A really beautiful and gory story that does justice to the traditions of storytelling of the region it derives its roots from. Reminiscent of the Arabian Nights atmosphere, but with a darker, bloodier, and brooding character that just adds to the overall beauty, weird as it may sound. At the center of the story and weaved throughout it are also modern-day's values of empowerment for minorities and women. There's really nothing I didn't love about this story and would love to read more from its a...

A storyteller of wonders My compliments to the author in his own words - "Tomorrow we will sit at a flat table and talk about stories. Injustice, corruption, and the making of fiction, but what of wonder? What of ancient, overlooked, tongueless pockets of the world? Miracles wrought in the mundane never told, because the tellers aren’t around anymore."Usman Malik, may your tribe increase! This book was a wonderful escape from reality. I look forward to reading more from your pen.

4.5/5

More? Please? Prety please??????

Actual rate: 2.75 starsI usually love Tor.com short stories because they can narrate meaningful stories through imaginary and poetical prose.Sadly, I guess this story didn't work for me. It was just too much: too much long, too many plotlines going on, and especially too many scenes for said plotlines and too many metaphors that weren't solidly grounded to the stories. It ended up being mostly cryptic for me to understand. But I understand it may be just a personal opinion, so I think lot of oth...

"Now you know a story once unleashed grows its own tail."Stories within stories, within stories, within ... so many layers here, so much to unpack. It can take a bit of effort to keep one's bearings, but it's well worth the ride. This has the feel of a rich, fantastical fable taken from the One Thousand and One Nights, filled with mystery, magical wonders and some darkness as well.

What a wonderful Hikayat! Hatim is in Lahore after a long time with his American Friends and they are approached by a stranger in a chai-khana which literally means a Tea house but can also mean a cafe/restaurant. The stranger, Baba Kahani starts to tell a story then a story within a story, another story within a story and so on. Slowly we learn that all the stories are somehow interconnected. It was a pretty long read for a short story but captivating nonetheless.4 stars

You can find this on the Tor website. It does the story-within-a-story thing so well, and I really loved the different layers happening at once, how you dip into stories and out of them again (I need to read more fiction like this because it's such a good trope). I also loved how Malik keeps the rhythm of it going, if that makes sense - you can hear how it's meant to be spoken aloud, and it was great of the storyteller Baba Kahani to speak directly to the listeners of the story and to us.Also, s...

An interesting story within a story within a story that starts with a storyteller sitting down among a group of people who are in Pakistan for a Comic Con. In each story, a character meets another character who starts another story. It is only by the fourth story to be told that all the characters in the previous story are tied together and their individual tales are revealed to be part of one grand tale about marital abuse, jealousy and magic that not only entrances the people in the story, but...

An interesting series of stories, stacked like Russian nesting dolls, that combine to tell the over-arching story. The prose was evocative without being too purple for my tastes, while the story kept me intrigued with a satisfying resolution and reveal at the end.

Really enjoyed how this unfolded in layers, almost too much to follow, but then it reels itself back in and wraps the story up nicely. Fits a lot into a small package.

Been so long since my last nested story :) A bit confusing at time but I liked the ending, so meta. A story once unleashed grows its own tail after all.

brought me right back to reading arabian nights!! didn't know i needed a story about maaruf the cobbler's wife but i am so glad i have it . perfect

Well, this story certainly grew its own tale! Usman T. Malik is quickly becoming my new favorite author. "City of Red Midnight: A Hikayat" is a story-within-a-story-within-a-story, all interconnected and woven together as it reaches its dark and gory ending. I learned that hikayat is Arabic for stories, ones of Malaysian origin that tell the adventures of heroes. I loved this.

It happened thus, my dear sirs and madams, that there came a time when from Lahore to Lucknow the families of idolaters and iconoclasts alike were gripped by a gruesome sickness.Their womenfolk began to turn.this one’s a longboy, as far as the free tor shorts go, so if you are a person reading these each week in the wee hours before you have to head out into the ‘ronaverse for work, be prepared. i didn’t know what a hikayat was before i read this, so—while i can’t speak to how well this conforms...

“I am the Queen of Red Midnight,” says she, “and I pound at the rotten core of the world.”Well then. I’ve been saying for years that Usman Tanveer Malik’s stories make no sense. I said it back when I read Vaporization Enthalpy, my first encounter with Malik’s works, and also when I read The Pauper Prince, both wonderful tales and yet also wonderfully bizarre. But it seems time and age have managed to wrangle some sense into his writings, because in Red Midnight Malik’s abilities to deliver on th...

Well that was a wtf. The nesting thing is well done, and the deeper parts, which is to say the second half of this longish story is good. The first half though... ??? That's the sort of thing I read and expect to go find the author being torn six new assholes in the reviews, but in this case... crickets. idk.I've been wanting to see an actual novel from Malik since I read The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn, but it seems he is not prolific and a handful of shorter stuff is still all that's...

Esta es una pequeña lectura que te puede durar menos de una hora si consigues entrar de lleno en la historia porque, puede tener pocas páginas, pero tiene bastante complejidad. La trama es como el libro de las Mil Maravillas, donde una persona lee una historia, lo que sería una historia dentro de la historia. O como las muñecas rusas que se esconde una dentro de otra. La historia que unifica todo es la de un grupo de personas que están comiendo y bebiendo tranquilamente en un bar, antes de que e...

This wonderful tale within a tale within a tale, recently featured and available to read on the Tor Books website, captured my imagination immediately. Reminiscent of a story from the Arabian Nights, and other Middle Eastern legends (with a modern twist), I was so captivated by the beginning that I went and bought it for my Kindle so I could curl up in bed with it.

An excellent and very unusual story.