"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.
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 …
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.
A big story with a lot of humanity in its magical beings
4 stars
Content warning
major spoilers
This is kind of two books, of which the first half was fun but frustrating, and the second half generally better.
In the first half, we're introduced to two main characters in separate worlds. Nahri the orphan who has some strange powers and turns out to be at least partly Djinn-descended, possibly the last survivor of an important dynasty. And Ali a prince in a brutal dynasty that murdered most of Nahri's ancestors, and who is determined to do something about the cruelty. Nahri has to flee her old life for Ali's city. The writing is clunky at times, Ali's a little too good, and it's too obvious that Nahri's flight will succeed, so the epic battle with every kind of magical demon feels more farcical than exciting. But the book's great strength is that this "conclusion" is only halfway through it.
What made the second half work better for me is that Nahri's arrival is such a complicating event in everyone's life, most definitely including her own. Ali ends up thoroughly compromised in ways that make him a much more believable character, and the interwoven strands of everyone lying to and scheming around each other get much more interesting. And I think Chakraborty just took a while to hit her stride as a writer, which makes sense given that this was her first book and not originally written with publication in mind.
At the end I was still a little frustrated. The hooks for the sequel are slightly too obvious and undermine the completeness of this (already long) book, and there are a few too many deus ex machina. But considering how much better the book got as it went along, I am excited about the sequel.
The first three chapters were five stars, to the point of immediately recommending my friends read this. Then the novel bogged down a little, though it finally finished strong. I liked it, and will read the second in the series.
Reviews on this seem pretty strongly divided, kind of like this magical world the author has described. It is very complete, with a lot of history between magical peoples (the Daeva, or djinn, primary among them). Speaking of those peoples, there is a glossary at the back to help with defining them. I like the main character, a strong and intelligent young woman. The story dives right into action with a running battle against ghouls in Cairo, and her protector Dava, the djinn she accidentally summoned, is there to help.
Those ghouls were well described. Then the desert, the other magical beings she encounters, and her interactions with Dava. What …
The first three chapters were five stars, to the point of immediately recommending my friends read this. Then the novel bogged down a little, though it finally finished strong. I liked it, and will read the second in the series.
Reviews on this seem pretty strongly divided, kind of like this magical world the author has described. It is very complete, with a lot of history between magical peoples (the Daeva, or djinn, primary among them). Speaking of those peoples, there is a glossary at the back to help with defining them. I like the main character, a strong and intelligent young woman. The story dives right into action with a running battle against ghouls in Cairo, and her protector Dava, the djinn she accidentally summoned, is there to help.
Those ghouls were well described. Then the desert, the other magical beings she encounters, and her interactions with Dava. What threw me for a little loop was the shift in focus to Ali, and the descriptions of his life, his surroundings, and his interactions with humans in the City of Brass. Yes, eventually these two characters meet, but first more descriptions. The author had a lot of world to portray, and a good fifth of this book is describing it - people and places.
The story does keep coming back to action, right up to the end, and I will check out the second in the series. This is the author's first book, and was nominated for two awards. It is also the 24th book I have read this year by a new (to me) female science fiction/fantasy/horror writer. I would put this in the top five in that group, and better than another with a very similar focus - [b:Alif the Unseen|13239822|Alif the Unseen|G. Willow Wilson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1325543155l/13239822.SY75.jpg|18330291]. 4 stars (out of 5).
