The Gurkha and The Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z Hossain
Publisher - Tor
Published – Out Now
Price – £9.99 paperback £2.06 Kindle eBook
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.
I love a story that sits between the boundaries of genre and keeps me guessing as to what the tale will actually be about. I am not surprised we see more and more stories that sit on the edges. These days there are far less divisions between science fiction and fantasy fans. It makes sese that authors are learning to mix the tunes. One such novella I loved was The Gurkha and The Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z Hossain which can be funny, bawdy, fantasy, and science fiction and when you’re not looking more than a little angry at injustice.
Ice melt in a sacred ring of the Himalayas finds the skull of Melek Afmar the many titled Djinn also known as the Lord of Tuesday. He awakens in his sarcophagus angry both being tricked while he had been drinking and also because he has ice water dripping in his face, he finds his powers returned and prepares to smite. But a cheery yet strange Gurkha named Guring advises him that millennia have passed – its Earth’s far future and climate change led to nanotechnology having to make the air breathable from the many more hotspots now present where all life has gone. In this region only one city stays functional Kathmandu Incoporated run by an AI named Karma ensuring that all works as planned and monitoring all good and bad acts rewarding citizens accordingly. Melek Ahamar seeks worshippers and always in favour of a little revolution makes his way with his new friend. But older agendas await the visitors and not all Karma is accounted for.
The unpredictability of this tale combined with Hossain’s excellent skill in writing high and low fantasy/science fiction almost all at once makes this tale a pleasure to read. Page 1 reads like an epic fantasy tale and by page 2 we see a godlike being who got caught drunk and swears like a trooper and yet Hossain adds in discussion of Djinn’s magical fields and the powers to change matter and after that we realise that we are in a nanotecth/AI future but not one entirely without magic. That’s an impressive arrangement and Hossain makes it sing beautifully and as such as the reader you’re not sure what type of tale this is.
Keeping this going is the double act of Melek and Guring. From the moment that they discuss the atrocity of salted nuts you see a very weird relationships where the human isn’t phased by being in a Djinn’s presence. Melek is the showy character - brings havoc to pubs and more than happy to shock. But Guring is the smart one and as we see why Melek has been brought to the city we find a little more to him than you would suspect is going on. Two agents of chaos arrive in a city of order what is not to love?
Just when you think this is all played for laughs though Hossain throughs in the darker side of the future and here is a tale that we all know. Every revolution will always have some people from the old regime protected and this brings our duo into conflict with Hamilcar a guardian of the city that Karma requires to explore these rogue elements and the powerful Doje who has been around since the new world started. On the turn of a sixpence Hossain gives the tale something angrier to investigate and the ties to Guring’s past mean humour very quickly turns to disgust and a bloody finale where the reader may find they actually can appreciate Melek’s way of doing things.
This is an excellent novella that gives us the creativity of alternate world you may see in P Djeli Clark’s work and the perfect mix of humour and humanity I tend to always associate with Terry Pratchett. Prepare to be entertained and surprised. Well worth your attention.
