The City of Brass

meh

tws: [to come]

never in my life have i enjoyed a love triangle like this

also the politics were extremely complex but worked my brain and i loved it. this book is heavy with the mythology and history and i loved it!!!

So much to say about this outstanding debut novel! First I'd like to address the issues around the author, then I'll delve into the book itself. (It's fantastic, though!)

So the book has been touted as an “own voices” novel, seemingly much to the author's chagrin. She is Muslim, but she's a white convert (Chakraborty is her married name). She has striven to correct the misconception about her ethnicity when she finds it, tweeting about it and talking about it in interviews. (This interview is a good example.) Because the book is pure fantasy, in a fantasy realm after the first few chapters, I'm not too worried about it not actually being written by a middle-eastern author. She does note in the interview I linked that she's not qualified to write some stories because of her ethnicity, and I appreciate that recognition of privilege. As far as I can tell, (as a white person myself) she did justice to the bits of mythology that she included. (Given the reception by people who were so excited about it being an Own Voices book, I think I'm probably right.) Her twitter (@SChakrabs) is FULL of links to minority authors and retweets about their books. I am very impressed by the level of her advocacy for minority authors.

So that aside, I LOVED THIS BOOK. I almost always enjoy fantasy inspired by non-western mythology: Children of Blood and Bone was fantastic, and though Forest of a Thousand Lanterns had a western fairytale at its heart, being reimagined through an Asian lense was really neat to read. The Bear and The Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower were Russian inspired, as were The Crown's Game/The Crown's Fate. I really do try to pick up non-western inspired fantasy when I can. City of Brass scratched that itch perfectly.

City of Brass opens in Cairo, where our heroine, Nahri, is a con-woman with small healing magics. When a ritual goes awry, she's thrust into the world of the djinn. It's when Nahri and her accidental bodyguard, Dara, arrive at the Djinns' city of Daevabad that the story really gets started.

I'm still a little confused about the difference between djinn and Daeva; Daeva seem to be one of the tribes but also the name for the entire race, and some of them get offended at being called djinn but some of them don't? I'm not really sure about that distinction. There is a clear line between djinn and Ifrit, though - Ifrit are immensely powerful, immortal beings who refused to subject themselves to punishment many centuries ago. I'm not sure I actually see a downside to being Ifrit, other than the djinn all think they're evil. The Ifrit, however, are out to get Nahri, and Dara's not having any of THAT.

I love Dara - he's a fascinating character, with a violent, mysterious backstory. I'm very eager to read more about him and figure out exactly what's up with his background. Nahri is also awesome - a little arrogant, but by the end of the book she's starting to learn she might need help from those around her. Unfortunately, also by the end of the book she doesn't know who to trust. The naive djinn prince, Ali, is the third main character of the book, and while I can see him having an interesting story, his personality is still a little flat. Hopefully the second book will see advancement in all three of these characters' personalities.

And I can't WAIT for the second book! City of Brass didn't exactly end on a cliffhanger, but it did leave many questions unanswered and our main characters' fates uncertain. Unfortunately, I can't find any information on the sequel, just that it's being edited. No release date or title yet.

Read this book. It's fantastic.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

WTF, an entire year before the next book?! AHH!

Talk about a cliffhanger.

I've been meaning to read this book for a while since the cover is so beautiful. It's nice that this book and its sequel both fit PopSugar prompts this year, so I can read them back to back! I haven't been doing that the last couple of years because I've been focusing more on the challenges than finishing series. My goal next year is to use as many books from the fewest series/by the fewest authors in as many prompts as I can.

I went into this book with no expectations, which hasn't happened lately. I'm glad that I listened to this book because there's no way I could have pronounced all of the Egyptian/Middle Eastern names/terms (without feeling guilty and a little offensive). This book is definitely one of the slower books I've read this year, while still having a captivating story.

I wasn't surprised by the twist in the epilogue, but maybe that's just because I read too many of these books

The only thing going for this novel is the nice cover. That's it. You get the beginnings of “just okay” world building which quickly become something like ‘baby's first historical fantasy' level of cringe, characters who are not well-fleshed out and are just plain boring, and a plot that limped along ... ugh. So disappointing and frustrating.

