The end of this book reaaaally annoyed me. For some reason I’d thought it was a standalone story. That was probably a bad assumption based on not seeing any series info associated with the book and this book having a publication date of over 6 years ago. I have no idea whether or not there will ever be any sequels, but this is not a complete story.

The premise was kind of fun. There are a couple main POV characters, but we start off with Indelbed, a young boy living in poverty with an alcoholic father. He soon learns that his life isn’t what it appears to have been. Djinn are real, and his mother was one, and his father is an emissary to the djinn. Indelbed gets imprisoned by a djinn and tries to escape. Meanwhile, his cousin and aunt, who have also just learned of the existence of the djinn, take a crash course on djinn politics.

For some reason the story really didn’t hold my attention well, even though I kept feeling like it was the sort of thing I should have enjoyed more. The writing was fine, the setting was fleshed out pretty well, I liked the characters ok, and I was interested in the story on the surface of things, I just never felt compelled to read more to find out what would happen next. It also started to go downhill for me closer to the end. I’m not convinced the main villain’s motivations made that much sense and I was very, very unhappy with the direction one of the characters took toward the end.

I was going to give this 3 stars until I read the abrupt and unsatisfying ending. That pushed it down to 2.5 stars and I was tempted to go even lower, but I’ll round up to 3 on Goodreads based on my enjoyment level for the rest of the story. ( )

Having finally gotten around to reading this novel, it isn't quite what I expected. Mind you, It has the wit and inventiveness that I admire Hossain for, but the conclusion is akin to a road coming to a dead end. The intention seems to be to offer the resolution of the fates of various characters in the works that follow this novel. However, if you aren't aware of those stories, you're not going to finish this book and feel satisfied. Frankly, you'd be better off reading "Cyber Mage" and Hossain's novellas before tackling this work. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this, because this book has a lot going for it. Imaginative, well written and witty, loved the characters, inventive world, great premise... and then the ending totally botched it for me. As the saying goes, promises were made that were not delivered on. Of course, if there's a sequel then it could all be brought together but it sure doesn't look like that was the author's intent.

This is, as always, one person's opinion. ( )

Centered on Bangladesh, the story follows members of a family of emissaries to the djinn—humans who know about and negotiate with the djinn, who look down on humans and some of whom plan to exterminate a substantial portion of humanity. One child is kidnapped, believing himself betrayed by the rest of his family, and becomes an apprentice to a very dangerous djinn, while his older cousin finds a new purpose in trying to fight the extermination plot. The ending involved a lot of betrayal and unfinished business; there is as yet no sequel, so it was kind of a downer. ( )

Drags, a slow start and worse middle eventually reach an interesting conclusion, before leaving most of the plot unresolved presumably for a sequel which I won't be bothering with. The worldbuilding concept is interesting enough, but the characters never really worked and the comedic attempts failed miserably.

The basic premise is that Djinn exist in the world and keep their presence quiet against humanity's every expanding presence. They appoint Emissary's to deal with the many tiresome details and play endless political games among their factions. Reis is our more or less hero at first a background presence. His uncle is a useless layabout and drunkard, but some surprising visitors eventually convince Reis that their stories were lal true and his Uncle was an Emissary is history and power, and that perhaps he can be of assistance in his place, especially as his cousin who would otherwise be his uncle's heir has disappeared in the presence of the only other Emissary known to him.

The full back story takes ages to work through, and only emerges very late in the book which is a shame as the context is needed earlier on, be cause the superficial characters give little to care about otherwise. ( )