Detail
Title: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (Dead Djinn Universe #0.3) ISBN: 9781250294807Published February 19th 2019 by Tor.com · Paperback 130 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Novella, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Fiction, Historical, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Urban Fantasy, Alternate History, Short Stories
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User Reviews
Lisa of Troy
Unpopular Opinion Alert
Someone from my underground book club suggested The Haunting of Tram Car 015 when I requested short book recommendations (I’m still trying to get through Game of Thrones). My underground book club has never steered me wrong, so I picked this up without reading anything about it first.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is a spooky book which I would classify as fantasy horror, and, admittedly, this genre isn’t my go-to. However, I will read anything if the storytelling is good.
The book has a decent setting. It is in Cairo in 1912. In the first chapter, we discover that the tram car is haunted. This drove me absolutely batty. I love, love, love the dance where you are wondering, “Is this book going to have a supernatural explanation or a scientific one?” The back and forth can be incredible. A great example of this would be The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson or The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon. However, this book just comes out right in Chapter 1 and tells us that it is haunted and that is that.
No dance. No back and forth. Big sigh.
Enter Chapter 2. Women’s suffrage is inserted into the book like a freight train. It was not a smooth transition, and it was extremely awkward. I have nothing against women’s suffrage. I am quite a fan of it, but the way it was introduced was really rough.
The action was laughable, eye-rolling, and predictable. I knew exactly what was going to happen when the investigators were going to try to stop the haunting. I believe it was Dan Brown who said, “You can never be easy on your hero. And you can’t be easy on your payoffs. If your hero is going to conquer your villain, it has to be a Herculean task.” (Thanks, Joe Valdez, for the quote!) However, everything in this book came easy for the heroes. They just happened to be overheard by someone who could help them. Someone who did something bad just happened to confess. It was all too convenient.
This book has many favorable reviews by people that I really respect, but I did not enjoy this. I still love my underground book club. We are still besties!
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carol.
Cairo, 1912 or so. There's a ghost in Tram Car 015, although Senior Agent Hamed is fairly certain it isn't a ghost. You see, the world has been opened to the land of the djinn since 1860 or so, and it's more likely that the troublemaker is some kind of lesser djinn. But Inspector and his new sidekick, the enthusiastic and open Agent Onsi will certainly find out. Meanwhile, the women of Egypt are mobilizing, advocating that Parliament give them the right to vote. It makes for a very volatile city.
Short, fun, intriguing. World-building is more complete here than in the first novella, and is integrated well. I felt like I had a rough idea of the djinn and the world politics this time. The issue of voting rights is a bit of a distractor, and is perhaps less well integrated, as it doesn't really impact the story until much later. Rather, it runs parallel. This can be tricky in a novella, and a few times I feel like it overshadowed the actual story of the haunting. Ultimately, it didn't significantly bother me, as I found the world interesting and the theme important, but it was worth noting that it was a little off balance.
Narrative is from Special Agent Hamed's viewpoint who is a bit of an older gent over-focused on his job. Onsi is a fabulous foil for him. The side characters come alive quickly, and there's even a djinn who gender-morphs (I suspect a nod to differences; I don't know that it was germane) and an 'alive' automaton who raises the issue of slavery. This might sound a bit like it's catering to Issues without reason, especially in light of my criticisms of "A River of Teeth, but Clark does a much, much better job of keeping the story focused. Because it's a quick aside, it ends up being more world-building than a litany of character Differentness.
Clark is an author who resonates with me. I like the writing style, I like the way his world-building integrates less-seldom heard voices and pays a nod to issues of inequality and exploitation. As I noted in an earlier review, he joins the ranks of male authors who are able to competently write Women as People. This one is perhaps particularly intriguing as the Egyptians seem to have thrown out the British earlier in their history. There's clearly aspects he's still working on as he grows his craft in terms of focus, but on the whole, each piece I've read has felt more complete than the last. I didn't have any qualms paying for this novella.
His other story in this world is A Dead Djinn in Cairo, which was published before this. However, it's a shorter story, so there's less backstory. A friend noted that they felt reading this first then 'Djinn' gave them better insight.
Petrik
3.5/5 stars
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 was a fun mash-up of genres by Clark; I’m ready to read A Master of Djinn now.
