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The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy, #1)

S.A. Chakraborty

Start date: December 1, 2017

Finish date: December 31, 2017

Discussion: Dec 2017: The City of Brass

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Dec 2017: The City of Brass

December BoTM: "The City of Brass" by S. A. Chakraborty
By grace · 1 post · 51 views

last updated Nov 22, 2017 01:46PM

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Dec 10, 2017 kath rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, historical, cover-love, fantastic-worlds, could-have-been-better, diverse, overrated

The City of Brass is a highly ambitious debut that weaves a lush tapestry of Persian culture and mythology reminiscent of One Thousand and One Nights. Chakraborty’s incredible attention to detail brought the setting and characters to life and created a fully immersive reading experience. The characters are full of complexity (and more than a small helping of deviousness which was much fun).

The gripping first few chapters introduce us to Nahri, a young con-artist with healing abilities she thinks The City of Brass is a highly ambitious debut that weaves a lush tapestry of Persian culture and mythology reminiscent of One Thousand and One Nights. Chakraborty’s incredible attention to detail brought the setting and characters to life and created a fully immersive reading experience. The characters are full of complexity (and more than a small helping of deviousness which was much fun).

The gripping first few chapters introduce us to Nahri, a young con-artist with healing abilities she thinks of as little more than a personality quirk. While convinced that magic doesn’t exist, she accidentally summons a mysterious djinn named Dara and finds herself on a perilous journey with him across the desert to the magical city of Daevabad, the home of Dara’s fellow creatures of smoke and ash.

From the moment Dara summons a sandstorm to fight off a graveyard full of ghouls, I was sure I was reading a new favourite book. After such an exciting start, it appeared as though we were being promised an action packed story full of diversity, magic and fantastical creatures like the enormous winged peri who can “rearrange the landscape with one single sweep of his wings” or scaled river monsters known as marid. It seemed like the perfect recipe for an unputdownable read and I was certain this book was going to be such fun.

And yet.

However addicting the world and magical elements were at the start, the middle of the story suddenly becomes quite a muddled mess when we are introduced to Ali’s character who from then on shares half the perspective of the story. The action all but disappears and we are forced to trudge through info-dump after tiring info-dump in poor disguise as stiff and over-written dialogue. Ali’s chapters were honestly quite dull and his character was way too inflexible for me to relate to. I skimmed through a lot of his chapters.

As more and more backstory is revealed, the story becomes exhaustingly complex and yet doesn’t come to any satisfying resolution. Our characters hardly forge any new ground but mainly relive millennia-old resentments and complex politics that I only half absorbed. Then the story just ends with almost no questions having been answered and I was left with the feeling that it was just one drawn out prologue for the sequel.

I do have to give Chakraborty credit for her ambition in taking on such a politically charged story with so many characters and their widely varying and duplicitous motives, however I’m not sure it was handled to it’s potential. Somewhere along the way it loses focus and dissolves into a convoluted and unnecessarily confusing story that seems to have no commitment to saying anything meaningful. After over 500 pages I don’t think I could even say with confidence who the antagonists even are.

I’m sure Chakraborty is withholding information about Dara to save a dramatic reveal for the sequel, but I was mostly just frustrated trying to pin down his purpose in the book. It was an emotional roller coaster trying to figure out if he is a helper, a love-interest for Nahri, or even a villain. There are moments where he does some incredibly problematic and abusive things to Nahri and we haven’t been given a reason so far. I was really rooting for him at the start so I hope there is a good one.

All of that said, it was an intriguing debut that could be the start of a promising atmospheric fantasy series. If I do decide to read the sequel, I’m hoping to see the story become more focused and refined.

Review originally posted on my blog. ...more

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May 25, 2018 Amanda - FictionallyAmanda rated it it was amazing

This was one of the easiest 5 star ratings I have ever given. This world was so well written I actually felt like I was apart of the story. I have completely fallen in love with these characters and I just want them all to be okay. Honestly, this is one of the best fantasy novels I have read and it is mind blowing that it's a debut novel. I just want more from this author, and this world, and these characters. I don't know how to review this novel without just gushing about it, but if you haven' ...more

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Jan 13, 2018 Nina Carboni rated it liked it

I’m so sick of ridiculous cliffhanger endings.

5 likes · Like · see review

May 21, 2020 Addie Dehart rated it it was amazing

Wow! What a rich, twisty, turny fantasy. I'm excited to move on to Kingdom of Copper! ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 14, 2018 Lily rated it really liked it

Shelves: diversity-bingo-17, 2018-releases

3.5 stars. I think.

I'm finding this book difficult to review/rate because I read it really in two chunks over three months, with about a six week gap in between, and so when I came back to it, there was a lot I had forgotten. Which wasn't ideal given just how complex this world is - not that that is a fault of the book! That's really my fault in my reading experience of it, and I realise I probably should've gone back and started again, but being in a slump and with this book being over 500 page ...more

1 like · Like · see review