"Step into The City of Brass, the spellbinding debut from S. A. Chakraborty--an imaginative alchemy of The Golem and the Jinni, The Grace of Kings, and Uprooted, in which the future of a magical Middle Eastern kingdom rests in the hands of a clever and defiant young con artist with miraculous healing gifts. Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, she's a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by--palm readings, zars, healings--are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles and a reliable way to survive. But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she's forced to question all she believes. For the warrior tells her an extraordinary …
"Step into The City of Brass, the spellbinding debut from S. A. Chakraborty--an imaginative alchemy of The Golem and the Jinni, The Grace of Kings, and Uprooted, in which the future of a magical Middle Eastern kingdom rests in the hands of a clever and defiant young con artist with miraculous healing gifts. Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, she's a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by--palm readings, zars, healings--are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles and a reliable way to survive. But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she's forced to question all she believes. For the warrior tells her an extraordinary tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling birds of prey are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass--a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound. In Daevabad, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. A young prince dreams of rebellion. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences. After all, there is a reason they say to be careful what you wish for"--
"A brilliantly imagined historical fantasy in which a young con artist in eighteenth century Cairo discovers she's the last descendant of a powerful family of djinn healers. With the help of an outcast immortal warrior and a rebellious prince, she must claim her magical birthright in order to prevent a war that threatens to destroy the entire djinn kingdom. Perfect for fans of The Grace of Kings, The Golem and the Jinni, and The Queen of the Tearling"--
Although the premise is fascinating, the narrative gets bogged down in a rather arbitrary (and massively age-gapped) romance, as well as some extremely inconsistent characterization for the protagonist. One minute, she's a bold and daring street hustler, the next she's suddenly gullible and helpless, and the next she is inexplicably head-over-heals for a man she hardly knows.
I had really high hopes for this book, but was ultimately pretty disappointed. It feels like there is a really good book in here, but a few darlings needed to be killed (like that romance), and the characterizations needed to be cleaned up.
That said, the world building is pretty interesting, and it kept me reading to the end.
Although the premise is fascinating, the narrative gets bogged down in a rather arbitrary (and massively age-gapped) romance, as well as some extremely inconsistent characterization for the protagonist. One minute, she's a bold and daring street hustler, the next she's suddenly gullible and helpless, and the next she is inexplicably head-over-heals for a man she hardly knows.
I had really high hopes for this book, but was ultimately pretty disappointed. It feels like there is a really good book in here, but a few darlings needed to be killed (like that romance), and the characterizations needed to be cleaned up.
That said, the world building is pretty interesting, and it kept me reading to the end.
ich mag die welt und die magischen wesen. besonders gut finde ich, wie dargestellt wird dass alle meinen das richtige zu tun, aber ihre vorurteile ihnen die sicht verstellen. leider langweilen mich der plot und der schreibstil. hab es bis zum ende durchgehalten, aber ich werde das zweite buch sicher nicht lesen.
City of Brass is the first book in SA Chakraborty's Daevabad medieval Muslim fantasy trilogy. The premise is that an Egyptian thief with mysterious healing powers accidentally summons a warrior djinn; it turns out she is the last of a race of Nahid djinn and is whisked away to a hidden city of Daevabad where she is immediately embroiled in politics.
What I enjoyed the most out of this book was the multilayered and dynamic political and personal tensions. The current Geziri rulers destroyed the previous Nahid/Daeva rulers, now living as ~second class citizens in Daevabad. The historical (and present) conflict between them revolves around Shafit half-djinn who are both required to live in Daevabad and also forced to live in squalor. For me, this is fantasy politics at its best where everybody's grievances and actions are understandable and often there's no good answers.
The two alternating perspectives …
City of Brass is the first book in SA Chakraborty's Daevabad medieval Muslim fantasy trilogy. The premise is that an Egyptian thief with mysterious healing powers accidentally summons a warrior djinn; it turns out she is the last of a race of Nahid djinn and is whisked away to a hidden city of Daevabad where she is immediately embroiled in politics.
What I enjoyed the most out of this book was the multilayered and dynamic political and personal tensions. The current Geziri rulers destroyed the previous Nahid/Daeva rulers, now living as ~second class citizens in Daevabad. The historical (and present) conflict between them revolves around Shafit half-djinn who are both required to live in Daevabad and also forced to live in squalor. For me, this is fantasy politics at its best where everybody's grievances and actions are understandable and often there's no good answers.
