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    The Haunting of Tram Car 015
    The Haunting of Tram Car 015
    The Haunting of Tram Car 015
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Haunting of Tram Car 015

    Written by P. Djèlí Clark

    Narrated by Julian Thomas

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    P. Djeli Clark returns to the historical fantasy universe of "A Dead Djinn in Cairo", with the otherworldly adventure novella The Haunting of Tram Car 015. Cairo, 1912: The case started as a simple one for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities - handling a possessed tram car. Soon, however, Agent Hamed Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi Youssef are exposed to a new side of Cairo stirring with suffragettes, secret societies, and sentient automatons in a race against time to protect the city from an encroaching danger that crosses the line between the magical and the mundane
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 19, 2019
    ISBN9781980032045
    The Haunting of Tram Car 015
    Author

    P. Djèlí Clark

    Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. DJÈLÍ CLARK (he/him) spent part of his childhood in Trinidad and Tobago, the homeland of his parents. He is the author of the novel A Master of Djinn and the novellas Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums, and The Haunting of Tram Car 015. He has won the Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards and been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Sturgeon Awards. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Apex, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies, including Griots, Hidden Youth, and Clockwork Cairo. He is also a founding member of FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons.

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    Reviews for The Haunting of Tram Car 015

    4/5

    641 ratings44 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I really love the writing, the world building and the lore. In such short pages he creates awesome stories and characters. Looking forward ro read more from this author.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Pleasant, just enough mystery, being able to explore new folklore and lands through an alternate existence was delightful.
    • 5/5
      Agent Hamed is training a new agent, Onsi when they are called to the tram car station to deal with one of the cars being haunted. As they learn about what is attacking people in the tram car, the reader finds out more about the alternate Cairo with its Steampunk ways and magical beings living side by side with everyday people. The universe this is set in is wonderfully detailed and you don’t have to have read either the book or the other stories to enjoy this one.
    • 5/5
      This book was amazing. The characters came to life in a way that kept my attention the whole way through and the world the author creates is lush and beautiful. Definitely on my read again list.
    • 4/5
      Fun! I enjoyed all the characters and thought the story was okay, but fun.
    • 4/5
      Fun. I love the world that is created, very imaginative and easy enough to picture.
    • 2/5
      I like the other books in this series and I think the narrator in the other books did a great job she sounded realistic and had a good accent while still being understandable this narrator takes odd pauses.
    • 3/5
      The stories I've read by Clark seem to frequently cover somewhat heavy topics in a light-hearted manner which has surprised me each time. They're still enjoyable but I find myself wanting something heavier, darker. I've enjoyed previous readings by this story's narrator but felt he was wrong for this one. His accents for the characters never really fully deliver and his narration, while mostly steady, doesn't really change from one part of the story to the next, particularly underwhelming during the climax. All that said this is a worthwhile read and possibly better experienced actually reading than listening to the audiobook.
    • 5/5
      P Djeli Clark writes beautiful stories. The narration on this was excellent- can't wait to read more of his work.
    • 2/5
      not all that much fun. settling and time period unclear
    • 5/5
      A fun and interesting listen! The story was a little more on establishing the world but still as enjoyable as the last one. At higher speeds, it's hard to tell if the narrator is saying "he" or "she" but it's not too big an issue.
    • 4/5
      Fun adventure mystery novella with plenty of unexpected shifts and turns, the two leading characters were very compelling.
    • 5/5
      I can not get enough of this world! What is The X-Files took place in the early 1900s in Egypt? What is the characters were as cool as Miss Fisher‘s murder mysteries and what if it was excessively feminist and extremely pro LGBTQ plus? What if the Dresden Files used Middle Eastern diaspora? This is my sh*t!
    • 2/5
      It's not impossible to do alternate history at novella length, or even short story length, without spending a large percentage of your word count explaining what your world is like and where the divergences are, but it requires a deft touch with worldbuilding-by-implication, which this book is lacking. The author isn't amateurish enough to go for the "as you know, Bob," approach, but the ways the info-dumps are worked into the story are still distractingly artificial. One character recounting his entire family history in response to a question about whether he likes Ethiopian food, for example, is certainly in part a characterization point, but its use as an illustration of the ethnic and religious makeup of this alternate Egypt and how the various groups are viewed is extremely transparent. The story concept was interesting--I love supernatural stuff being treated as a sort of everyday inconvenience the way it is here--but I felt like I spent half of the book being exposited at before any real plot progression occurred.
    • 4/5
