Reviews tagging 'War'

La Cité de Laiton by S.A. Chakraborty

102 reviews

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

There are many conflicting words and opinions that The City of Brass brings about. The most important one though is this: promising. It's marketed as adult fantasy, and yet you'll find many instances of tropes and ideas popular in young adult literature. The person of low social class thrust into a very powerful position of luxury, the romance between a normal person and a god-like but very dangerous but VERY hot individual, a healthy dose of normal person thrust into magical world they didn't know was there a la Harry Potter. Much of the dialogue sounds very modern despite the story taking place in the 1800s and many characters being hundreds of years older than that. Moving past all that, I would still recommend this book. Chakraborty understands her world and her characters well enough to give the reader investment and interest in this world. The novel's biggest selling point is the society she creates - the conflict between a pureblood upper caste and a mixed lower caste is nothing new in literature, but Chakraborty treats the plot with precision and care. No side is made out to be a faceless villain, but there's also no preachy sense of 'both sides are equally bad' going on. There's no sense of preachiness at all: the world feels lived in and at its natural conclusion of thousands of years of buildup rather than artificially held together for the plot. The pros outweigh the cons and I hear the sequels improve in spades. 8/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Genocide, Gore, Murder, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Outing and Homophobia

hutchmusic14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This book is BRILLIANT. Chakraborty does an incredible job with the pacing, leaving every chapter with a taste of intrigue and action. She deals with themes of prejudice, oppression, war, love, lies...so much. 
Fantastic read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Minor: Rape

bobbyeight's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am unwell. Just couldn't put the book down, it's 1am and now I don't know what to do with my life 😂 (thankfully I have book 2 to jump into)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Violence, War, Slavery, Racism, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Torture, and Child abuse

Moderate: Trafficking

Minor: Rape and Death of parent

queerreaderchaos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Racism, Animal death, Blood, Rape, Death, Medical content, Genocide, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Slavery, Hate crime, War, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Cancer and Religious bigotry

itseyeohmeday's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Xenophobia, Slavery, Murder, Violence, and War

Minor: Rape

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.5

When I read this one, I was convinced I found the next best epic fantasy featuring people that may look like me and I hadn't had that since Sabaa Tahir's Ember of Ashes series and I was right. I loved this from the very start, completely hooked with every fiber of my being. The characters are immensely flawed and complex and I admit getting annoyed with a few of them probably more than others but that didn't make me love this series any less. Hell, even with my least favorite trope (a potential love triangle/corner), I couldn't put this down. So glad I started to read this when the whole series was finished because this does have a cliffhanger ending and I was screaming into the void when I got to it and went straight into holding the next one at the library. S.A. Chakraborty has become my new favorite of 2023. This is sure to be a reread in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Religious bigotry, War, and Racism

Minor: Death of parent

ka_ke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gaslighting, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Slavery, Body horror, Classism, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Colonisation, Gore, Racism, Torture, Alcohol, and Racial slurs

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Child abuse, Rape, and War

mirifairy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Slavery, and War

Moderate: Racism

stuckinatimeloop's review against another edition

4.5

one of the best fantasy books out there. you will especially love this if you are muslim or know about jinns, because finally something that portrays them in a proper way. 
i loved this so much. the politics are a bit difficult to understand at first, but you start to get it as you go along.
the characters are all so interesting and complex, really well written. every character has depth to them. amazing writing, and i'm immediately going to go to the next book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Minor: Rape

sammyem's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War