t waffle .
“ No deal , ” he said short . Grabbing the bottle , he pushed it back into the satchel . In her mind , Fatma howled .
Saeed depend flummoxed . “ Ya Allah ! What are you doing ? We require that money ! ”
Gamal made a scolding sound . “ Ah ! Wallahi , you ’re only smart with books ! suppose ! If this is what I conceive it is — what she believes it is — we could apply it ourselves ! Ask for money to rain down from the sky ! Or rick a whole Pyramids of Egypt to gold ! ”
“ The two of you are making a mistake , ” Khalid warn . His dark face was like a storm , and the white tomentum that surrounded it bristling clouds . “ Take this deal and go your own way . By the Merciful , it is n’t wise — ”
“ Is n’t sassy ? ” Gamal mocked . “ Are you a shaykh now ? Going to start out reciting hadith ? You do n’t scare us , old man . So eager to take the feeding bottle off us when we amount to you . Then when we deny , you were even more eager to place up this wad . The two of you in this together ? conceive to shaft us ? Best be careful . Might use one of our wishes on you , wallahi ! ”
Fatma had heard enough . Should have known the youngster would n’t be an honest agent , not with all the wallahis he threw around . Anybody who curse to God that habitually could n’t be trusted . So much for doing this the wanton room . Reaching back into her crownwork , she make out a bite of silver and placed it flat onto the board . The older Ministry designation had been a solidifying of bulky newspaper publisher with an affixed daguerreotype . They ’d switched to this badge in the retiring class — with an alchemical exposure melded to the metal . blow her cover had n’t been her first design . But watch the brashness enfeeble from Gamal ’s grimace was deserving it .
“ You ’re with the Ministry ? ” Saeed pass .
“ Pretty intemperately to get one of these otherwise , ” she answer .
“ It ’s a whoremaster , ” Gamal stutter . “ There are n’t womanhood in the Ministry . ”
Khalid suspire . “ You two should read the papers more . ”
Gamal shook his promontory . “ I do n’t believe it . You ’re not — ”
“ Khallas ! ” Fatma hissed , leaning ahead . “ It ’s over ! Here ’s what you want to hump . There are four other agents in this room . See the valet at the door ? ” She did n’t bother to turn as the two peered over her berm . “ There ’s another talking everyone ’s auricle off at a tabular array to your right . And a third , savor his hookah and determine a biz of tawla on your left . The fourth , I wo n’t even tell you where he is . ”
Their heading pivot about like meerkats . Saeed visibly trembled .
“ So here ’s what happens now . You hand over that bottle . I give you half of what we check on — for making this unmanageable . And I wo n’t haul you in for questioning . We have a deal ? ”
Saeed nod so quickly , his ears flap . Gamal , was another matter : shake , but not unwrap . His eyes dart from her to the badge to the satchel and back . When his jaws tightened , she cursed inwardly . Not a secure sign .
In an explosion of movement the kid flip the board over . Khalid went sprawl , his chair tipped out from under him . Fatma caught herself before falling , trip back . Gamal support with the bottle in one hired hand and a little tongue in the other . So much for not draw a scene .
“ Now I make the deals ! Let us out of here ! Or I break this seal and see what happen ! ”
“ Gamal ! ” Saeed protested . “ We can just go ! We do n’t have — ”
“ Do n’t be stunned ! She ’s not going to let us go ! They ’ll take us in and our families will never take heed from us again ! Experiment on us ! Or feed us to ghuls ! ”
Fatma frowned . People had very strange ideas about what went on at the Ministry . “ You do n’t acknowledge what you ’re doing . And you ’re not leaving here . Not with that . Now reach it over . Last prison term I ’m going to require . ”
Something on Gamal ’s font snapped . tangle through clinched teeth , he pull back the blade across the wax seal that broke and fell away .
There was a second of hush . The entire ahwa had turned to gaze at the hurly burly . But their center were no longer on the small charwoman in a snowy Westerner suit , the big man they knew to be a local bookmaker pick himself up off the floor , or the two untested men standing behind an overturn table .
Instead , they stared open - mouthed at what one of the young gentleman’s gentleman held — an old antique nursing bottle pour out undimmed green dope . Like enchanted maassel , but in great total . It organize something that looked more solid than any illusion . When the vapor vanished , a living , breathing giant was go forth in its backwash : with tegument shroud in emerald scales and a head crowned by fluid ivory horns that curl up to brush the roof . He wore nothing but billowy white trouser held up by a broad gilded belt . His massive breast swelled and retracted as he took deep breaths , before opening his three eyes — each burning like small , bright stars .
Even in the Earth leave behind by al - Jahiz , it was n’t every Clarence Day you control a Marid jinni merely . . . come along . The exact scenario Fatma had tried so heavily to keep was now play out right before her . She set aside a momentary wave of panic , before feel her resolve again .
Excerpt from P. Djèlí Clark ’s A Master of Djinn reprint by license . Copyright Tor.com .
P. Djèlí Clark ’s A Master of Djinn will be out May 11 , 2021 ; you’re able to pre - order a copyhere .
https://gizmodo.com/peek-into-cursed-objects-and-learn-all-about-the-worlds-1845013618
For more , verify you ’re follow us on our Instagram @io9dotcom .
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