      My third foray into P. Djèlí Clark’s alternate Egypt, and the return to the workings of Cairo’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, proved to be even better than my experience with A Dead Djinn in Cairo, particularly once I overcame the slight disappointment provoked by the absence of investigator Fatma el-Sha’arawi, the main character of the first novella - although she does make a cameo appearance here, toward the end.In Haunting the supernatural detectives for the Ministry are two: sedate and formal veteran Hamed al-Nasri and the enthusiastic rookie Agent Onsi - quite different characters that, despite those differences, manage to create an effective team while dealing with the present emergency, the haunting of one of the many aerial tram cars traversing the skies of Egypt’s capital. The Ministry was summoned by Superintendent Bashir, who appears quite distraught by the presence of what looks to be a djinn that took possession of said tram car, terrifying the passengers and forcing Bashir to take it out of the regular runs. Once the investigation goes underway, however, the two investigators understand that the infestation has nothing to do with djinns and is instead something different and far more malevolent, so they are forced to seek more specialized help, finding it in a very unexpected quarter…The previous story featuring Fatma merely laid the foundations of this alternate world, one where the border between the mundane and the supernatural had been pierced, allowing otherworldly creatures to enter our reality and coexist with humans; this novella deepens and enriches our knowledge of this changed reality, a background where elements of magic and steampunk details turn our journey into a very intriguing one, and in this specific case add the theme of social change to the mix, offering a chance both for reflection and for some amusing interludes.Characters are better defined in Haunting, something I felt was slightly missing from my first experience with this series, and I have to admit that I took an instant liking to the Hamed/Onsi duo, which helped me to offset the initial surprise at the shift in perspective from Fatma’s. Hamed at first comes across as a very matter-of-fact person whose experience in magical matters placed something of a disenchanted attitude on him, so that he observes Onsi’s ebullient joy at being in the field with a touch of amused annoyance. Onsi, on the other hand, is not only very eager - as newbies are inclined to be - he’s also very much book-oriented, but has little experience of fieldwork. This disparity might have influenced their effectiveness in dealing with this difficult case, but instead the two of them are able to find some common ground - each giving in to the other a little - and turn out to be a great team, not only where their mission is concerned, but also where their work styles are involved.Even though the main protagonists here are men, there is an intriguing focus on women, both as individuals - the mysteriously knowledgeable waitress Abla and the sheikha Nadiyaa, performer of magical arts - and as a group, i.e. the members of the movement for suffrage, the Egyptian Feminist Sisterhood. Cairo, and probably the whole of Egypt, is on the verge of huge social changes through the implementation of the right of vote for women and this is reflected in the substantial female presence on the scene and in the narrative thread that sees a particular magic rite - performed only by women - as the key to solving the tram’s infestation. This need for change, not only in politics, but also in the attitude toward women, is subtly addressed while discussing the malevolent spirit inhabiting Car 015, which appears either as a child or a hideous crone:That spirit was just a formless being minding its own business. Then, it encountered men. And they decided to make it this beautiful woman or this monstrous crone, because that’s the only way many men can even view women. For all his outward adherence to protocol, Hamed is a very versatile individual and he’s soon able to acknowledge that exceptional circumstances require exceptional solutions, and he wastes no time in implementing them, also accepting with grace and humor the very unusual… ahem… camouflage he and Onsi must don to fool the spirit. I ended up liking him very much, and understood that the formal exterior hides an intriguing, multifaceted personality I would not mind seeing explored in depth - maybe teamed up with Fatma, with whom he has an interesting conversation once the dust of the chase has settled.The Haunting of Tram Car 015 offered a more comprehensive look into this parallel reality, and I enjoyed the world-building even more than with the previous story: there is such a richness of detail here that the background comes alive with all its colors and smells and the views of teeming streets that make the city come alive in quite a cinematic way. Returning here through the full-length novel that awaits me down the line will certainly be an equally delightful experience.
    • 5/5
      A tasty morsel that makes me want more. There is a ton of world-building that needs conveyed, but it is all done gracefully without even slowing down the fun. And that is just one of the things done so well in this novella.
    • 4/5
      this novella adds two more agents to the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities in this alternate steampunk Cairo. it's quite elaborate structurally, the plot moves along at a brisk pace, the two main occult detectives here are both interesting, Agent Fatma also makes an appearance, and the writer has a nice line in description detail.
    • 3/5
      I didn't enjoy this quite as much as I did A Dead Djinn in Cairo. I felt it relied on the exotic locale more than characters and plotting. Still enjoyable and I'll try the author's novel next.
    • 4/5
