Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

59 reviews

magdalenahai's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Väkivaltaa oli paljon ja kirjan alku oli niin taistelupainotteinen, että se melkein sai minut luovuttamaan. Pidin siitä, että asiat vedettiin riittävän överiksi djinnien maailmassa, taikuudesta otettiin kaikki irti. Maailma oli muutenkin rikas ja syvä, monella konfliktilla oli alku historiassa. Päähenkilöissä riitti myös sävyjä, kukaan ei ollut mustavalkoinen. Alin, Daran ja Nahrin välille kehittyvä kolmiodraamasta en niin välittänyt enkä siitä että miehet käyttäytyivät Nahria puolustaakseen matalalla kynnyksellä hyvin aggressiivisesti. Uskonnot olivat keskeisemmässä roolissa kuin fantasiakirjoissa keskimäärin. Kirjan loppu jäi hyvinkin avoimeen tilanteeseen, jossa päähenkilöt ovat kaikki tyynni vaarassa.

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mousmoulo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense

5.0

FIRST FIVE STAR OF THE YEAR!!!!!!! i'm going insane.

my brain has been rewired and i'm ready for the sequel

(if anything else happens to
ali or jamshid
i'm committing prosecutable crimes this is a warning)

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jenn_amanda's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0


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bobbyeight's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am unwell. Just couldn't put the book down, it's 1am and now I don't know what to do with my life 😂 (thankfully I have book 2 to jump into)

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ka_ke's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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ellaa__'s review against another edition

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  • 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


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kat1105's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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jess_sherlock's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

4.25

Very much appreciated the glossary and found myself flipping back to it almost every page in the beginning. It's not based in my own cultural background so I wasn't always sure who was who and what was happening. Sometimes I had no idea what was going on and the excessive world building didn't help. It was often so complex that it overshadowed the plot so I must admit that I sometimes skimmed over those long paragraphs to keep me hooked on the story.

Nonetheless I absolutely devoured this book and have recommended it to all my friends. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I don't like fantasy, I don't have a particular interest in Muslim/Middle eastern stories, I don't really fancy magic so don't ask me why this was on TBR-pile to begin with... but god I'm glad it was. I'll definitely be picking up the Kingdom of Copper & the Empire of Gold.

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jasperdotpdf's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It took me a while to really get into City of Brass but it really caught my attention toward the end and I loved it. 

The first half of this book especially is very slow, it‘s littered with worldbuilding that is, admittedly, pretty complicated. I was also so incredibly bored by Ali‘s POV until more than halfway through, mainly because it felt very isolated and it was hard to get a feel for where his part of the story was going - or at least why his POV needed to be there. 
Occasionally it felt like a bit of a chore because it‘s very densely written, but the book did a good enough job at leaving crumbs to keep me hooked until the end. 

Once I got to the end things ramped up and I think I‘ve actually lost my mind because I am dying to get to the sequel. I love how the book conveys the hardships of ruling, of dealing with a war and with rebellion, with court intrigue and the necessary sacrifices. All of the characters are wrapped up in so much shit and the fact they all have to make devastating choices to deal with it is such a strength of this book. It‘s nice to read something that doesn‘t equip its characters with copious amounts of plot-armour and arbitrarily backs them into narrative corners as a way of railroading them to the next plot point. 

I will say that this rating is probably a bit higher than it would be were I not very eager for Kingdom of Copper. City of Brass really felt like it was weighed down by the need for exposition, and I‘m hoping that that the sequel will pick off at a similar level of suspense and intrigue as this ended on and make all of the set-up worth it. 

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the_first_lines's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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