Reviews

The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain

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rocketdea's review against another edition

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funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No

3.5

greatlibraryofalexandra's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Like hitchhiking through the galaxy with Loki Laufeyson. Quirky and uproarious and just fucking fun? Somehow a piercing fable on justice and a straight up dirty fairytale. LOVE. Cannot wait to read more from Hossain.

frogggirl2's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A post-apocalyptic jinn novel for fans of P. Djeli Clark's juxtaposition of jinn and technology. Not the same by any means but if you like that series, I'm certain you'll like this.

renkotsuban's review against another edition

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3.0

A very fun read, first and foremost. I blew through this in a couple of hours, that's how short and quick this is. "Ancient and all-powerful god who is absolutely flummoxed by humans and the weird shit they get up to" is one of my favorite tropes, and boy oh boy does it get used here to great effect. Just a whirlwind of a good time.

But this is a story that, if I stop and take a breath and think about any of it for very long, it starts to come apart. It's got a WALL-E sort of simple moralizing about how if all human needs are met and we don't have to kill ourselves laboring under capitalism, people will lose their sense of purpose and become self-absorbed, mindless hedonists. Despite the title, the protagonist of the story is arguably Hamilcar, an apple-polishing pseudo-cop who connects his self-described "Puritanical" restraint with his blue-blooded lineage.

And the ending, while fun in a "final level of a video game" way, also got my eyebrows to shoot way up.

Spoiler

After learning that Karma is essentially HAL 9000 except also plugged directly into every Kathmandu citizen's mind, the ending is "well Hamilcar will act as her conscience so it's okay" as if Hamilcar would be immune to Karma zapping his mind again?? You're all seriously just gonna shrug and keep using your Echoes after all that?? Gurung got to kill Doje, so now we're all going to forget that your city systematically carried out and PERPETUATES genocide and ecofascism?? Doje even points out that Hamilcar's family were also ghoulish opportunists and Hamilcar himself has the privileged life he does because of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of human beings, but yet Hamilcar still gets to act as the moral conscience for the machine god?? The story exposes the horrors that Kathmandu is built on, and the ending is like... well we got rid of The Bad Individual and have elevated The Good Individual, we don't need society-wide revolution or reckoning, we just need more good cops. Anyway back to business as usual... ???

All that said, I did have a great time with this. It's a good popcorn read. Just... that ending, woof.