      Agent Hamed Nasr and his new partner, Onsi Youssef, are called upon to solve the mystery of a haunted tram car and send the spirit packing.This novella is set in the same steampunk-fantasy blended Cairo first introduced in the short story "A Dead Djinn in Cairo". You don't have to read the short story first, but the main character appears as a side character in this one, and the recognition of that is fun. I loved the genreblending of steampunk, historical/alternate fiction, mystery and fantasy, in a world where airships and djinn are side by side. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Clark has in store in his novel.
    • 5/5
      This is quite fantastic - in both meanings of the word. The setting is Cairo in 1912, although it's a Cairo that has harnessed the power of the Djinn and so has made itself and Egypt a power to be reckoned with in the world. One manifestation of this use of magical powers is that Cairo has a tram system that is suspended from aerial wires and is run by sentient machines. Somehow, when you describe it like that, the fact that Tram car 015 turns out to be haunted by a malevolent spirit seems a lot less odd than might otherweise be the case. To solve this we make the acquaintance of Agent Hamad and his novice partner in the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. Hamad is less than thrilled at Onsi, but the younger man soon proves his worth. The case is set against the backdrop of a vote for female sufffrage and the feminist spriti runs through the book a lot. I don;t read a lot of science fiction or fantasy - i have an annoying habit of objecting to the breaking of rules of physics just because is suite tha author to do so at that point. However, in this world, while there is magic, it doesn;t seem to break the rules at will. In fact the solving of the case relies on the fact that folklore retains a grain of truth at its core. This seems to be part of a series and I can certainly see myself siging up to read more of this fascinating place.
    • 5/5
      I picked this up not realizing it was in the same setting as A Dead Djinn in Cairo, which I have not read yet, though I've had an eye out for it at the library and every bookstore forever. It didn't seem necessary to read them in order, but now I am even more interested in reading that one.Like in The Black God's Drums, this is an intriguing mix of steampunk science fiction alternate-history with religious/mythological fantasy. This one has more of a private detective story feel -- the story's protagonists are agents with the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. They are tasked with removing a ghost/djinn/maybe-something-else that's been haunting one of the city's trams. As they unravel the mystery, an amazing amount of worldbuilding is involved, from how djinns and magic were unleashed in the world to the suffrage movement that forms the main backdrop to the story, to dozens of other details that make this world feel so rich.
    • 5/5
      Clark's depiction of a fantastical Cairo at the beginning of the twentieth century offers such a gorgeous blend of magic, historical place, and chaos, it's hard not to fall in love with it. From the moment I started the book, the city and the characters felt so real, and so perfectly realized, that I couldn't put it down. Too easily, I could have believed that this djinn-full world was just another piece of history--that's how beautifully Clark brings it to life, and speaks to how well he melds historical detail and character with fantasy. This is a short, fast read, but I'm excited to have discovered a new writer to follow, and I'll certainly be picking up the other works he's already published. Absolutely, I'd recommend this one.
    • 3/5
      This short fantasy is set in an alternate version of 1912 Cairo, in which djinni have entered the world and magic and the supernatural are so much a part of ordinary life that there is a Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. Two agents of this ministry are investigating a tram car haunted by an Albanian spirit and must come up with a scheme to "exorcise" it. This is a light romp with an agreeably steampunk old-world Egyptian setting.
    • 5/5
      A marvelous tale! Great example of the art of the novella - short enough to read in a day, long enough to be full of character and detail. I am immediately determined to find more stories by Clark in this setting, and I hope there's more to come.
    • 5/5
      Series Info/Source: This is the 2nd novella in the Fatma el-Sha’arawi series. I borrowed this from the library.Story (5/5): Agent Hamed (from the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities) is called on to check out the supposed haunting of a tram car, along with his young new partner from the Ministry, Agent Onsi. They initially think it is a typical story of a djinn gone bad haunting the workings of the tram, however things end up taking a turn for the weird.Characters (4/5): I didn’t like Agents Hamed and Onsi as much as Fatma and her partner. Agent Hamed comes off as a seasoned and somewhat tired agent, he generally handles more pedantic Ministry cases. I didn’t dislike him, he just wasn’t as engaging and fun as Farma. Agent Onsi was more interesting, he’s new to the Ministry but was a fountain of knowledge and I really enjoyed him. Fatma does make an appearance towards the end of the book, which I enjoyed.Setting (5/5): I again loved the world and setting here. The world-building is amazing and I enjoy the exotic mythology and location. Such a complex world is built in such a small page space, I love it. I never had trouble picturing the settings and was constantly surprised but what lurked around each corner of this story. Writing Style (4/5): This was a fast and fun paced read that I enjoyed. I do feel that this was not quite as good as “A Dead Djinn Cairo”. The scope of the story was a lot smaller, the world less exciting, and characters not nearly as impressive. However, I enjoyed the mystery here and some of the more obscure folklore. I liked the setting and the characters weren’t bad. It was an entertaining read in a world that I love.My Summary (4.5/5): Overall while this wasn’t as impressive as “A Dead Djinn Cairo” I still really enjoyed it. This is an amazing world and the story is fast-paced with an entertaining mystery and some fascinating obscure folklore. I love the steampunk and alternate history aspects of the story as well. I hope future novellas feature Agent Fatma again and would love to see some full length novels set in this world!!
