Reviews with content warning for Genocide - The Kingdom of Copper

Disclaimer *this is a spoilery rambling of my feelings, no professional review here*

it took me two months to finish this book and no need to say it was tremendously disappointing.
too many conveniences esp. the last sixth of the book.

I just wanna fathom why do authors give their main characters centuries to die and don't even kill them (ahm Muntadhir) I hate this soo much.

And even though I love him in TCOB, I loved to hate Montadhir in this book.
The author did a good job showing how being a spoiled brat who's indulgent in extravagance, sins, and sumptuous luxuries make his heart rot in Dissatisfaction، and start desiring harams/ wrongdoings ( his whole relationship with Jamshid)
قال تعالى:(إِنَّكُمۡ لَتَأۡتُونَ ٱلرِّجَالَ شَهۡوَةٗ مِّن دُونِ ٱلنِّسَآءِۚ بَلۡ أَنتُمۡ قَوۡمٞ مُّسۡرِفُونَ) (81)

Also, his greed over the throne even though his brother didn't show any interest.

and this man (Muntadhir) btw reminds me of an Abbasi Poet named "Dik al-Jinn", he resembles him so much in his unfaithfulness and desires except Muntadhir is no poet.

also, there were some expressions the characters did that made me roll my eyes -yeah like this one-
, because the Arabic culture is different from the English so why use English expressions!!?
I guess with all this research that the authors did I'm still being greedy?!

I still didn't like that the author made Muntadihr and Jamshid qu**r!
bad.. since they were actually my favorite characters and I loved their friendship in TCOB, but alas!

but the good part here is I started loving Ali more than in the first book. also an unpopular opinion but I still adore Dara and I really wished he would end up with Nahri.

guess I'm continuing since I have the last book.

Content Warnings

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.0

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readandfindout's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Style/writing: 4.5 stars
Themes: 4 stars
Characters: 4.5 stars
Plot: 4.5 stars
Worldbuilding: 4.5 stars

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booksthatburn's review

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challenging dark reflective sad 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

5.0

THE KINGDOM OF COPPER cashes in on the tension heralded by every political machination and twisted promise in THE CITY OF BRASS. Nahri, Ali, and Dara are at cross-purposes with each other and almost everyone else as Daevabad's brutality towards the Shafit begets more violence.

THE CITY OF BRASS set up a complicated system of alliances, slights, centuries-old grievances, and current injustices. In THE KINGDOM OF COPPER, the web gets a few more strands like slave auctions and mass murder of the oppressed, then pulls the strands tight to slaughter whoever gets in the way. It’s intricate, filled with conflicting allegiances, friendships, and hidden family. There’s some political theater, but almost every gesture carries behind it the threat of real violence against a plethora of minor and secondary characters, stacking death and misery higher and higher until the main characters can take it no more and the bloody showdown commences. There’s always another way that someone was terrible a long time ago and now a new person is ready to kill in the name of the long-dead. Three protagonists, all utterly convinced that their way of doing things is the one that will work, and a bevy of secondary characters all with their own deadly plans that cross and combine in unexpected ways to drench the city in blood.

I love the world building. A lot of the backstory was set up by the first book, but they live long lives and the pace at which new revelations occur is just right. In a world where there’s someone who knows what happened and might even have been there, it’s a matter of having the right protagonist ask the right question of the right person at the proper time… usually after a different protagonist tried to learn the same thing and was rebuffed. It’s a layered style that keeps any one character from knowing everything while making sure that by the time the reader gets the answer there’s been enough of a build up that it feels like a revelation. It even works when one character keeps trying to figure out something one of the other two already knows. Ali is my favorite, but together he, Nahri, and Dara combine to cover enough of the story’s angles to leave me very happy as a detail-hungry reader.

The pacing is excellent, the conclusion is stunning. I loved every minute and I’m ready to read the final book.

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hanarama's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.75

The Good:

Expanded world building
Tense political intrigue
Good use of dramatic irony
Character motivations expanded and explored more closely
Intense final act.

The Bad:

Some character's decisions feel contrived/convenient

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Complicate characters
Opposing POVs
Political intrigue
Looming threats

A massive improvement over City of Brass. I really fell in love with this book and I was lukewarm on CoB, which felt very slow and many characters felt unsympathetic.

Chakraborty has fixed many of these issues with KoC. She takes greater care to make all of her characters feel more sympathetic in this book, while keeping their moral complexities in tact. And she again delivers an absolute gut punch of an ending.

KoC takes place five years after the events of CoB. Even as Ali is exiled, Daevabad seems intent on drawing him back into its political machinations. Nahri has taken her place as Banu Nahida and struggles against the yoke of King Ghassan's rule. With a once-in-a-century celebration looming and an unseen enemy plotting revenge on the city, the characters' lives weave together as everyone angles to achieve their own goals.

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debhawkins's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? Yes

4.0

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