I'd heard good things about this story before reading it, and it lived up to all of them. Our narrator grew up hearing stories from his grandfather about the dethroned Mughal princess he knew, living in poverty, running a tea shop in Pakistan which has protected by a jinn. Those tales didn't seem significant to him until his grandfather dies, and he goes back to Florida for the funeral, from his job as a professor in the Northeast. Among his grandfather's effects he finds a journal which will le [...]

Final review, first posted at FantasyLiterature:This nominee for the 2015 Nebula award begins as a Pakistani folk tale type of fantasy. The narrator is a young boy (later young man) born in the U.S. who is entranced by his immigrant grandfather’s tales of a destitute Pakistani princess who befriended the grandfather when he was young. The princess’ small tea stall outside the walled city of Lahore is looked over (in more ways than one) by a jinn who lives in a nearby eucalyptus tree. When th [...]

"All good stories leave questions."This was an enchanting and lyrical tale revovling around a grandson and his granfather. I really liked the weaving together of mythology and folklore.

A richly developed, complex story about science, mythology, memory, history, culture, and family. I'm not sure I understood everything, but it was beautiful.

Rating: 4.5* of five, rounded upRobert Burns said it best when he wrote "To a Louse,On Seeing one on a Lady's Bonnet in Church": O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie usTo see oursels as others see us!It wad frae monie a blunder free us An’ foolish notion:What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us, And ev’n Devotion!Sal(man) is a young academic trying to make his way in the vicious world of Boston academia. (The smaller the stakes, the nastier the battle.) His Pakistani immigrant parents liv [...]

Beautifully written story of a grandfather and his grandson and the stories and myths, and secrets, binding them together. (The grandson's girlfriend gets to be the thankless, sensible one who reminds the main character of his responsibilities when the main character decides to solve the mystery of his grandfather's life.)

As I was already reading The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories, I remembered also having this related short story in my to-read list. It really fits the above mentioned anthology about jinns and I would rate it 3.5/5★, rounded up to 4 here because of the star limitations."You can’t stare into the heart of the Unseen and not have it stare back at you."Likes: the writing, the cultural references, the mystycism, the historical componentDislikes: although I liked the Islamic references, th [...]

"a work of speculative fiction that explores Indian subcontinental folklore and Islamic metaphysics"This short story was nominated for a Nebula award and won the 2016 British Fantasy Award for Best Novella. And rightly so. Beautifully written, very poetic and dreamlike. Old east meets new west in a story that could have come out of 1001 Arabic nights. Or maybe not, the settings in Pakistan feel too real. Fascinating take on Jinns, memories, consciousness and relationships.Available here:tor/20 [...]

This is a short story which I decided to read on a whim. I heard about this from Rachel's channel when she mentioned some of the short fiction works she'd recently read and enjoyed, and this one piqued my interest enough to get me to go and read it. It's the story of a young boy growing up and listening to his grandfather's stories about a princess he claims to have known. The story seems like it has grains of truth to it, but the boy isn't sure if he's just fantasising or if he's really hearing [...]

I sat down to read this mythically-threaded and wonderfully-written story of a timeless connection between a grandfather and his grandson. I was actually resentful when I had to get up to use the facilities and get a cold drink of water. All I wanted to do was to re-immerse myself back into such an intriguing story with the colorful, swirling images that formed in my brain from the deliciously descriptive words. It is a tale of East meets West then back again. It is timeless because it is the fu [...]

This review can also be found in my blog: wp/p7a9pe-gCDespite being only 32 pages long, The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn manages to enchant with a touching tale of a grandfather and grandson who grow closer together through the power of storytelling and fantastical family secrets.The story follows a young Pakistani professor, Salman, who as a boy was fascinated by the tales his grandfather (affectionately called Gramps) told him during his childhood. In particular, the story of a pauper [...]

Copied from my Blog.First thing I feared was a retake of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper transferred Malik's typical Pakistan setting. Boy, was I relieved that it took a completely different route: It is a complete action-free metaphysical discussion of prescience, immortality, history and mythology, truth and lies, family relationships between grandfather and grandson, two love stories, and between East and West with special considerations of Islamic theology. Now, if you think of Jinns [...]

Outstanding novella. So beautiful, a little heartbreaking, and a wonderful tale of family and discovery.