    • 4/5
      This was a great addition to the world created in the short story "A Dead Djinn in Cairo". This author is amazing, and I love everything about this book. The alternative magical Cairo is so vivid, the social justice work is integrated in a fascinating way and the Agents from the Ministry of Alchemy (Agent Hamad al-Nasr & Agent Onsi) are a wonderful investigative duo.
    • 4/5
      Pros: interesting worldbuilding, fast paced, great evil entityCons: somewhat cliche detective pairAgents Hamed and Onsi from the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, are sent to investigate a haunting at the Ministry of Transportation. But budget concerns make dealing with the entity harder than expected. The book is set in an alternate 1910s Egypt during suffragette protests. I liked how the fight for women’s ability to vote was tied into the rest of the story. Though it’s a novella, there’s a wealth of detail making Cairo come alive. I loved the diversity of the city, its people, food, and clothing. I loved the included - historically accurate - references to ancient and medieval documents regarding the paranormal. The evil entity they’re dealing with wasn’t one I’ve heard of so I found it interesting - and creepy.I found Hamed a boring protagonist. He’s not quite the stereotypical detective with a new recruit, but he’s close. I found the female characters significantly more engaging and would have liked seeing more of them and their points of view. It’s an engaging and entertaining story that had me looking for other stories and books by Clark, including the story alluded to regarding Fatma’s assignment at the end of this one.
    • 3/5
      Set in the same city as A Dead Djinn in Cairo, this novella follows two agents from the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities as they investigate a possessed tram car. The world-building is vivid and cleverly, thoughtfully, imaginative. But, perhaps because of the mood I’m in and because this story isn’t interested in exploring the personal lives of its detectives, I have no feelings about this.
    • 3/5
      The citizens of Cairo, in an alternate universe, live and work with otherworldly beings. The Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities handles cases in which the magical intrude into everyday life. It’s 1912 and the women of Egypt are seeking the right to vote; Parliament is to make a decision within days. Meanwhile, Senior Agent Hamed Nasr and Agent Onsi find themselves in the middle of a perplexing case of the djinn haunting a tram car. But their efforts to expel the djinn create unexpected complications . . . .Told from Hamed’s point of view, the dealing-with-the-monster story unfolds against a backdrop of a well-developed alternative world with a diverse population. Here the worldbuilding creates a believable setting for the magical elements that are an integral part of the telling of the tale. Steampunk elements are incorporated; the women’s movement theme is an interesting side plot.Recommended.
    • 4/5
      I RECEIVED A COPY OF THIS DRC FROM TOR.COM PUBLISHING. THANKS.When I asked for more after reading [A Dead Djinn in Cairo], I sorta-kinda vaguely hoped that there would, one day, maybe be more. Then this book came out. It doesn't feature Fatma as the main Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities agent on the case, but Hamed and Onsi grew on me fast. And, of course, the inclusion of Siti was welcome as it assured me this was well and truly part of a Cairo I absolutely believe is real and wish to emigrate to now, please.Ahem.And now there's a lovely new title, [A Master of Djinn], coming on 11 May 2021! In fact, we'll get Fatma and Siti back at the center of the doings, so all will be extra-special right with my reading world.This story, of a spirit entity (NOT like a Djinn, as Zagros the Ministry's librarian Djinn bristles at Hamed) called an "al" (plural "alk") that's arrived from Armenia to ply its evil, baby-stealing ways; it involves graft (a Transportation ministry bureaucrat doing what he didn't oughta), confusion (Hamed seeking help from a sheika and a sexy transgender Djinn to perform a Zal exorcism-y thing), and a lot of humility instead of humiliation. Hamed and Onsi do a deeply shocking thing to slip past the al's nervous vigilance, something their patriarchal upbringings wouldn't find agreeable, but to them it's far superior a choice than failing to protect Cairo's mothers.There are scenes of action with the men pursuing the al, there are scenes of fun, deep brain-work where the author gets to infodump you about this delicious anti-colonial alternate history without feeling like it's him forcing you to eat your spinach, and there's a beautifully queer undertone to the proceedings that agrees with me. If you know it won't agree with you, skip on.Now, it's clear that I love this world. Anyone who has read my deep and caustic growls about majgickq in my alt-hist will even now be sharpening their quill to jab out a "GOTCHA!!" message. This series has majgicqk in it, yes; the magjicqk is integral to the action, yes; and no, I am not fleeing at top speed. So before the ringing cries of "hypocrite!" begin their rise from ill-mannered and poorly bred peoples' keyboards, listen up: I'm not interested in medieval-Europe-with-monsters, WWII-with-werewolves/aliens, or their like. Tired of those stories. Cultures not European? You interest me strangely, Tale-spinner, come and say on.I wouldn't say you should read this book first, but definitely before the new one comes out. And definitely read it. I know it's a quick hit, and it's hard to invest in something this concentrated when you wonder if you can come home again. Now you know you can, indulge! (But be alert for the one, and only one, w-bomb.)