The City of Brass book review | 4.5 star read

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Published by Harper Voyager on November 14, 2017
Pages: 533
Goodreads

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th 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.
But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new 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 hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.
In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. 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 be careful what you wish for...

I cannot believe how long it took me to read this book and I still don’t know why it was. The City of Brass was a book I went into completely blind and without any kind of ideas about what it was about at all. I don’t know what I was expecting but this wasn’t it, but in the best way possible. The City of Brass gave me such feels and I fell in love with the world and the characters. There is so much going on within the story and there is a lot of story building all the way through this book, which I assume helps in the later on in the series.

Characters in The City of Brass

The main characters change throughout this book, there are tribes and a lot of different things happening all at once. It was at times tough to remember who was who and what they were doing within the story. Plus as it was following two separate point of views and they each had their own relationships with the different tribes and the people within them. It became a little difficult to connect with all of them.

The first main characters we meet are Nahri and Dara. They begin the story by walking across the desert and running away from a threat. I will say that this was probably my least favourite part of the book. However, it is also the best-paced part of the story. One thing I really enjoyed was the banter and the interactions, they were both really well done. However, I feel as though their chemistry trailed off as soon as they reached Daevabad. It was just a little bit of a weird arc that they went on.

The other characters within The City of Brass are the ruling tribe. The pacing of this book threw me off a little bit. There were so many characters within the city, it was difficult to connect to all of them. It meant that I ended up no caring. Ali who narrates these parts is quite unemotional. That unemotional process meant the characters lives were difficult to be involved in because he didn’t seem to care at all.

Good and Bad Bits

When I was writing this review and trying to pinpoint why I loved The City of Brass like I do. I still can’t quite figure it out. This book felt a little like escaping from the world around me. The world and world-building completely immersed me into the story. Different tribes were brilliantly written, I enjoyed the vast amounts of detail given. This book really is the perfect setup to the rest of the series. I cannot wait to find out how everything ends up happening by the end.

When it comes to The City of Brass there was so much information ploughed into this book and all of the politic intrigue. I just wasn’t sure about it all. It’s true, I usually love political intrigue but there was just something about this one that just didn’t click with me. I didn’t understand what was going on at some points. It felt as though it was a superficial look at the world, rather than a deeper understanding.

I really want to expand on that point because this really was the only reason this book didn’t get 5 stars. Certain character’s histories are discussed all the way through this one and I still don’t know what the heck was going on. I ended up being super frustrated because I still can’t tell you what is the truth and how everything happened!

Recommendations

A recommendation only seems fair. I really would recommend this one, The City of Brass was a brilliant end of the month and I loved the world and the characters. I do think my issues with the story will be sorted out in the later books which is what I’m holding out for! If you really liked this book I think you might end up liking Strange the Dreamer.

Have you read this one? Let me know what you thought!