I read this utterly enchanting novella in one sitting. A Pakistani-American man named Salman becomes enthralled by the tales his grandfather tells of the pauper princess and the eucalyptus jinn and seeks to uncover the mysteries, the reality behind the fantasy, the mysteries behind reality. There's so much at play here: the nature of jinn, interacting with one's own family history in an attempt to understand oneself, the generational culture clash, how one relates to one's culture as the child o [...]

A superb allegory about the rift between generations, about cultural inheritance and blood relations, about life and death, beliefs and faith, masterfully weaved from Islamic mythology and Quran words. Also superb writing, with vivid colours, descriptions and a bit (more) of magic. It totally melted my heart; maybe because I love One Thousand and One Nights from childhood and it has a bit of that flavor long gone :)It can be read on tor: tor/2015/04/22/the-pau

I think the best advice one can give to someone thinking about reading an Usman T. Malik story is a warning to be prepared for the crazy. Because just like his previous short story, this one made no sense.To be fair, I did fairly enjoy his last story, even though it had passed right over my head. The writing, the characterization, the careful balancing of multiple genres, it was all very well done in The Vaporization Enthalpy of a peculiar Pakistani Family. In this case though, it doesn’t real [...]

A grandfather tells his grandson a story, about a princess who guarded a tree that held a jinn, and how the princess bequeathed the tree's secret to the grandfather. Decades later, when the grandson is now an adult, the grandfather dies leaving him his journals. The grandson becomes obsessed with knowing the truth, and travels to Lahore to trace his grandfather's legacy, and the secret he kept.A lovely novella overall. I was annoyed by how the women were treated--their main purpose in the narrat [...]

Great novella. Great voice. Great atmosphere. Really enjoyed it, albeit a tad predictable.

2.5 starsNovella nominada al nebula 2015. Puede leerse aquiLa relación de un niño paquistani con su abuelo, una anécdota de su pasado transformado en un cuento de una princesa que vende té bajo alero de un eucalipto, inserto en un ambiente de transplantados humildes en el llamado pais de las oportunidades, años más tarde termina convirtiéndose en un relato de busqueda de raices , y la fantasia termina entremezclándose con la realidad en una forma dificil de seguir para los lectores. Un m [...]

There are novellas that are complete little worlds. And then there's this one, dazzlingly complex and leaving me hoping it was a novel, because it's not enough.

Pročitao sam je u antologiji ali zavređuje poseban unos.

actual rating 4.5

i liked it, it straddled the line between fantasy and sci-fi in an interesting way. also, i'm always here for fantasy whose theological underpinnings don't default to Christianity4 stars

Would you like to visit Old Pakistan, learn about the mythic evolution of an unseen species or simply enjoy a good ol' folktale? The British Fantasy Society recently awarded this story the best novella of 2016, and I'm so happy they did, because if they hadn't, I wouldn't have known of its existence!This started off almost like a memoir. I felt like I was reading about the author's life, as he wrote in first person and described the events in his life in a very compelling manner. As someone who [...]

Usman Malik's fantasy novella, The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn, is a wondrous and lyrical tale about finding the balance between history and myth, past and present, the world of scholarship and science and that of artistry and spirit. It is about discovering and owning one's heritage, about family and mystery and memory.The protagonist is Salman Ali Zaidi, a Pakistani-American university lecturer, " the archetypal fucking immigrant in the land of opportunities" who has distanced himsel [...]

A very good novella about a man named Salman entranced with a story his grandfather once told him about growing up next door to a princess from a deposed Pakistani dynasty, and the jinn that was bound to protect her. As an adult, Salman comes to believe the wild tale to be true and sets off to his grandfather's ancestral home to investigate.An interesting mix of myth and science and a well told tale of exploring one's personal history. This could have been a five star review, but for the thankle [...]

Very good. The mystery if magic exists in the real world, will one person use, keep or destroy its power? That is always intriguing.Sometimes it was slow on the most mundane aspects, but I guess that's expected when presenting daily life aspects or a normal life. I was giving this a 3* until the 70% or 80% when the fantastical elements finally left the background and came forward.And this has almost 60 pages, not the 32 is displayingRead this from The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy N [...]

This novella was a joy to read. It delves into matters of family love, generational clashes, stories, heritage, and the very nature of Jinn. That's a lot of goodness packed into a tale! Salman is a wonderful protagonist, but I loved his Gramps--a man with more to his Pakistani past than anyone would ever believe.

The Pauper Prince is a truly enchanting novel. It's free on Tor, so you have no excuse not to read it. tor/2015/04/22/the-pau

Brilliant atmospheric story!