Josep reviewed The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain
Review of 'The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Not my cup of tea.
Paperback, 167 pages
English language
Published Aug. 12, 2019 by Tor.com.
The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday
3 stars
(2 reviews)
When the djinn king Melek Ahmar wakes up after millennia of imprisoned slumber, he finds a world vastly different from what he remembers. Arrogant and bombastic, he comes down the mountain expecting an easy conquest: the wealthy, spectacular city state of Kathmandu, ruled by the all-knowing, all-seeing tyrant AI Karma. To his surprise, he finds that Kathmandu is a cut-price paradise, where citizens want for nothing and even the dregs of society are distinctly unwilling to revolt.
Everyone seems happy, except for the old Gurkha soldier Bhan Gurung. Knife saint, recidivist, and mass murderer, he is an exile from Kathmandu, pursuing a forty-year-old vendetta that leads to the very heart of Karma. Pushed and prodded by Gurung, Melek Ahmer finds himself in ever deeper conflicts, until they finally face off against Karma and her forces. In the upheaval that follows, old crimes will come to light and the city itself …
When the djinn king Melek Ahmar wakes up after millennia of imprisoned slumber, he finds a world vastly different from what he remembers. Arrogant and bombastic, he comes down the mountain expecting an easy conquest: the wealthy, spectacular city state of Kathmandu, ruled by the all-knowing, all-seeing tyrant AI Karma. To his surprise, he finds that Kathmandu is a cut-price paradise, where citizens want for nothing and even the dregs of society are distinctly unwilling to revolt.
Everyone seems happy, except for the old Gurkha soldier Bhan Gurung. Knife saint, recidivist, and mass murderer, he is an exile from Kathmandu, pursuing a forty-year-old vendetta that leads to the very heart of Karma. Pushed and prodded by Gurung, Melek Ahmer finds himself in ever deeper conflicts, until they finally face off against Karma and her forces. In the upheaval that follows, old crimes will come to light and the city itself will be forced to change.
Review of 'The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The intense mythology of P Djèlí Clark meets the cutting wit of Christopher Moore in this biting satire set against a richly imagined, jewel-encrusted world.
Melek Ahmar, the Lord of Mars, the Red King, the Lord of Tuesday, Most August Rajah of Djinn wakes after a slumber of several millennia to find the world a markedly different place than he remembers. He falls in with Bhan Gurung, a gurkha with a dark secret. Together, they set out to wreak havoc in Kathmandu.
Between 4 and 4.5 stars. Not quite enough to justify rounding up. Its one flaw was that the lack of visual cues meant I struggled to picture what was happening. The descriptions feel very close to the characters, making it hard to envision the setting in which it all takes place.