With this, I’ve read the novelette, short story, and novella prequel to A Master of Djinn. As the title says, the story in this novella follows agent Hamed and agent Onsi as they try to solve the mystery behind the Haunting of Tram Car 015. It’s a fun detective-style story, and the contrast in personality between Hamed and Onsi made them a fun character to read about. Clocking in at about 100 pages, this novella was filled with enough intrigues, and I must say, Clark’s world-building is just refreshing and so good. This goes to all the three prequel stories, and I’m sure it will be even better in the main novel, but every time I read a story in Dead Djinn Universe, it really felt like I’m transported into this alternate Cairo full of magic and technologies.
Picture: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by Kevin Hong
Characters from A Dead Djinn in Cairo also made cameo appearances, and I loved it. However, same with the previous two stories I’ve read in this universe, the small page count of these three stories isn’t beneficial to the rich universe. There’s so much, I mean it, so much untapped potential in the characters, world-building, and premises. The short length of these three prequel stories, even though they’re probably intended to be that way, left me unsatisfied and craving for more.
Fortunately, A Master of Djinn is out now, and I will be reading it ASAP. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is a fun novella in Clark’s Dead Djinn Universe. I hope the three prequel stories I’ve read will bring an extra depth to the reading experience of A Master of Djinn.
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Nataliya
I love stories with great world-building, and this one delivers on that front.
This is a fun and well-done fantasy/detective novella set in the 1913 in Cairo — in the alternate version of Egypt where the world of djinn and other supernatural beings has met our reality a few decades prior, making Egypt a world super-power, and two Agents of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities — a seasoned agent Hamed and a rookie Onsi — are tasked with solving a mystery of a haunted aerial tram car (yes, there is also a fair share of steampunk-ish technology).
It is a dangerous mission, it turns out, resulting in a few near-death situations and both humorous and yet perilous undercover mission. But hey, even dangerous action is good — because “Who joined the Ministry for the thrill of filling out endless reports, in triplicate no less?”
The glimpses of the inner workings of this world are tantalizing and make me hope for more works set in this universe. There are djinn that found many niches in the society. There are intelligent
“The tram in question is a design of the djinn,” he explained. “It is endowed with a machine mind imbued with magic. The tram is thus capable of thought, which it uses to guide itself and its passengers safely. Those dizzying feats you witness are decisions made by a thinking being.”
There are ethical issues that you can expect in such a place and in such a time — issues ranging from more mundane for us such as voting right to the more SF-ish dilemmas such as the rights of artificial intelligence. There are tensions everywhere and conflicts are simmering beneath the surface, and it makes for a fun world to explore.
“If these trams are thinking beings, as you say, then they exist in a state of slavery.”
“Thinking beings, whether wrought by God or man, should not be bound to serve but have the right of choosing their lot.”
But due to its slim size, the novella focuses mostly on the issue of the possessed tram car, the case that can be best summed up as the case of “a baby-eating Armenian spirit is haunting a Cairo tram.” Hamed and Onsi, despite their differences, or perhaps because of them, start developing what can blossom into a very good working relationship, and perhaps friendship — the kind of dynamic that been a staple of many if not most detective stories, and it works here as well.
Overall, I quite liked it. The world-building was vivid and interesting, the pacing was good, the story stayed generally focused as too much meandering would be detrimental to such a slim novella but still managed to introduce a few interesting side threads, which I hope I see addressed if Clark decides to return to this story universe in the future.
4 stars.
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Dennis
2021 re-read:
I had forgotten how amusing some of this is. And also about the slight traces of horror. Still can't give this more than three stars, though. Something is missing. It probably should have been longer.
2020 review:
***2019 Nebula finalist for Best Novella***
***2020 Hugo finalist for Best Novella***
I discovered P. Djèlí Clark when I did my annual reading of Nebula and Hugo nominated stories in 2019. And instantly became a fan of the author. So I was looking forward to this story, which is set in the same world as his novelette A Dead Djinn in Cairo.
This world I’m talking about is an early 20th century alternate Cairo, infused with magic and supernatural creatures, and with moderate steampunk elements. The main characters in both stories are working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. They‘re tasked with solving crimes related to the otherworldly.
Here a woman aboard a tram car comes under attack from an unknown spirit. Agent Hamed and his junior partner Onsi are sent in to investigate. At the same time there’s uproar in the city of Cairo, as women are demonstrating for their right to vote.
I liked the chemistry between Hamed and Onsi. One being the somewhat experienced agent that would rather work on his own, the other being a young and enthusiastic history buff that possesses the ability to talk people into unconsciousness with his wealth of knowledge. This dynamic isn’t really new. But it made for some funny exchanges and was generally well executed.
