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.
On … clever and defiant young con artist with miraculous healing gifts.
On the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, Nahri is a con woman of unsurpassed skill. She makes her living swindling Ottoman nobles, hoping to one day earn enough to change her fortunes. But when Nahri accidentally summons Dara, an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior, during one of her cons, she learns that even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.
Forced to flee Cairo, Dara and Nahri journey together 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, to Daevabad, the legendary city of brass.
It’s a city steeped in magic and fire, where blood can be as dangerous as any spell; a city where old resentments run deep and the royal court rules with a tenuous grip; a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound—and where her very presence threatens to ignite a war that has been simmering for centuries.
*Finalist for the World Fantasy Award: Best Novel
*Nominated for the Locus Award: Best First Novel
*Finalist for the British Fantasy Award: Best Newcomer
Featuring a stepback and extra content including a bonus scene and an excerpt from The Kingdom of Copper.
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This is such a lovely book! So rich in description, wonderfully painted characters, and story lines that are both leading in action and potent with past histories. I felt like I was devouring a delicious and substantial meal and cannot wait to dive into the sequel!
Great start to a new series. Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Original storyline and great characters. Highly recommend!
Stunningly beautiful worldbuilding based on biblical and mythological history. I adored The City of Brass and immediately bought the sequel.
Yes, yes and YES. This book had me staying up well into the night to finish. It has all the creative yet believable world-building, all the palace intrigue, all the action and all the feels. Delicious enough to make me snatch up book two and ignore Mt TBR a little longer. This is why I read!
Nahri is a young, street smart con artist living in Cairo. The Ottoman and French Empires are contesting the land, meaning that there are all sorts of marks for her fortune telling business.
But Nahri has other skills, too. She has a knack for healing the sick. If she hears any language, she can understand and speak it. Her own native tongue, Divasti, is completely different from anything else others speak.
While participating in a Zar exorcism ceremony, Nahri decides to use Divasti to add some exotic flair. Little does she know that it will get the attention of a daeva and a ifrit. Plunged into a world that she previously thought was myth, Nahri has to navigate her place in the new world.
Overall, this was a fun book to read. I’ve had it near the top of my queue since April, but felt the time was right just a few weeks ago. I took it with me to a major convention, PAX Unplugged. I found the story engaging enough that I was stealing time before gaming sessions to enjoy it! It certainly made standing in the registration lines a lot more bearable.
Nahri is a well-rounded character, as are the supporting cast. But the setting is definitely the highlight of the book. It’s fun to read a story that takes its cues from Islamic culture. Chakraborty does a great job of making the world details come to life. Because the general public lacks a lot of knowledge, the book has to do a lot of world-building, so the pacing can be a bit slower at times. But for seasoned fantasy readers, that’s not an impediment. Many would see it as a feature rather than a bug. For those looking for more consolidated detail, there is a glossary at the back of the book.
If I were to compare City of Brass to another book, the choice that comes to mind is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Nahri and Harry share some interesting parallels. They’re both young, destitute people with special abilities. They’re both orphans, and they both have an unlikely mentor (although Hagrid and Dara have very different personalities). The similarities are superficial, granted, but there’s enough parallels that it really piqued my interest.
Honestly, I think that’s a sign that S.A. Chakraborty was trying to grow her writing chops. City of Brass is a debut novel, and a rather ambitious one at that. Plotting isn’t an easy task to learn, so keeping the plot familiar acts as training wheels while the author is learning. If the plot were at the same level for further volumes, I’d grade harder.
As it is, though, City of Brass is an entertaining read with a vivid setting and solid plot. The characters are fairly likeable overall, with solid motivations and intentions. I’m really looking forward to the next book of the series, The Kingdom of Copper. That’ll be released next January.
I loved the first installment of the trilogy; characters, story, other world setting.
I was excited to read a middle-Eastern-inspired fantasy, but this ended up being more formulaic than I was expecting. But the last third of the book or so really picked up, and I did get more invested in the characters and the story.
It did end up leaving me wanting to read the next one, especially because it seems like I was right about some of the twists, and I’m excited to see what happens with that.
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Interesting take on genies and magic. Characters were good, plot had a few twists that surprised me, not a bad read.
I adore 1001 Nights Tales, and I love stories based on Middle Eastern folklore so I was very excited to get a chance to read The City of Brass early. I am happy to say that this book lived up to my expectations and did not disappoint. The world we are introduced to in The City of Brass is spellbinding, it’s full of magical beings (djinns, ifrits, shafits), scary mythical creatures, and hidden cities. The society and the politics that the author created in her book are fascinating. The writing is exquisite and the characters are complex and morally flawed.
None of the characters are black and white. Nahri, our main heroine, is a con artist and a thief. She is an orphan who was left to survive on her own on the streets of Cairo. Ali is a prince and the second son of the ruler of Daevabad. He is extremely wealthy and loyal to his ruling family, but he also secretly supports poor citizens and rebels of Daevabad. And then there is Dara, the most complex character of them. He is the djinn that Nahri summoned accidentally. He is mysterious, elusive, and has centuries worth of secrets and regrets. He is known as the most ruthless djinn warrior. Is he a hero or a villain? I still haven’t made my mind about it but I love his character regardless. This trio has a lot of secrets between them and they are thrown together on a very twisty path full of action and adventures.
The City of Brass is an amazing epic fantasy and I cannot wait to read the second book. I just wish I didn’t have to wait until next year for it.
Magic and fantasy in an Arabian-Nights setting. Lots of interesting settings and personae but the plot seems to be lost amid the descriptions of desert cities and other places. Where’s it going?
(I truly wish this was a ten star rating system, but alas, none seem to be anymore. I would actually give this book 9 out of 10, but there’s no way to do that, so I’ve rated it against others in this genre.)
When I started this book, I thought I knew where it was going. I was so wrong. It took me a while to sort out the motivations of the main characters. Then, I had to rethink my assumptions. Then rethink them again. The story never went where I thought it would go next. It truly kept me turning the virtual pages. This is obviously the first book of a duology, trilogy or whatever. Unless I get run over by a bus*, I will keep reading as the hooks become available.
Note: This book is well-edited and proofed, coming from Harper Collins Publishing. I mention this in case you are leery of debut novels.
*Or the books come out as slowly as George R. R. Martin’s GOT series, which I probably will not live long enough to see the end. That’s okay; the only character I even cared about in the last book was the dwarf. I don’t know about the TV version as I don’t watch television.
I am waiting for the next book. The characters are more unpredictable especially the djinn. The heroine has flaws and is not a one dimensional character. I loved the desert setting.
Djinn, a cunning con artist for a heroine, and a rich tapestry of Middle Eastern fantasy as the worldbuilding.
Rich with the scents and sounds of Egypt and Cairo. Excellent descriptions really transported me. Variety of characters and a very complex society.
Once you get past the unusual names, places, customs and history the story that unfolds is awesome. The plot is unpredictable with a number of severe turns that leave the reader unsure where the plot is going. I loved it and recommend it highly.
When I imagined the kind of “genie” centric book I would enjoy- this was it.
Creative & exciting
I liked this book because it’s well-written and also because it employs a mythology that’s not very well known to the Western reader. We’ve all heard of djinn, but there are other creatures out of Persian myth that the author inteoduces into the work. I’d certainly never heard of a peri before, for instance.
When you’ve read a lot of fantasy, as I have, over the years, the elves, the fairies and the orcs and the usual cast of characters gets a bit boring. Not everything has to spring from the lands of England, Ireland and Scotland. I’d admire that this book has gone in a different direction. It also has a very sympathetic main character.
My only complaint is that the second book isn’t out, yet. The author needs to type faster! I want the story to continue!
Love love love this book can’t wait till November for second book