Cyber Mage

If you want to see what egotistical Djinn look like in the modern world and amongst tech advances, this is for you. Dual-POV story with a bit of humor following a savant hacker teen and a killer going around cutting off heads, in a near-future dystopian that feels like it could actually be our future in 60 years. Sounds serious (and feels serious for a couple chapters and the commentary in this near-future dystopian is serious, real and relevant), but Hossain's humor and style of storytelling makes it feel breezy and delightful to consume. Maybe not a perfect book, but I absolutely loved this so it's 5 stars from me and I don't care!

If you've read and liked The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday (which I HIGHLY recommend, even if you don't want to read the other books) you'll want to go to Hossain's Djinn City and then this one. If you read Djinn City and liked it but were unsatisfied with the end, you NEED to go Cyber Mage. I think techies, cyberpunk fans or gamers might really want to pick this up too. Folks who like dystopian, but don't want to feel the emotional tax of dystopian, this would be great for you. If you like Djinn stories or sci-fi/fantasy mash-ups the Djinn City series is a must-read, the books are absolutely top of the class of the mash-ups I've read.

I don't recommend it unless you already found this world immersive. This one is more violent (the action scenes are skimmable). Male is default, women and girls are still introduced by their bodies and/or sexist insults. The title character is practically an incel, and a Mary Sue, and all his crushes plant a kiss on him by the end of the book.

Detracting, representative lines:

The Cyber Mage only played games he could win.

She had that vaguely tearful voice signaling the hormonal imbalance that triggered the urge to nurture.