The whole novella is well written, which is nothing less than I had expected. The world is very interesting too. But that as well I knew already, from reading A Dead Djinn in Cairo. The thing is, I thought that this story was a bit devoid of surprises. Which is why I’m giving it the lowest rating yet of all the P. Djèlí Clark stories I’ve read. I consider three stars a good rating, which, taking into account that I was nevertheless a bit disappointed, just shows you how much I rate this author.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is a very well-paced and entertaining story, with well written characters, set in a fascinating world, of which I would still love to see more. Oh, and I liked how this here all played out in the end. That brought a smile to my face.
A short note for everyone new to Clark’s world: This here and A Dead Djinn in Cairo are set in the same world, but can both be read as stand-alone. They are self-contained stories, with different main characters. Special Investigator Fatma el-Sha’arawi makes a short appearance here and the events of A Dead Djinn in Cairo are briefly mentioned. But I don’t think it really matters which one you read first. This one here is set about a year after the events of the other book, which would make the year 1913.
Women’s suffrage was adopted by Egypt in 1956.
Recommended by Mir
_________________
2019 Nebula Award Finalists
Best Novel
• Marque of Caine by Charles E. Gannon
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
• Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
Best Novella
• Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang ( Exhalation)
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water by Vylar Kaftan
• The Deep by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes
• Catfish Lullaby by A.C. Wise
Best Novelette
• A Strange Uncertain Light by G.V. Anderson ( The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2019)
• For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
• His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light by Mimi Mondal
• The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye by Sarah Pinsker ( Uncanny Magazine Issue 29: July/August 2019)
• Carpe Glitter by Cat Rambo
• The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2019)
Best Short Story
• Give the Family My Love by A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 149, February 2019)
• The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power by Karen Osborne (Uncanny Magazine Issue 27: March/April 2019)
• And Now His Lordship Is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9 September 2019)
• Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, Issue 80)
• A Catalog of Storms by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 26, January-February 2019)
• How the Trick Is Done by A.C. Wise (Uncanny Magazine Issue 29: July/August 2019)
Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
• Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
• Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
• Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee
• Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions by Henry Lien
• Cog by Greg van Eekhout
• Riverland by Fran Wilde
____________________________
2020 Hugo Award Finalists
Best Novel
• The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
• Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Best Novella
• Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang ( Exhalation)
• The Deep by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
• In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Best Novelette
• The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2019)
• Away With the Wolves by Sarah Gailey ( Uncanny Magazine Issue 30: Disabled People Destroy Fanatsy! Special Issue)
• The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye by Sarah Pinsker ( Uncanny Magazine Issue 29: July/August 2019)
• Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin
• For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
• Omphalos by Ted Chiang
Best Short Story
• And Now His Lordship Is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9 September 2019)
• As the Last I May Know by S.L. Huang
• Blood Is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon
• A Catalog of Storms by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 26, January-February 2019)
• Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #270)
• Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, Issue 80)
Best Series
• The Expanse by James S. A. Corey
• InCryptid by Seanan McGuire
• Luna by Ian McDonald
• Planetfall series by Emma Newman
• Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
• The Wormwood Trilogy by Tade Thompson
Best Related Work
• Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood by J. Michael Straczynski
• Joanna Russ by Gwyneth Jones
• The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara
• The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein by Farah Mendlesohn
• 2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech by Jeannette Ng
• Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, produced and directed by Arwen Curry
Best Graphic Story or Comic
• Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles
• LaGuardia, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford, colours by James Devlin
• Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda
• Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, letters by Joamette Gil
• Paper Girls, Volume 6, written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher
• The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: "Okay" by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Clayton Cowles
Rachel (Kalanadi)
A pitch-perfect investigative story, characters and worldbuilding I thoroughly enjoyed, and I had a big smile on my face by the end. I love this alternate history version of Cairo! And setting an investigation of a haunted tram car during the lead up to a vote on women's suffrage was immensely and unexpectedly satisfying.
Longer review video: https://youtu.be/MYNok7U6nbk
K.J. Charles
Absolutely terrific. A fantasy-detective novella set in an alternate early 20th century Cairo, where the emergence of djinn a few decades ago have turned Egypt into the main global power. Our heroes are from the supernatural department of the police, attempting to deal with what looks like a routine haunting of an aerial tram car, which rapidly lurches out of control. Brilliant world building, which manages to be super vivid and detailed without ever feeling overloaded or slowing the story, and indeed creates a more convincing world in 144pp than most fantasy novels manage in 600. Fantastic flavour of time and place too. Very highly recommended. May there be a lot more stories set in this world.
