A Cairo thief and con artist meets a djinn and is transported to a city out of legend, populated with tribes of magic-users with deep and complicated histories, and thick with tribal tension and layered political infighting. Chakraborty is really good at giving each character a coherent set of motivations, and making them incredibly sympathetic besides; as the reader I found myself pulling for characters with hopes and needs that directly conflicted with one another, and got totally stressed about how all of them could possibly find happy endings. Even the unlikeable characters’ actions come from a logically sound place. On top of that the surroundings are beautifully drawn, really gorgeous imagery. Amazing stuff. So many questions left for the next volume, argh.