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_forestofpages's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Despite this sequel having far less action than the first book, I loved it even more. I was enthralled by the continuation of the insane final chapters of book 1 and then the time jump in book 2. The author leaned heavily on the themes she touched on in book 1 and went hard on the politics and war. In my opinion, this was handled so well and was always engaging to read.
There was never a time where I felt like the author was trying to tell me how to feel and instead had these incredibly complex characters and morals and different wills and beliefs all mixed up, and it was realistic and frustrating and compelling at every turn. I was frequently yelling at the pages, these characters who I like so much.
The last 200 pages took me for a ride and had me constantly tense and worried for everyone. I had no idea what would happen. Exhilarating and wild ending. I cannot wait to pick up the third and final book.
Nahri finally did what I wanted and made her own choices! She seems much more matured and cautious. I also grew to love several other characters I didn't like or just didnt understand in the first book.
There was never a time where I felt like the author was trying to tell me how to feel and instead had these incredibly complex characters and morals and different wills and beliefs all mixed up, and it was realistic and frustrating and compelling at every turn. I was frequently yelling at the pages, these characters who I like so much.
The last 200 pages took me for a ride and had me constantly tense and worried for everyone. I had no idea what would happen. Exhilarating and wild ending. I cannot wait to pick up the third and final book.
Nahri finally did what I wanted and made her own choices! She seems much more matured and cautious. I also grew to love several other characters I didn't like or just didnt understand in the first book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and War
Moderate: Child death, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Body horror and Slavery
singalana's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Even though I listened to it as an audio, I had to SLOG through this book!
It has been about a year since I listened to the first part of the trilogy. It was a huge mistake to wait that long because I spent about the first 20 % of the book wondering who that character was, what that word meant and what happened in the last book.
After I got over that, the book started dragging for a different reason: NOTHING MEANINGFUL HAPPENS! It feels like there are no stakes, and so much time is spent on describing the most meaningless things. As one reviewer pointed out, everything that the characters try to do is thwarted by someone more powerful.
About 60 % in, I realized that I do not care about any of these characters. Except maybe for Dara, because he is at least a little bit interesting. There’s no real feeling of danger, and I knew nothing bad would happen to the characters. The main character, Nahri, is insufferably righteous, the same as Ali. As one reviewer put it: 99 % of the characters are magical racists, religious fanatics or war criminals. Not exactly a likeable bunch.
Spoilers!
But in all seriousness, I could not give a damn about any of these characters, especially since they are all so infuriatingly dramatic all the time. It sucks out any real impact a really dramatic scene should have when the characters are gasping and staring in shock about half of the book. If the author succeeded in something, it was when in the first book, I started to like Dara, even though he is practically a war criminal. Then, in the second book, I’m supposed to root for the Qahtanis, I guess?
In addition to that, this book is all over the place about the shafit, the “mixed-bloods”, who are part human. The shafit are treated as something to be saved, and when they lash out for being treated like cattle, they are suddenly wild animals.
This book has way too many elements, it’s way too slow, and everything is so damn dramatic all the time. I’m so glad this is over. Let’s see if I pick up the last part of this series in a year or so after I have forgotten how messy and frustrating this was.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Wading back into the fraught and politically interwoven world of the Daeva, could begin to get overwhelming. I was very interested to see what happened to my favourite characters though.
This book finally sees people talking about what happens when the heir to the kingdom, Muntadhir, falls in love with a man art arms. Dammit why can't you all just let them be happy! And wait, in the last book didn't we find out that Jamshid has even more secrets about his person that even he is probably unaware of...? I had to find out more, and I do wish it took less that 20 chapters to unfold! But there is so much to unfold in a place where you arrange marriages for political reasons, and when everyone is lying to each other - things get messy in a great bit hurry.
Meanwhile back in the small desert town of Bir Nabat, the exiled prince finally seems to have stopped getting regular visits from assassins. He's knuckled down in serious service to the community as an irrigator and well builder and is starting to bring prosperity to a place that was dwindling into the dust. Less said about magical water powers the better, but everyone close to him knows that he doesn't come up for air nearly enough to seem.. normal, and he's awfully good at falling asleep in random places and accidentally waking up having "found" a brand new spring.
And then one of his rich cousins turns up with a year's worth of taxes in cursed salt, that only someone with their bloodline can return to Daevabad, and if it doesn't get there then there might be military retribution so .. he's wrangled back to his home city, consequences be damned.
