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dealingwithdragons's review against another edition
adventurous
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
kat_mayerovitch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
5.0
This book has SO many of the things I love in a book. Political intrigue and treachery! Ambivalent feelings about one's own powers! Main characters being manipulated by multiple people with conflicting goals! I really enjoyed it, and can't wait to see what the next installment has in store.
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Trafficking, and War
mscalls's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
pvbobrien's review against another edition
adventurous
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Blood, and Classism
Minor: Rape, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol
jldobso's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-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? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Slavery and War
abigails_books's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
5.0
CW: mention of rape, violence, death, abandonment
"Before his curse, all daevas were the same. We looked similar, spoke a single language, practiced identical rites...When Suleiman freed us, he scattered us across the world he knew, changing our tongues and appearances to mirror the humans in our new lands...
Daevastana...the land of the Daevas...it was said to be a violent, terrifying time. Most people embraced their new tribes, clinging together for survival and forming within the tribes caste groups determined by their new abilities. Some were shapeshifters, others could manipulate metals, some could conjure up rare goods, and so forth. None could do it all, and the tribes were too busy fighting each other to even consider revenge against Suleiman...But brilliant as he might have been, Suleiman failed to consider the consequences of giving my people solid, mortal bodies."
Wow, I loved this book. From start to finish I was mesmerized by the colorful, descriptive magic Chakraborty details in The City of Brass, the debut novel in The Daevabad Trilogy.
The book is split into two narrators: Nahri and Ali, who live very different lives but end up entangled in each other's worlds soon enough. At the start, we're introduced to the Nahri, an Egyptian con-woman who uses her healing abilities to get by on the rough streets of Cairo, until one day she accidentally summons a being she didn't believe existed—a Daeva, or Djinn, as known to humans—and she soon learns that she is also a Daeva.
Spirited away on a journey with her protective Daeva—Dara—Nahri learns about the magical world around her, and the history of her long-lost family, the Nahid's—who were all murdered, the last of them when she was born 20 years ago. Nahri and Dara return to the city she should have been raised in, the city that was once ruled by her family, Daevabad, where she walks into the political divides between the six tribes of the Djinn, struggles to understand her own heritage and that of the usurpers that now rule the city.
There she meets Ali, the second son of the now-King of Daevabad, who we are now familiar with as a narrator. While Ali is a prince, he can never marry and is expected to be Qaid, or the head of his brother, Muntadhir, and future king's, protective guard. Ali has trained his entire life to be the ultimate fighter with his zulfiqar, a weapon unique to his tribe—but he also wants a better life for the Shafit, a group of people who have mixed Djinn and human blood, who are at the bottom of the class system and suffer under the city's reign. Ali is a deeply conflicted character, struggling against his family duty and what he believes to be right, all the while developing a friendship with Nahri, the last of the Nahid's, his ancestral enemy.
"Deadly and swift, it was nonetheless easily cured by a single visit to a Nahid. Except there weren't any more Nahids...There was no substitute for a Nahid healer, and that was a dark truth that most people—Ali included—tried not to think about."
Magic, politics, beauty, love, class, fear, and violence are all key features in this book and I loved every page. The myth of the Djinn brought to life was so much more fantastical, mesmerizing, and real than I ever thought it would be. Nahri was such a fantastic heroine to follow along with—feisty and powerful and unwilling to be taken advantage of by any of the men that attempt to do so. And while she and Ali seem to be on different ends of a political spectrum, they are actually so similar. Their friendship and the subsequent thin lines between what is right and what is political are so powerfully told in this story. The love story is complex and left me wanting more, even till the last page's ultimate cliffhanger. I cannot wait to pick up the rest of the story in The Kingdom of Copper.
"You're my Banu Nahida. This is my city...Nothing will keep me from either of you."
Rating: 5/5 stars
"Before his curse, all daevas were the same. We looked similar, spoke a single language, practiced identical rites...When Suleiman freed us, he scattered us across the world he knew, changing our tongues and appearances to mirror the humans in our new lands...
Daevastana...the land of the Daevas...it was said to be a violent, terrifying time. Most people embraced their new tribes, clinging together for survival and forming within the tribes caste groups determined by their new abilities. Some were shapeshifters, others could manipulate metals, some could conjure up rare goods, and so forth. None could do it all, and the tribes were too busy fighting each other to even consider revenge against Suleiman...But brilliant as he might have been, Suleiman failed to consider the consequences of giving my people solid, mortal bodies."
Wow, I loved this book. From start to finish I was mesmerized by the colorful, descriptive magic Chakraborty details in The City of Brass, the debut novel in The Daevabad Trilogy.
