A review by thursdaygirls
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

3.0

I know that within this books are the bones of brilliance but parts where I had to push through were only made tolerable by the hope that the jump in quality is as large as many people say.

Things I liked:

• The idea of fire worshipping idol lovers against the Islamic faith is used cleverly and I hope these religious sentiments are explored further.
• Compelling arguments and conflict between the two factions instead of an obvious bad vs good attempting to pose as ambiguous.
• Ali’s entire character; i’m a sucker for earnestness and he has it in droves.
• Ali and Nahri’s friendship.

Things I disliked:

• Hated
  Dara
  from the start and the
  romance with Nahri only caused further dislike because why is this man who has seen centuries getting it on with a young women whilst purposefully concealing the truth even when she gives him every opportunity to not lie
  .
• World building was not carried out well and although I love a glossary, as well as having the good fortune to already be familiar with many of the terms and language used, I still found the lay out clunky.
• Nahri ending the book still thinking positively of that character despite everything.