Seems that everyone is preparing for the biggest festival in decades, and also that everyone who ever wanted to attack anyone is waiting for that time to do all their "plans".
Nahri petitions her father-in-law Ghassan, to bankroll a rebuild of the hospital her people once used, and to be able to treat the half-blood Shafit there as well as anybody else. She and Ali are working to try and patch up relations within the city, but their idealism can only get people so far..
Civil unrest is at an all time high, and meanwhile, plotting in the background Manizheh has her own plans, and central to them is re-re-resurrecting Darayavahoush. Again. Poor b*stard. We get to find a bit more about the history and magic of the land, the nature of Ifrits and the Marid.
Oooh this gets messy. I'm not a super fan of battles, but I do like big reveals. It's tense and frustrating when you have enough information to cobble together what's going on, but the characters haven't been told yet. Why do revolutions have to be so messy!!? That poor library. That tower... hey people were using that! I might ned a bit of a break before I delve into future volumes.
This book finally sees people talking about what happens when the heir to the kingdom, Muntadhir, falls in love with a man art arms. Dammit why can't you all just let them be happy! And wait, in the last book didn't we find out that Jamshid has even more secrets about his person that even he is probably unaware of...? I had to find out more, and I do wish it took less that 20 chapters to unfold! But there is so much to unfold in a place where you arrange marriages for political reasons, and when everyone is lying to each other - things get messy in a great bit hurry.
Meanwhile back in the small desert town of Bir Nabat, the exiled prince finally seems to have stopped getting regular visits from assassins. He's knuckled down in serious service to the community as an irrigator and well builder and is starting to bring prosperity to a place that was dwindling into the dust. Less said about magical water powers the better, but everyone close to him knows that he doesn't come up for air nearly enough to seem.. normal, and he's awfully good at falling asleep in random places and accidentally waking up having "found" a brand new spring.
And then one of his rich cousins turns up with a year's worth of taxes in cursed salt, that only someone with their bloodline can return to Daevabad, and if it doesn't get there then there might be military retribution so .. he's wrangled back to his home city, consequences be damned.
Seems that everyone is preparing for the biggest festival in decades, and also that everyone who ever wanted to attack anyone is waiting for that time to do all their "plans".
Nahri petitions her father-in-law Ghassan, to bankroll a rebuild of the hospital her people once used, and to be able to treat the half-blood Shafit there as well as anybody else. She and Ali are working to try and patch up relations within the city, but their idealism can only get people so far..
Civil unrest is at an all time high, and meanwhile, plotting in the background Manizheh has her own plans, and central to them is re-re-resurrecting Darayavahoush. Again. Poor b*stard. We get to find a bit more about the history and magic of the land, the nature of Ifrits and the Marid.
Oooh this gets messy. I'm not a super fan of battles, but I do like big reveals. It's tense and frustrating when you have enough information to cobble together what's going on, but the characters haven't been told yet. Why do revolutions have to be so messy!!? That poor library. That tower... hey people were using that! I might ned a bit of a break before I delve into future volumes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
brynalexa's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I was consistently shocked through the entire book. The story never goes where you’re expecting it to. Somehow a cast of treacherous characters making terrible decisions works. Brilliant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Classism
madamenovelist's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
bookedandbusy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved this one! Such a strong sequel!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail
redthistle's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is a wild ride from start to finish and if you enjoyed City of Brass I think you will absolutely love it's sequel.
I have finished the entire series and I believe that this book was my favorite of the trilogy.
I loved the development of all of the characters throughout this book. Every character has both lovable traits and flaws. The development of the world, its politics and social justice issues in particular, are incredibly interesting and complex. The magic of the world is engrossing and continues to be a delight.
I have finished the entire series and I believe that this book was my favorite of the trilogy.
I loved the development of all of the characters throughout this book. Every character has both lovable traits and flaws. The development of the world, its politics and social justice issues in particular, are incredibly interesting and complex. The magic of the world is engrossing and continues to be a delight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Racial slurs, Islamophobia, and Medical content
taylah13's review against another edition
adventurous
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This book was slightly slower than the first, however this isn't to say it was boring! It just focused a lot more on politics, deceit and alliances etc rather than big events however the ending picked it back up again. I specifically loved the development and storyline of Ali, cant wait for the next book!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury