The City of Brass

A Novel

De: S. A. Chakraborty

Narrado por: Soneela Nankani

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Library Journal | Vulture | The Verge | SYFYWire

Step into The City of Brass, the spellbinding debut from S. A. Chakraborty perfect for fans of The Golem and the Jinni, The Grace of Kings, and Uprooted, in which the future of a magical Middle Eastern kingdom rests in the hands of a clever and defiant young con artist with miraculous healing gifts.

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trades she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, and a mysterious gift for healing—are all tricks, both the means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles and a reliable way to survive.

But when Nahri accidentally summons Dara, an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior, to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to reconsider her beliefs. For Dara tells Nahri an extraordinary 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 birds of prey are more than what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass—a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In Daevabad, within gilded brass walls laced with enchantments and behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments run deep. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, her arrival threatens to ignite a war that has been simmering for centuries.

Spurning Dara’s warning of the treachery surrounding her, she embarks on a hesitant friendship with Alizayd, an idealistic prince who dreams of revolutionizing his father’s corrupt regime. All too soon, Nahri 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 to be careful what you wish for . . .

This audiobook includes an episode of the Book Club Girl
Podcast, featuring an interview with S. A. Chakraborty about The City of
Brass.

“The smile didn’t meet his eyes”

I have a rule with books, if the author uses the phrase “his/her/the smile didn’t meet the eyes” more than 3 times I’m out. The book was already melodramatic and I was struggling to stick it out. why do editors let authors use the same phrases over and over? World building was terrible, the characters were cliché and two dimensional. I know I’m apparently in the minority with that opinion, but this book pales in comparison to The Golem and the Jinn.

slow start

interesting story idea but I thought this would be a while story, not just the beginning of a series. There was good character development, but half the book was spent introducing and developing the characters and story line. Not bad things, but when they take up half the book it feels betty slow. Most of the action takes place at the very beginning and the very end.
I did like that is was set in the Middle East and that there were many things were normal in this setting that are not common in Western based stories, for example the clothes they wear and that the predominant religion is Islam. It's good to have a YA story that normalizes being from that part of the world.
Not sure I will get the next book of the pace is the same as this one.

Enjoyable

Enjoyed this very much. It was unique and interesting. My only complaint is that some of the names are a bit difficult to remember, but I always have trouble remembering names. While some things were mildly predictable, it still has an edge to it.

Naive, frustrating characters

I want to like this book more than I do. I love political/court politics, new magic systems, and the grounding of the book in Middle Eastern myth/fantasy. Unfortunately, the primary characters don’t make sense to me, and I don’t particularly like or root for them. Nahri raised herself on the streets of Cairo working as a swindler and thief, but she is written and performed like a dewy naïf. The author invokes Nahri’s sense of victimhood and helplessness to portray how hard it is for her to adapt to new situations, but how could Nahri be a helpless victim given how she raised herself? What I would find annoying if I were reading the book is greatly exacerbated by the narrator’s choice to voice Nahri like she’s an innocent child. Her primary inflection is a timid quaver, like she’s helplessly confused or just about to burst into tears. Ali’s flashback chapters suffer similarly. He’s written and read as both a plotting agent and also a stammering simpleton within the court. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but his cluelessness feels way overdone. I recognize I am criticizing the author and narrator for writing/reading their story in more of a light-hearted and comedic style than I prefer, and who the hell am I to comment on such an accomplished author’s story, but these choices kept pulling me out of the story.

wonderful!!

Absolutely wonderful book!! there is nothing like it out there! i enjoyed tremendously! cannot wait for book two to come out!