Cece (ProblemsOfaBookNerd)
A monster-of-the-week story set in a well worn, beautifully expansive world. It is unique, charming, and deeply magical in a way that only asks for more stories to be told.
Hamad
The Angel of Khan El-Khalili ★★★ 1/2
A Dead Djinn in Cairo ★★★★
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 ★★★★
It is not a common thing that I pick up a novella and end up being satisfied. That problem is because the length hardly helps delivering it all. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 was an exception to this case and is definitely one of the best novels I read. I think it works as a standalone but also it leaves the reader hungry for more.
I liked the characters (I mean the main character is called Hamed!!) and the world-building just makes my heart melt!
I am very happy I am reading this series and I am immediately jumping to A Master of Djinn!!
Rebecca Roanhorse
Love this world, love Clark's body of work. I recently finished MASTER OF DJINN which takes places in this same world and it was a full novel so I'm a bit spoiled; I wanted more from this novella. But that's because I'm greedy. This was a solid fun read and I enjoyed it. It only suffers in the comparison to MASTER OF DJINN.
jade
“the pointed steel turrets atop ramses station that mimicked golden minarets served as mooring masts for airships. most of these ships were lightweight dirigibles that shuttled between cairo and the main port of alexandria by the hour, discharging passengers from across the mediterranean and beyond.”
… if i could, i would also personally order a full-length novel set in this wonderfully captivating world p. djèlí clark has built. because rarely ever have i seen such an intriguing, well-researched, believable, and diverse setting brought to life in only just a hundred pages.
because alive, it is. or should i say haunted?
two agents of the ministry for spooky boys (excuse me, the ministry of alchemy, enchantments & supernatural entities) investigate the case of a haunted tram car. we get to see the story through the eyes of hamed, a stickler for the job who just wants to play by the rules and solve things, and his new partner -- recently inaugurated agent onsi, who’s bright and wide-eyed and easily distracted.
what follows is an imaginative and at times hilarious investigation into what the haunting actually is while interweaving many themes of modernity that the people of cairo currently struggle with. there’s women pushing for the right to vote, different cultural groups and the accompanying traditions intermingling, and the issue of sentience and/or enslavement regarding automatons and djinns sworn to service.
and yet it never feels bloated or shooting for Woke Points™. the mystery that needs solving is genuinely interesting and echoes said issues in several ways: the heavy gendering of folklore, how rituals and beliefs differ across various myths and legends, and how to kick a supernatural entity’s ass when you have no idea where it’s from.
still, i’d love to see clark do this with a longer novel because even though these themes don’t distract from the investigation per se, i do feel like it could be even more well-integrated than it is right now.
hamed and onsi play well off each other, often unconsciously navigating into good cop, bad cop territory in a playful manner. and hamed’s inner monologues are so dry and deadpan that they had me chuckling (read: ugly snort) multiple times throughout the story.
and yet even there, you can see the subtle progressions: hamed starts to respect onsi’s knowledge and skill in approaching people, and onsi starts copying hamed’s way of interactions with others in a very adorable way.
the women in this story are also amazing, by the way. abla, the server at one of the restaurants hamed and onsi frequent, provides plenty of advice and clever comments. agent fatma is both a feminist and a fashion icon at the minstery. several women the agents go to for help share cutting observations and feel very real.
and then i’m not even touching upon the genderfluid/nonbinary djinn. that’s some good shit right there.
anyway, i unequivocally adore this and would like to personally thank carol. for
✎ 4.5 stars.
Acqua
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is a wonderful, atmospheric novella set in an alternate Cairo, featuring haunted steampunk technology.
I already knew I liked P. Djèlí Clark's writing because of The Black God's Drums (...another alt-history, darker novella you should try if you haven't already) and because of A Dead Djinn In Cairo, which is set in the same universe as this book and is also free online (and you should read it). Even though I loved both of these, I was still surprised by how much I liked The Haunting of Tram Car 015.
There are so many interesting concepts in so little space, all of them handled gracefully. In that, it reminded me of Witchmark, even though on a content level the only thing these two books have in common are the steampunk aspects.
