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 and a mysterious gift for healing—are
all tricks; both the means to the delightful end of swindling unwitting 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 hawks are
not 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 revolutionising 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...
So I eyed this book for weeks around Christmas, going up to it in every book store I went and picking it up, just to carrying it around and conclude, once again, that as it was Christmas time, I could justify buying myself this beautiful book. I then started to see it everywhere. And everyone who was posting it on Instagram were raving about it so much, clearly I was meant to have it! Now that I have read it, I know I was meant to! A fast paced, magical, expertly crafted world, characters and general writing making an intriguing, exciting story that was a joy to read and one I just want to unread so I can simple re read and experience it all again. I have been begging my friend to read it just so I can re-experience it with him and talk about it all day long!
It was the world that I fell in love with first of all, and almost immediately. The City of Brass is set in eighteenth-century Egypt with a wonderfully magical twist. I am not sure how much of the story is based on the mythology of Egypt and I am not sure what would be better, that it was based of real storied or crafted in the mind of SA Chakraborty. The City of Brass is told from two perspectives, the first is Nahri, who is discovering this new world, and Ali, who has a very important part in it already. I love that you get a really well rounded concept of the history, and the world as it is through this, which is great as at times it gets quite complex (another reason why I want my friends to read it as they can then explain the bits I got lost in) But, despite getting slightly confused, its complexity is what really made this book interesting. It made the characters more real, their issues more relevant and I felt so much more convinced and invested with the world as worlds do have very complex pasts.
And finally, reading this inspired me in my own writing. The plot is so great, the magic so entirely magical and the world so brilliantly complex and real, so amazingly written, I just really want to create something that is hopefully at least half as good that people will love as much as I loved this..
Obviously, I gave this 5 stars (I've raved about it enough that it would be shocking if I didn't!) and would heavily encourage anyone debating whether or not to read it to please pick it up. And even if you have never even thought about picking it up, pick it up! Especially since the second book, The Kingdom of Copper, is being released at the end of this month which is SO EXCITING because THAT ENDING! Oh ma word I have so many questions and am slightly confused at what happened but I cannot wait to dive right back into this amazing world.