Kundo Wakes Up

With this fun sci-fi romp, Hossain returns to the dystopian world of The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday, in which an artificial intelligence called Karma has taken over, monitoring citizens’ every move. Kundo, a once celebrated painter, stumbles across a slew of missing persons cases in his search for the wife who left him. Together with the neighbor of a missing hacker, a former city kingpin, and an infamous gamer, Kundo sets out to beat the online game that appears to be the common link between all the missing people. This unlikely crew is surprised to discover a doorway to the mythical djinn paradise, Gangaridai, within the game—and there, the devil himself offers them the chance to stay and leave their pain and misery behind. Hossain blends futuristic technology and Arabic mythology in this rabbit hole of a mystery, lacing the goings-on with references to popular video games. Gaming enthusiasts and ancient mythology fans alike should snap this up. (Mar.)