James Nicoll Reviews

Kundo Wakes Up is the second volume in Saad Z. Hossain’s The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday series. 

One year and two hundred and thirty-six days ago, artist Kundo’s wife vanished, leaving a note informing him that she was leaving. Kundo did not handle the news at all well. Now, six hundred and one days later, he wakes from his daze and resolves to look for his wife. 

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Saad Z. Hossain’s 2017 Djinn City is a contemporary fantasy. It may share a setting with Hossain’s The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday.

Blamed by his father for his mother’s death in childbirth, Indelbed has been raised in isolation and genteel poverty. Indelbed is a surprisingly good-natured kid, given his circumstances. His cousin Rais is quite fond of him. When Rais discovers that Indelbed has never been sent to school, Rais tries to fix what he sees as a problem. 

Rais doesn’t expect that his efforts will ruin Indelbed’s life.

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Saad Z. Hossain’s 2019 The Gurkha And the Lord of Tuesday is a standalone science-fantasy novella.

Ambushed, coshed, bound by powerful spells, and sequestered in an out-of-the-way location, the boisterous djinn Melek Ahmar has slumbered for thousands of years. From the perspective of his attackers, the djinn is a problem solved.

For the humans and artificial intelligences of the era in which Melek Ahmar finally wakes, he is quite a different story.

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