I agree with lots of others who mentioned that this is YA fantasy masquerading as adult fantasy. All the angst, eye-rolling cringe, and even the love triangle is all there. I love me some YA but don't freaking mislead!!

I really enjoyed City of Brass and the rich and detailed world that Chakraborty creates. The characters and plot were great. I will definitely read the next book in the series. However, the book was not paced very well, especially in the first half where there was too much convenient info-dumping. I hope that the next book keeps up with the fast-paced story in the second half of this book.

Damn this book was awesome. Not only was it physically gorgeous (cover art swoon) but it was such a rich and original story. It was really unlike any other fantasy book I've ever read, and I loved how the stories of the characters wove together to create a truly intricate and captivating tale. Can't wait for the next book.

This was my first read of 2022. And I am so happy I pick up a this book when I did. I do wish I had the book and not the audio because I was going confused with the names. But when I got the names right. I was so into the book. First Dara for my was a love hate. I loved him sometimes and I hated him the other times. Nahri had so much hard stuff happened to her. But she kept on pushing for herself. And I love that. She didn't put her love for someone put her down. She kept on going with the love or not. She was doing everything she did for herself. (If you want something right, you have to do yourself). Ali at first was okay but then I saw him get to be better. Yes I thought some times he was like a small boy. But he loves his family. But at the end it made me cry so much.

This book was going to be a 4.5 star but the very end got me to give it a 5 star.

That was much more complex than your general YA book. I approve.

Kingdom of Brass is a book I've heard only good things about this year and I've really enjoyed books based in the more Arabian style settings since I was young. There is something really exotic and magical about the Egyptian feel and desert sands that make you feel you are truly escaping to a mystical land and City of Brass brings all of these elements together to give us a book filled with magic, folk tales, tribal histories and politics.

It took me ages to read City of Brass but this was absolutely not a reflection on the book, I had to put it down for a while in order to read some short loan new release books that had arrived at my local library but even taking a few weeks break I was still able to pick right back up about 30% of the way through and immerse myself back in the beautiful writing of S. A. Chakraborty because the story is utterly engaging and full of so many different threads.

Starting out in Cairo we follow Nahri, a thief and con artist who is trying to survive on her wits and a gift of healing. Unintentionally she summons a Djinn called Dara who arrives to save her from the magical Ifrit who magically appear and try to kill her. Before she knows it she is off on a flying carpet with the strangely attractive and mysterious Dara who tells her to escape the Ifrit she must go with him He tells her she is part of the Daeva tribe known as the Nahid tribe who used to rule over the Daeva people in the city of Daevebad, her people are now extinct having been hunted to extinction by the current ruling family and that he plans to take her there so she can give hope to her people and hopefully lay claim to her home.

Running alongside Nahri's story we have that of Prince Alizyad, the second son of the current King of Daevabad. He is struggling with the inequalities he sees around him and how the pureblooded Daeva people treat those of mixed blood, known as the Shafit. The Shafit are treated as second class citizens and have children stolen from the or women sold into prostitution. He is determined to try and help change things in his homeland but to do so he must go against the laws of his father and betray his family.

This story is one rich with political intrigue. There are lots of times when we are treated to information about the origins of our current political state in Daevabad, the wars that were fought that brought an end to the rule of the Nahid family and how the Shafit people have come to exist and how our current King has begun with good intentions to help them but now is reneging on those promises. I found this made it a really immersive book, I loved building this exotic and complex world in my mind and liked having the detail about how we got to where we are. It built slowly and even at the end of City of Brass there are still unanswered questions about aspects of the past we know we need to uncover that this gives us a real hunger for book 2, Kingdom of Copper which is due for release in 2019. I did get a little confused at points with Daeva v's Djinn and some of the different tribal alliances but I'd keep reading a little more and most times things would iron themselves out.

This was also a book where we have wonderful alliances forming and reforming throughout. We begin with Nahri's blossoming friendship with Dara and then as the book progresses we watch as she meets Prince Ali and gets to spend time with him and learn more about Daevebad and his family, despite knowing that his family overthrew her own Nahid tribe years before. There is lots going on and we have a really good triangle between these 3 and I loved both Dara and Ali and couldn't decide which one I wanted to cheer for as both gave a different perspective to the world in which Nahri finds herself and with this book you are never quite sure of the evil lurking from the past which is greater.