I loved the worldbuilding. You can see how much thought and research went into it - this is set in an alt-history version of Cairo in which colonialism ended also because of the supernatural, in which airships and djinn-powered aerial tram cars are the most common means of transportation. I always love reading about worlds in which the technology is tied to the magic system (and, in this case, also to folklore and mythology), and this was no exception. This book also portrays Cairo as a diverse city, not only because humans live side-by-side with djinns, but because its population is all but homogeneous: there are Sufis, Copts, Armenians, Sudanese, people who grew up in the city and people who grew up in the countryside. P. Djèlí Clark's Cairo feels so alive.
Even though the two main characters are men - two agents from the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, one of which is a new recruit - this is a story in which women have a very important role. The Haunting of Tram Car's main plotline is about a mysterious being who is haunting a tram car and the attempted exorcisms, but that's not the only thing going on - in the background, we see side and minor female characters collaborating to get women the right to vote in Egypt. And the way that plotline ends? So many feelings.
This novella approaches a lot of interesting themes - the way folklore is often steeped in misogyny; what gender could mean to non-human beings (featuring a genderfluid djinn!); the meaning of personhood and sentience; what "modernization" looks like when there's magic around - and maybe it didn't give that much space to them, but I never felt like any part of it was incomplete. I just want more books set in this world.
Mara
3.5 stars - While I didn't love this one as much as the first book in the series, this was still a really fun mystery plot set in a world that I was excited to learn more about. The inclusion of the women's rights movement in Cairo juxtaposed with the mystery I thought was especially smart... basically this gets me super hyped for the full novel we're getting in the spring :)
(hide spoiler)]Richard Derus
The Publisher Says: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 returns to the alternate Cairo of Clark’s short fiction, where humans live and work alongside otherworldly beings; the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities handles the issues that can arise between the magical and the mundane. Senior Agent Hamed al-Nasr shows his new partner Agent Onsi the ropes of investigation when they are called to subdue a dangerous, possessed tram car. What starts off as a simple matter of exorcism, however, becomes more complicated as the origins of the demon inside are revealed.
I RECEIVED A DRC OF THIS TITLE FROM TOR.COM FOR REVIEW.
My Review: When I asked for more after reading A Dead Djinn in Cairo, I sorta-kinda vaguely hoped that there would, one day, maybe be more. Then this book came out. It doesn't feature Fatma as the main Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities agent on the case, but Hamed and Onsi grew on me fast. And, of course, the inclusion of Siti was welcome as it assured me this was well and truly part of a Cairo I absolutely believe is real and wish to emigrate to now, please.
Ahem.
And now there's a lovely new title, A Master of Djinn, coming next year! In fact, we'll get Fatma and Siti back at the center of the doings, so all will be extra-special right with my reading world.
This story, of a spirit entity (NOT like a Djinn, as Zagros the Ministry's librarian Djinn bristles at Hamed) called an "al" (plural "alk") that's arrived from Armenia to ply its evil, baby-stealing ways; it involves graft (a Transportation ministry bureaucrat doing what he didn't oughta), confusion (Hamed seeking help from a sheika and a sexy transgender Djinn to perform a Zal exorcism-y thing), and a lot of humility instead of humiliation. Hamed and Onsi do a deeply shocking thing to slip past the al's nervous vigilance, something their patriarchal upbringings wouldn't find agreeable, but to them it's far superior a choice than failing to protect Cairo's mothers.
There are scenes of action with the men pursuing the al, there are scenes of fun, deep brain-work where the author gets to infodump you about this delicious anti-colonial alternate history without feeling like it's him forcing you to eat your spinach, and there's a beautifully queer undertone to the proceedings that agrees with me. If you know it won't agree with you, skip on.
Now, it's clear that I love this world. Anyone who has read my deep and caustic growls about majgickq in my alt-hist will even now be sharpening their quill to jab out a "GOTCHA!!" message. This series has majgicqk in in, yes; the magjicqk is integral to the action, yes; and no, I am not fleeing at top speed. So before the ringing cries of "hypocrite!" begin their rise from ill-mannered and poorly bred peoples' keyboards, listen up: I'm not interested in medieval-Europe-with-monsters, WWII-with-werewolves/aliens, or their like. Tired of those stories. Cultures not European? You interest me strangely, Tale-spinner, come and say on.
I wouldn't say you should read this book first, but definitely before the new one comes out. And definitely read it. I know it's a quick hit, and it's hard to invest in something this concentrated when you wonder if you can come home again. Now you know you can, indulge!