The book is split into two narrators: Nahri and Ali, who live very different lives but end up entangled in each other's worlds soon enough. At the start, we're introduced to the Nahri, an Egyptian con-woman who uses her healing abilities to get by on the rough streets of Cairo, until one day she accidentally summons a being she didn't believe existed—a Daeva, or Djinn, as known to humans—and she soon learns that she is also a Daeva.
Spirited away on a journey with her protective Daeva—Dara—Nahri learns about the magical world around her, and the history of her long-lost family, the Nahid's—who were all murdered, the last of them when she was born 20 years ago. Nahri and Dara return to the city she should have been raised in, the city that was once ruled by her family, Daevabad, where she walks into the political divides between the six tribes of the Djinn, struggles to understand her own heritage and that of the usurpers that now rule the city.
There she meets Ali, the second son of the now-King of Daevabad, who we are now familiar with as a narrator. While Ali is a prince, he can never marry and is expected to be Qaid, or the head of his brother, Muntadhir, and future king's, protective guard. Ali has trained his entire life to be the ultimate fighter with his zulfiqar, a weapon unique to his tribe—but he also wants a better life for the Shafit, a group of people who have mixed Djinn and human blood, who are at the bottom of the class system and suffer under the city's reign. Ali is a deeply conflicted character, struggling against his family duty and what he believes to be right, all the while developing a friendship with Nahri, the last of the Nahid's, his ancestral enemy.
"Deadly and swift, it was nonetheless easily cured by a single visit to a Nahid. Except there weren't any more Nahids...There was no substitute for a Nahid healer, and that was a dark truth that most people—Ali included—tried not to think about."
Magic, politics, beauty, love, class, fear, and violence are all key features in this book and I loved every page. The myth of the Djinn brought to life was so much more fantastical, mesmerizing, and real than I ever thought it would be. Nahri was such a fantastic heroine to follow along with—feisty and powerful and unwilling to be taken advantage of by any of the men that attempt to do so. And while she and Ali seem to be on different ends of a political spectrum, they are actually so similar. Their friendship and the subsequent thin lines between what is right and what is political are so powerfully told in this story. The love story is complex and left me wanting more, even till the last page's ultimate cliffhanger. I cannot wait to pick up the rest of the story in The Kingdom of Copper.
"You're my Banu Nahida. This is my city...Nothing will keep me from either of you."
Rating: 5/5 stars
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Violence, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and War
Minor: Rape
_courtney's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Death, Rape, Murder, and War
readwithria's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
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
3.0
I want to preface this review with the fact that I enjoyed this book. I think the world is very interesting and - for the most part - well built. However, there was a significant lack of plot for a large portion of the book.
Nahri and Ali’s viewpoints give the reader an insider and outsider view of Daevabad. The series is clearly meant to have Nahri as the main protagonist, however Nahri’s POV chapters have little to no plot in them. She is unable to make choices for a large portion of the book due to lack of knowledge <Spoiler> she spends the first 48% of the book traveling </Spoiler> and when she finally does make a decision it happens off page.
Ali, on the other hand, does seem to have more of a plot going on. It’s more of a plot via purposeful lack of action than a plot of action, but it’s definitely there. I found Ali hard to like at the beginning of the book due to his hardcore religious biases, but that gets easier to deal with as the book progresses.
All in all, City of Brass felt like a lot of exposition until the last point of action. Many of the main characters lacked agency, and the pacing was a little weird. I think that for a debut novel it did a great job of introducing us to the world, and I will be continuing to read the series.
Nahri and Ali’s viewpoints give the reader an insider and outsider view of Daevabad. The series is clearly meant to have Nahri as the main protagonist, however Nahri’s POV chapters have little to no plot in them. She is unable to make choices for a large portion of the book due to lack of knowledge <Spoiler> she spends the first 48% of the book traveling </Spoiler> and when she finally does make a decision it happens off page.
Ali, on the other hand, does seem to have more of a plot going on. It’s more of a plot via purposeful lack of action than a plot of action, but it’s definitely there. I found Ali hard to like at the beginning of the book due to his hardcore religious biases, but that gets easier to deal with as the book progresses.
All in all, City of Brass felt like a lot of exposition until the last point of action. Many of the main characters lacked agency, and the pacing was a little weird. I think that for a debut novel it did a great job of introducing us to the world, and I will be continuing to read the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
eeeeva's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Slavery, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and War
alwyshaveabook82's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
as one expects this second volume is grim. Partway through I wondered if any one of the power-hungry could be trusted. The political shenanigans among immortals with hidden histories are complicated. The ending gave me a glimmer of hope that the good-hearted youth may be able to reduce the cruelty in their world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Put on warnings because this is adult fantasy -just the next thing to read after Harry Potter