Reviews with content warning for Death - The City of Brass: A Novel

I'm so sad this book didn't live up to the hype I've seen about it. Maybe it's part of the journey, but it felt like this book was 400 pages of exposition and world building, and the story actually began in the last 100ish pages. The TL;DR of my review basically is the complaints stem from this. The fact that not much really happened for so many pages set up so many characters/aspects to not really grow or be developed more.

I get that the characters have 3 books to grow in, but I do wish we saw a bit of growth and change. Yes you see characters who initially weren't going to help because of their beliefs start to help, but their "help" is outweighed with how stubborn/closed off they were still being in other areas. I recognize that Nahri is thrown into a new world and so there is going to be shock and resistance from her, but we barely get a taste of her taking her new life into her own hands (truly and genuinely. Not in a way where she is just trying to figure out the basics of her new life) in the last few chapters.

What had me most excited was that it was a book for those who love politics, and while yes it does have some politics, because of how it was written and the overall progression of the storyline, you just kept getting told the same things over and over again. Most of this book is setting up alliance and rivalries, the background to a couple of those alliances and rivalries, but it's those last 100-150 pages where we see action and the effects of those alliances and rivalries. I will also give that if I wasn't super into political stories, it would get confusing to follow the political world building.

I really hope that the next books are better because I was initially so excited for the trilogy, but this first book isn't meeting what I hoped for it.

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teri_b's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I have always been interested into stories that feature djinns and take place in sandy environments.

Now finally, I made it to this trilogy.

Loved to go to Daevabad and discover the many layers of the city and its inhabitants.

Was at the beginning rather lost with all the specific names and concepts that were thrown at me. After a while the story took over and it became a read that just wanted to be finished.

Now, I am curious to see how the story continues.

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beccadamb's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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thereadingshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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emilyplun's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

(warning for very general spoilers, nothing specific)

I loved the world/setting, but the book overall left me frustrated. The whole story is full of "mysteries," but half of those are the main character just not knowing the basic workings of the magical world or its society, or an event in magical history that every other character is aware of. There are a lot of "who's behind this event?" mysteries too, but it's hard to get into that when the reader is only given a tiny trickle of info about how anything works. The ending was frustrating-- many mysteries weren't solved (which is fine) but a few that were solved weren't satisfying, and then more questions were introduced. I felt like I was drowning in things I didn't understand. As a reader, I wanted to know at least the basic facts that are relevant to a situation (like how x magic works, what happened during x event that everyone keeps referring to), even if the main character doesn't know.
This is really unfortunate since I love the world-building and the basic plotline. I might have to read the plot somewhere and intentionally spoil myself so I can read the sequels.

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cameronreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Y'all this book! I haven't read a book with such a complex cast and plot in a while. The characters were so immensely developed; each with their own complex backstory and motivations, all of which were thoroughly believable. The worldbuilding was amazingly done, and the politics and history was rich without being too complicated or hard to read. I loved the writing and the plot, and was completely gripped from the moment I read the first sentence to the epilogue. It was incredibly unique, unpredictable, and exciting. I did have a slight issue with the ancient immortal x young woman trope, as well as the mild queerbaiting (which I hope will be confirmed in the sequel), but otherwise I adored this.

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