Book Review: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

After reading the short story A Dead Djinn in Cairo, I decided to grab the first book in the "Dead Djinn" series.

It is a delightfully realised universe although reminiscent of both Saladin Ahmed's work - a Middle-East populated with ghuls, djinn, and sword-wielding magicians - and also Annalee Newitz's Terraformers with its sentient trains and unionised robots.

Unfortunately, it is rather brief. The short story and book together make for a decent novella. Because of that, some of the exposition is rather abrupt. Rather than gradually introduce us into the gender politics of the city, one character turns to another to clumsily explain it.

It's a good book, I just wish there was a lot more of it.