A review by mjspice
Boy of Fire and Earth by Sami Shah
3.0
3.5 stars.
So this was a wild ride. If you were expecting djinns like in City of Brass then you'd be disappointed. They're more the types that many South Asians grew up with. You'd also recognize some from Ali A Oolomi's popular twitter threads. (Highly recommend those)
Anyhow the reason why this doesn't get more stars is because of the pacing. Some of the stuff felt unnecessary and it made the story more bloated imo. Seeing as this was split into two in other countries, I'm guessing it was nothing more than page filling.
Another thing that bothered me was the characterization of the women. Wahid's mother Mumtaz is a cookie cutter character and Maheen is nothing more than a damsel in distress. The only female character who is seemingly fleshed out is the Chudail/Pichal Piaree but even her part in the story is minimal as most of the work is done by all the dude bros in the book.
Overall, it's still worth a read. Especially if you're looking for Pakistani based fantasy.
Oh and the Havelberg Jinn short story is also included in the acknowledgements if you haven't read it yet. Otherwise it's available here.
So this was a wild ride. If you were expecting djinns like in City of Brass then you'd be disappointed. They're more the types that many South Asians grew up with. You'd also recognize some from Ali A Oolomi's popular twitter threads. (Highly recommend those)
Anyhow the reason why this doesn't get more stars is because of the pacing. Some of the stuff felt unnecessary and it made the story more bloated imo. Seeing as this was split into two in other countries, I'm guessing it was nothing more than page filling.
Another thing that bothered me was the characterization of the women. Wahid's mother Mumtaz is a cookie cutter character and Maheen is nothing more than a damsel in distress. The only female character who is seemingly fleshed out is the Chudail/Pichal Piaree but even her part in the story is minimal as most of the work is done by all the dude bros in the book.
Overall, it's still worth a read. Especially if you're looking for Pakistani based fantasy.
Oh and the Havelberg Jinn short story is also included in the acknowledgements if you haven't read it yet. Otherwise it's available here.