Review: The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Hey all, Dani here.

I am so mad at myself for not reading this book back in June after I picked it up at BookExpo. Is that statement a good indicator of how I felt about this book? I hope it is, because this book was outstanding! I know I haven’t even really gotten into the review portion yet, but if you want to just jump down to the purchase links and get your copy of this right now, I won’t even mind. This book is so worth the read.

Summary

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass–a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for…

My Thoughts

Rating: ALL THE STARS! *ahem* 5 stars

This book is over 500 pages of awesome. I loved the descriptions, the setting, the magic, the politics, the mythology, the history, the culture…just the whole package all wrapped together is fantastic. It makes me so happy that this is the first book of a trilogy.

So, inside my ARC copy from BookExpo, it says that this book is as “thrilling, bewitching, and original as The Night Circus, The Wrath and the Dawn, An Ember in the Ashes, Uprooted, and The Queen of the Tearling.” Of those I have read all but the Tearling trilogy, and I agree with the assessment. I was swept away into this world, much in the way that I was with The Night Circus and The Wrath and the Dawn. I wanted to just keep reading and stay in the vivid and lush world that Chakraborty created with her expertly crafted phrases.

Basically, if it wasn’t for the fact that I had just finished a 12 hour shift and desperately needed sleep, I probably would have stayed up all night reading this. But I did the rational adult option and went to sleep and then read more of the book over the next couple days. What was nice about that was that I felt like I was really absorbing and understanding what was happening, instead of just blankly reading the words, which is what most likely would have happened if I was reading while really tired.

All in all, I loved this book. I definitely recommend it. And…can I have the sequel already?!?

Where to Buy

You can pick this book up at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local indie bookstore.