Now the rascally character, who flagellates between likeable and despisable, plans to try again– this time with Indelbed. Frankenstein type, has tried and failed in his attempts to breed various forms of creatures who are placed down there with him. There rock wyrms threaten to eat the boy, who’s been there long enough to become a man, and Givaras, who’s apparently been there for at least a millennium. For instance, Matteras throws Indelbed into a labyrinthine underground murder pit of Matteras’s own creation. Imagine if there was irrefutable proof that they’re just like us? I don’t think they could accept that, as a specie,” Aunt Juny responds. “Even the most tolerant, humanized djinn think they’re inherently better. “Most djinn don’t believe in evolution or genetics. “What if humans and djinns are just related species, or even just mutations of one specie?” Rais says. Here’s an example that takes place when Rais and his mother are on the trail to figuring out how a sort of overlord evil djinn named Matteras killed Uncle/Ambassador/GU Sikkim. Capable of becoming embroiled in frequent existentialist debates, they argue about evolution and creationism and djinn superiority over all other creatures. They’re a litigious lot who think nothing of creating 743-page contracts, they have no allegiance with family members, and they politicize seemingly everything. It’s their human qualities that bring out Hossain’s funny, satirical encapsulation of today’s zeitgeist. They come in human form with a powerful aura that surrounds them and works as a weapon. In Hossain’s novel, they are indeed villainous.

Who/what the heck are djinns, anyway? A survey course in mythology might convey their various villainous characterizations. They initially seem to resist doing so, less so upon learning he’s related to djinns and his father is a djinn emissary. When Kaikobad falls into a coma, Aunt Juny, Uncle/Ambassador/GU Sikkim, and cousin Rais take the little guy under their wing.

Kaikobad won’t even educate his son about his own mother, other than the fact she died giving birth to him, which people love to joke about as “death by Indelbed.” His father is a very learned and very drunk man, possibly because he misses the boy’s mother, and he refuses to allow his son a traditional education. The novel opens with the backstory of Indelbed, a child who lives with his widower dad and a few ghostly servants in a decrepit house in Bangladesh’s capital. Hossain’s recently released Djinn City from Unnamed Press builds on his 2015 novel Escape from Baghdad! This Bangladeshi writer captivates with his often humorous blend of satire, sci-fi, fantasy, and mythology that takes place in 2066 underground, at ground level, and in the skies.

Djinn City by Saad Z. Hossain