Cyber Mage

The plot of Hossain’s giddy new novel, another inventive blend of mythology and cyberpunk gizmology (after The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday), builds from two converging story lines. Fifteen-year-old Marzuk Dotrozi lives in Dhaka City in former Bangladesh, but his true domain is the Virtuality, where, as his Cyber Mage avatar, he is revered as one of the world’s most skilled and devious hackers. Meanwhile, the djinn Bahamut conjures a golem, Djibrel, and sets him on a mission to assassinate the earthly minions of another djinn meddling in Bahamut’s affairs. Marzuk and Djibrel’s paths cross after a massive Cyber Mage hack puts them both in the crosshairs of a shady, djinn-controlled security organization, setting the stage for a dazzling showdown involving nanotechnology, anthropomorphized AIs, and virtual reality. Hossain puts a clever spin on both high fantasy and hard science tropes as ancient djinns wield futuristic technology to go head-to-head with humans empowered with their own technowizardry. Fans of both genres will find this an enjoyable romp. (Dec.)