Djinn City
#6833.76 adjusted 3.83 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 2 books Status Ongoing 2017–present Reading commitment Low Saad Z. Hossain Last reviewed 2026-10-18
Overview
Saad Z. Hossain's Djinn City books blend satire, dark comedy and fantasy, using reinvented Islamic mythology to build a mirror world to our own on the brink of disaster. In Dhaka, the super-dense capital of Bangladesh, a lonely boy, Indelbed, learns after his father falls into a supernatural coma that his father was a magician and a trusted emissary to the djinn, and he and his slacker cousin Rais are drawn into the realm of the djinn and its feuds. The world widens through the novella The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, set in a near-future Kathmandu where a djinn king wakes from millennia of slumber, and the sequel Cyber Mage returns to a future Dhaka, crossing fantasy with science fiction.
Urban fantasy, Comic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (2 works) counts toward ranking
Djinn City Saad Z. Hossain
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Djinn City | 2017 | 1 | core | 3.69 (1,308 ratings) |
 | Cyber Mage; A sequel to both Djinn City and The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, set in Dhaka some years in the future. | 2021 | 2 | core | 3.88 (759 ratings) |
Saad Z. Hossain's novels of a Dhaka crosshatched with the world of the djinn.
Library / Expanded (2 works)
The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday (2019) · 4.04 (2,389 ratings); A finalist for the Locus Award and the Ignyte Award, per the author's biography.
Kundo Wakes Up (2022) ; A companion to The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday; longlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award, per the author's biography.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Djinn City? Djinn City's Core Canon is 2 books, plus 2 more in the wider Library/Expanded material.
- What is the reading order for Djinn City? Publication order, starting with Djinn City. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Djinn City finished? Ongoing (2017–present).
- How much reading does Djinn City take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 2 Core Canon books).
- How is Djinn City ranked? #683 in this site's official ranking, based on 2,067 reader ratings across 2 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #683?
Ranked #683 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.76 across 2 core books.
- A smaller readership (2,067 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- 0.06 behind #682, Riverside.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 2 books · Ongoing · 2k ratings · Ranks #683 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment urban fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (2 Core Canon books)
- Djinn City (2017)
- Cyber Mage (2021)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Suggestions computed from what Djinn City and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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- Kai Lung Comic fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 3.82
- The Band Sword & sorcery / Comic fantasy · Ongoing · Low commitment · 4.23
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.76 across 2,067 ratings on 2 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: Djinn City (Saad Z. Hossain) accepted 2026-10-18
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia Tier 2
- The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Tier 2
- Big Sky Library of Asian Speculative Fiction (bibliography) Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-10-18
Rule: Core Canon = Djinn City (2017) and Cyber Mage (2021), the novels; the novellas The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday (2019) and Kundo Wakes Up (2022), set in the same world, are Expanded.