Bookocraze: Book Review | The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty

The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1)

by S.A. Chakraborty

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 Book Rating

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

My Book Review

This was unbelievably good. So good that it made my favorites list after nearly two years without any new additions!

The story starts unfurling in Cairo, Egypt, with the talented young con artist Nahri showing us her skills in surviving in tumultuous times by, well, conning rich men and women. Her world, however, turns upside down when she accidentally summons a powerful djinn, who recognizes her ancestry and sweeps her away to the majestic city of Daevabad. From then on, a grand adventure begins...

I have to admit that I'm always terrified when I want to read such a popular book, with so many controversial reviews! Perhaps I was in the perfect mindset, or perhaps these are the books, stories, writing styles, and heroes I like reading the most...

Nonetheless, this novel blew my mind and made me crave to read the next installment immediately -- something that *never* happens, may I add...

I can get why some people might not be fond of this book, given that the pace seemed a bit slow at times and almost too fast at other points, but I witnessed everything as a way to build up the world and the characters and the dynamics between the different djinn tribes, so that you can really understand what's going on beneath the surface.

For me personally, this element of patient world building, made me appreciate both the intricate times and the characters' beliefs and actions. And, yes, even those that I didn't particularly like.

And, speaking of characters, I loved how there's no black and white, no one hero was purely good or purely evil, they really felt like real people with far more complex personalities, in a way that made it impossible for me to judge their decisions. And, through the aforementioned patient and detailed world building, I was also able to partially understand everyone's actions as well, not just those of the narrators -- Nahri and Ali.

I can see all these incredible elements only unfurling more in the next novel, with this society's intriguing dynamics being even more complicated than in this first installment, and I just couldn't be more excited!