The two alternating perspectives of this book are from Nahri (the aforementioned Egyptian thief) with her warrior djinn Dara (who is loathed by Geziri and celebrated by Daeva), and the second Geziri prince Ali (stuck up, rule bound, named after Dara's mortal enemy, supports Shafit to the consternation of his father the king and his older brother heir). All of this leads to complicated and messy interactions between the whole cast, where the backdrop of history tinges every relationship.
The start of the book was a bit rocky for me, and had a lot of what felt like info-dumping by Dara on their way to Daevabad. On top of that, it took me a little bit to digest all the different djinn races and fit that into the slow historical reveals. That said, once everything got going, the relationships and politics were great fun to read and the ending really landed a good climax with intriguing developments for the next book.
S.A. Chakraborty has crafted an impressively deep and complex would filled with characters that are engaging and feel quite real. I can’t come up with enough positive adjectives to fully describe the setting. It’s that good. The characters, however, while feeling real, simply didn’t connect with me and I found myself actively disliking most of them. In the end, this hampered my enjoyment of the story.
The City of Brass has one of the most unique and deep settings of any fantasy novel. From takes on djinn and ifrit and marids to an amazingly intricate system of family, tribes, and governance, Chakraborty has spared no detail in fleshing out her world—or, perhaps technically her alternative history, though after the first few chapters this has more the feel of secondary world fantasy. To top it off, not only is the world intricate, it is also entirely non-western, and I want more …
S.A. Chakraborty has crafted an impressively deep and complex would filled with characters that are engaging and feel quite real. I can’t come up with enough positive adjectives to fully describe the setting. It’s that good. The characters, however, while feeling real, simply didn’t connect with me and I found myself actively disliking most of them. In the end, this hampered my enjoyment of the story.
The City of Brass has one of the most unique and deep settings of any fantasy novel. From takes on djinn and ifrit and marids to an amazingly intricate system of family, tribes, and governance, Chakraborty has spared no detail in fleshing out her world—or, perhaps technically her alternative history, though after the first few chapters this has more the feel of secondary world fantasy. To top it off, not only is the world intricate, it is also entirely non-western, and I want more worlds like this. Chakraborty’s prose is exceptional. Sometimes its fun just seeing an author ply their trade through their prose, and this is one of those times. Perhaps the greatest height Chakraborty achieves in this novel is her ability to convincingly write all sides of a conflict—or multiple conflicts—in a way that does not immediately make one side the good guys and one side the bad guys. In fact, the main conflicts in her world are so multifaceted that there are moments when you find yourself agreeing with all sides, or wanting to bang multiple characters’ heads together and make them listen. Just stop and listen. It’s excellently done and a rare accomplishment in the vast majority of fantasy literature. Chakraborty deserves accolades for this alone.
While the setting is unique and intricate, it is sometimes difficult to follow. There were several times when I felt a bit more explanation of the world, just a quick paragraph here or there, would have gone a long way towards helping me understand things. Instead, I often found myself confused for chapters on end until someone finally mentioned something that clarified the history of two tribes or some such. In addition to this, while the characters are—almost universally—well drawn and believable, I didn’t particularly connect with any of them. Each of the characters have good reasons for being the way they are, but I just sort of wanted to yell at all of them. I had negative emotional reactions to almost all of them at various points. The exception to this being Nahri, who I found to be quite flat. She’s supposedly an excellent con artist, but she manages to seem simultaneously naïve and self-serving. She also spends much of her time pining after Dara, which I didn’t find particularly convincing as a romance. To be clear, it isn’t that any of these characters are poorly written. It’s simply that they did not connect with me. Factor in, as an additional issue, that I felt like the main characters spend almost all of their time reacting, and its easy to see why the novel didn’t quite work for me. Perhaps most frustrating is that Nahri ends up completely at the behest of men, with little agency of her own…that may be true to life, but I want to read about female MCs who show men their place, or at the very least have agency of their own. To top it all off, there are the beginnings of a love triangle and I hate love triangles.
This is obviously a novel that works for a lot of people. I think most folks will either not have my same hang ups in terms of fantasy novels or will simply be so enamored with the prose, settings, and complexity of perspective that they will be able to forgive anything else. That’s great! For me, though, it just wasn’t an overly enjoyable read—though I hope to see more world building of this type in the fantasy genre in the future!
3/5 stars
5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile 4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile 3 – It was ok, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time 2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it 1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing
