The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

if you asked p. djeli clark to write a bad book, it would probably still turn out pretty great.

at this point, i've read master of djinn, and all its prequel short stories and novellas so i was delighted to experience his familiar lush writing that paints an even more lush world. the more i read his works, the more i'm appalled by clark’s prose's vivid quality. as such, the dead cat tail assassins had me dazed. reading this was like — forgive my poor metaphors — watching watercolors paint an artwork, one brush stroke at a time. i could sense the port of tal abisi, the shimmer, sky's initial tower, all so viscerally. it's the type of prose that can't help but read so smooth and fluid yet has you compelled to pause and savor its beauty, word per word.

the premise is hilariously fun: a zombie assassin contracted to kill someone. except that someone is herself from the past. why? because some old powerful guy's seeking vengeance on her for killing his child-murderer son who was supposed to grant him immortality. it was weird. but so fun. the dialogue contains great banter with just enough back and forth, and with a satisfying amount of times it had me chuckling.

clark's latest novella is animated not only with his lush writing, picturesque world-building, and hilarious dialogue, but especially through his distinctive characters. eveen and sky are some of the strongest (and i don't mean this in a captain marvel kind of way) female protagonists. fennis is too precious. i mean, c'mon, a bad ass zombie, a baby-faced man, a sassy time refugee, an eccentric scientist, a power-hungry politician, a delinquent sorcery nerd, and one (or two?) jamaican-sounding fiery goddesses all in one story? sounds like a recipe for a good, chaotic time.

my only critique is that a great deal of the story was packed into mere 200+ pages. it almost felt like a number of the events and plot points that transpired wouldn’t have felt rushed if the story had more air to breathe, more space to live in (especially that one chapter where three new characters were randomly introduced, two of which killed in the same chapter). i have to caveat though that this isn't a major fault; i simply believe that eveen's adventures would be appreciated and relished much more in a longer format.

throughout the entire book, my brain could not stop wondering (in the most fun way possible), "how is this happening?", and that pretty much synthesizes my reading experience. tldr: ridiculously, magical fun.

some miscellaneous thoughts:

- asheel the maniac hunter, you will always be legendary

- that ending will absolutely leave some people dissatisfied but i ate it all up (cmon, sassy heavily-accented goddess doppelgangers?)

- “yuh acolyte hav ah dutty mout. but shi talk truut—sistah.” needs to be tattooed on my forehead