An amazing ending with this book, there's so much for us to explore when we get Kingdom of Copper next year. We get a cliffhanger ending with real mystery as to who a particular character might be and whether Nahri might actually be the last surviving member of her family. I am really excited to get the second installment in this series.

Absolutely deserving of a 5 out of 5 stars from me and definitely a contender for one of my best books of 2018.

Rapaiz... que livrão.

4.5

Terminei o livro. Em choque. No mais puro dos choques.

O final me deixou absurdamente ansiosa (o que não fez bem para minha crônica ansiedade e levou a diminuir meia estrela). Essa ansiedade é “entendível” - ao menos explicável. Em nenhum momento o governo al Qahtani se mostrou confiável ou justo em seu discurso ou na forma que chegaram ao poder, tirando os Daevas de seu lugar. Pode ter sido o talento da escritora me dobrando, mas acreditei em cada palavra do Dara e julgo que ele tinha a razão. E, justo por ver essas discrepâncias e injustiças políticas tão óbvias, me irritava com a implicância infinita (e baseada no passado) entre Ali e Dara, quando, de forma crua, porém através de meios diferentes, eles lutam pela mesma causa.
Nunca torci tanto por uma friend zone como Nahri e Ali. Se surgir um amor disso eu ficaria bem aborrecida, mesmo com Dara se comportando como boy lixo no final do livro.

São quase 600 páginas, muito bem escritas, com um plot bem delineado, personagens riquíssimas, e um universo inigualável. É tão bem estruturado que a passagem de tempo e da vivência das personagens é algo sensível de ser sentido na escrita - do Cairo à Daevabad, e da mudança no tom da história, de uma quest, com aquela coisa do herói que chega repentinamente, tem um tutor e salva o dia, para o intrincado das vidas, das relações desenvolvidas , e da profundidade real do buraco que o castelo e esse novo capítulo da historia pós guerra foi construído em cima.
Havia muito tempo que não lia uma fantasia tão rica. Com política que não se tornou doloroso de se ler.
Obs: aquela que está julgando mentalmente o wrap-up pessoal dos último anos (só romance de época batendo na minha cara).
E, comentando sobre romance, senti uma pequena carência de um desenvolvimento mais efetivo deste. Julgaria que é o ponto baixo do livro. demorou a beça para esses dois se pegarem. Sendo a conexão de Dara e Nahri evidente, e Dara o Daeva mais absurdamente moreno, bonito e sensual de olhos verdes que caminha por centenas de anos na terra, muita coisa poderia ter sido melhor elaborada. Imaginem esse romance na mão de Collen Houck. Estaríamos subindo na parede, como era com Ren. (Cito Houck porque não há cenas hot com força nos livros dela).

Como uma das reviews apontou: eu não sei como eles vão sair dessa.

E que final.
QUE FINAL. (!!!)Não apenas a ameaça do rei à Nahri, a conversa entre Kaveh e Nisreen, e a indicação de que Jamishd pode ser um Narid também (não só ele como uma galera, que está sendo controlada por um stamp na pele); mas antes disso, com Ali saindo bem do apavorante do rio, quando vendeu sua alma aos marid. Essa cena faz o sangue dar uma corrida ao contrário.

Sinto que ficarei com essa história por um longo tempo na cabeça.
Fiz vários comentários sem fundamento ao longo da leitura pois ainda não tenho os culhões de escrever na página. É pedir muito que siga no mesmo padrão de muito bom?

3.75-4 stars .

fantasy, adventure, political intrigue, dark secrets, and lots of fun! Can't wait for the second book!

4.25 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Nahri is a supernaturally good healer. She uses this gift to further her aims as a con woman, not realizing that her skills are the result of a unique hereditary magic. When she accidentally summons an ill-tempered djinn warrior to her aid, she's swept into an unknown mystical world where her mere presence creates ramifications that are thousands of years in the making.

There is a general charm and pace to S.A. Chakraborty's writing that made for a delightful reading experience with the feel of a summer blockbuster popcorn movie. This densely packed world is filled with myriad characters, races, rivalries, and complicated histories. As such, the expansive vocabulary and terminology was sometimes difficult to parse, but I was so sucked into the culture and the feel of the world that it did not matter.

