Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn by Danielle Ackley-McPhail and Day Al-Mohamed, a good engaging read that brings the classics forward into Steampunk.

I was completely enthralled in this tale. It is a retelling of Ali Baba and the 40 theives. It's Aladdin meets steampunk meets Pinocchio. Baba Ali, the main character in this story, has a knack for mechanical things. That is all he wants to do, just learn this trade with his teacher, Babbage. But he is pulled into this other world when a giant mechanical bird shows up at the window of Babbage's workshop. After that this story is high speed. Action packed, with bad guys and good guys and some that are somewhere in the middle. I found myself wondering who to trust, looking suspiciously at some of the characters. There was such a wide variety of characters. Some I did feel like slapping, others I wanted to reach out and hug.
There was action, intrigue, mystery, and even a bit of romance. I loved the descriptions and the customs and richness of the whole story. I would definitely suggest you read it if you are a fan of fables and steampunk. This takes you from England to Wadi Al-Nejd where Ali is from. I loved that some of the characters sprinkled throughout are real historical figures. That added weight to this fanciful tale.

A very enjoyable, charmingly-written retelling of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, but in a steampunk universe with airships, clockwork falcons, and magic. The novel reads like a legend or a fairy tale, with characters that engage and a storyline that compels the reader to keep turning the page. Highly recommended for fans of literary fantasy and steampunk.

I have to be honest and say this is written rather poorly, to the point where it detracts from the story altogether. I was willing to give it a shot but it just didn't work out. Too bad.

A steampunk version of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. The authors have taken some trouble to incorporate key features of the original (like the thieves hiding in the oil jars), but give them twists which feel organic to the setup.

Features a curmudgeonly Charles Babbage in a mentor role, and I thought that worked well. The main character, Ali, is sent to England to be Babbage's apprentice because of his talent as a tinkerer. Then he has to return to his home to deal with family stuff, and both his envious, devious, covetous brother and the sinister leader of the thieves want things from him that he doesn't know he has, and an adventurous time is had by all.

I remember Ali Baba as being a bit of a schemer and a trickster, albeit very much guided and directed by the jinni, and this Ali is not. He's a pious, good-hearted man who really just wants a quiet life making clever devices, but can't stand by and see injustice perpetrated. I liked that, despite the fact that he's generally a good person who makes right choices, the chief of the thieves almost bests him by playing on a character weakness: his pride in his tinkering.

There's a thread of romance that, for me, seemed a little under-developed, but given the setup it couldn't exactly have a slow build or many of the usual steps of a romance.

The characters have at least a little depth to them; the brother's wife, in particular, is abused wife AND schemer AND competent businesswoman, not just one of the three. The leader of the thieves is a bit inclined to execute his men for failure, presumably to encourage the others, but he's a suitably dastardly (if somewhat over-the-top) villain for the purposes of the plot, and the brother is an adequate minor antagonist.

The steampunk devices are fun and imaginative, if implausible, which is all you can really ask for.

The usual steampunk curse of incorrect vocabulary usage is, happily, not as prevalent as usual, perhaps because the narrative voice is quite simple; but in the pre-release version I read from Netgalley, the commas and other punctuation marks are a huge mess that will take a lot of work to sort out (and they may not get it).

Overall, an entertaining retelling of a classic story that respects the original but takes it to some new and interesting places.

Thank you to, eSpec Books and Netgalley, for an e-copy of this book, giving me the opportunity to read it.

A retelling of Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves, paired with steampunk fantasy. It's an interesting premise and I really enjoyed the setting of this book. Everything is described in a rich manner, giving details to the steampunk world. Mixing a classic tale with steampunk and magic is something I find very creative. It's the first time I read something in the steampunk genre and I find myself curious to read more about it.

Although I really enjoyed the setting and idea, it felt slow to read through. The first half of the book revolves around Ali being chased and attacked. It felt repetitive and I feel like half of those scenes could have been removed and later replaced with more tales of the magic system being presented.

The variety of POVs is very nice. The writing is very descriptive, yet poetic, with inner dialogues like: "For a very long time, Ali knew nothing but his own heartache". Ali's character was the one that gripped me the most and I felt hungry for more of his POV, rather than jumping to another (sometimes quickly). I keep wondering how I would have experienced this book if it was solely written from Ali's perspective. I suspect it would offer more room to mystery and eerie atmosphere, as it would offer a "go on an adventure, purely with this character alone".

To summarize: Ali and Morgiana's relationship remained flat (althoug Morgiana's character showed much promise as well) and I felt hungry for more elaboration on the magic system in contrast to mechanics. I think there was room for more depth if the first half of the book had gotten less attacks on Ali. I also found myself regularly going out of focus because the short paragraph style.