The City of Brass is an excellent debut novel that seamlessly blends together rich cultural worldbuilding, solid action, complex politics, and a set of nuanced characters. Each character is holding onto secrets that unfurl as the book goes on. With each subsequent reveal, more questions emerge as the stakes rise, and this dynamic leaves me excited for future installments in the series.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

Hits all the beats I expect in YA: young person of unknown (to them) origins destined for Something related to those origins; person from that Something life comes along to enlighten young person; together they team up and Things Happen But Not The Way They Thought They Would; totes romance.

Plus you know I love religion in my genre fic.

A very well written book that I struggled to put down.

I have seen positive reviews and mentions of this book for a long time, but I have to say the blurb just didn't grab my attention. It was one of those books that I felt that I really should get around to...sometime.

This year it looked like it was going to be chosen as the monthly read for a bookclub I follow, so I decided I should finally get around to getting a copy. I started to read a few pages and found that the writing just flowed. The setting was complex and somewhat confusing, yet was written in such a way that it intrigued and (to me) never frustrated. I felt swept along and soon discovered that the writing improved from it's initial “good” to “maestro” level. The main characters were likable, relatable and interesting and the plot...Oh boy.

At the start I wanted to know what on Earth (and it is a version of our Napoleonic Earth) was going on, as did our poor main character, so I kept reading, but soon layer after layer of mystery and tantalising clues are skillfully added until suddenly the whole thing goes from a tense mystery to an epic fantasy style explosion of edge of the seat action climax.

I was so wrapped up in the story that I actually scared the person next to me with an involuntary Luke Skywalker-style cry of “Noooooooo!” at one dramatic moment.

This was a great book and I am really looking forward to reading the sequel.

I'd been itching for some political fantasy, and this certainly fit the bill. If you're looking for a solid court intrigue story where everyone is in the morally questionable category, this is a great one. At times, the romantic elements felt a little stilted to me, but the overall story and exploration of Djinn mythology makes up for that. The ending definitely is set up for the sequels though, so don't read this if you just want a stand alone.

I'm sure someone will enjoy this sub-genre and give a better assessment of what to expect than I can. This is not a topic I seek out for myself.

For the first 75% or so of this book, I thought it was a fairly standard “first book in a YA trilogy” novel. You have the young heroine who is more powerful than she believes herself to be, the brooding love interest with the mysterious past, the oppressive society that mistreats people similar to the heroine. The supernatural elements, and the society of daevas/djinn, were fairly unique and definitely interesting, but by themselves they didn't feel like enough to carry the story. It felt not bad, just fairly uneventful. Then, at around that 75% mark, the book takes a sharp right turn away from your expectations and it makes it so much stronger. You realize that Chakraborty has done a great job of leading the reader in a certain direction, while also setting up the surprise twist so that it still feels earned. It will be interesting to see where she goes next with this story.

World building was pretty good but every character besides Ali could use some work. A plus is that it didn't feel like it was trying to stereotype middle eastern culture.

Mad respect for the focus on language and names.

Awesome world building, but the story is slow and unsatisfying.

The beginning of this was slow and it took me awhile to care about both POVs. I almost gave up a couple times, but I really enjoyed Amina Al-Sirafi, so I kept going. I am so glad I did! By the middle, I was interested. By the end, I was enthralled! This is one of my new favorite authors.

3.5 starsThis book reminded me so much of [b:The Thief 448873 The Thief (The Queen's Thief, #1) Megan Whalen Turner https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1427740839l/448873.SY75.jpg 1069505] by Megan Whalen Turner. It seemed a simple setup for what had the potential to be a wonderful world filled with political intrigue. However, I had doubts that any of the sequels could be as good as the [b:The Queen of Attolia 40158 The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2) Megan Whalen Turner https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1293505506l/40158.SX50.jpg 1124161].

first read (2020): add this to the list of my favorite books of ALL TIME!!!! wow, i had so much fun reading this. i got sucked in every time i picked it up, and never got bored. i love love LOVE desert fantasy so i knew i was going to love this but it somehow exceeded my expectations

second read (2021): this book was just as good as i remembered it being. i love this book and these characters with my entire heart and i'm so happy i'm able to reread it and discuss it with my wonderful friends

third read (2023): reread this book with my partner and i LOVE this book so much. this reread kept this in my top 5 favorite books of all time