bessadams's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Classism, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Medical content
erebus53's review against another edition
- 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
I tackled this book as part of a book club (Lighthouse Library thicc bois :) ). It wasn't something I had heard of before that. It starts off set in Cairo with a young woman of unknown origin who is a theif, swindler and survivor, and who has a mysterious healing talent and the ability to understand languages, which she hides to avoid people thinking her a dangerous witch.
Her world is upended when she utters some words of power while doing a faith healing scam, and unexpectedly summons something to her. This leads to her and a big scary soldier guy on the run from murderous ghouls and ifrits. She learns of the world of Daeva and Djinns and journeys to find sanctuary in a magical hidden city, all the while being hunted and tracked by mysterious forces and magical creatures.
Having read a children's translation of the Persian epic Shahnameh, some of the creatures and names were familiar to me. I did keep wondering if Nahri's uncle had an epic warhorse called Rakhsh. I find that I clearly have a lot more grounding in the myths of the Pacific Islands, the Mediterranean, Europe and the British Isles, and need to read more mythic stories from other parts of the world. This story weaves together myth from many places in Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, South and East Asia. Thematically it pits Tradtions, family, individualism, duty, and survival together in a story that sets up a world that I feel is yet to be explored and played in. That's quite a big book for an intro!
The main character is antiheroic. She is a thief, a liar, and a con-artist. She is used to not having a lot and needing to swindle what she can, and so she is out of her depth when she is cast into a palace with opulence at all turns. She is under no illusions that everyone has their own agenda, and that appearances are often skin-deep. It can make for slippery footing as you try to come to grips with a story where there are centuries of history, of alliances and rivalry.
As far as the elemental magic goes, it's generally coherent. The story has some curiosities but non of the "surprises" are overly so. I'm interested to wade into the world and see a little more.
Graphic: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Racism, Police brutality, War, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Sexism, Vomit, Blood, Classism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Infertility, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, and Excrement
Minor: Dementia, Chronic illness, Classism, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Bullying, Cancer, and Abandonment
valleylore's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Blood, Child death, War, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Torture, Alcohol, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore
Minor: Abandonment
brynalexa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Hate crime, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, War, Child death, Torture, Medical content, Violence, Racism, Abandonment, Blood, Alcohol, Slavery, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Child death and Rape
geometricsun's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Minor: Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Gore, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Murder
cutiemuffin23's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Torture, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Colonisation, Slavery, War, Xenophobia, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Emotional abuse, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Antisemitism, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Infertility, Biphobia, Homophobia, Grief, Confinement, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, and Alcohol
saric7's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Ali’s character kept this book from being terrible. I would love to have seen him get his own book instead of being tertiary and part of a subpar love triangle.
Graphic: Child death, Genocide, and Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, War, Slavery, Trafficking, and Racial slurs
Minor: Homophobia, Rape, and Abandonment
macknificent's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I was fine with only reading one of the books until I got to the very end, now I'll need to read the next entry in the trilogy. I'm not mad it's just a rather cliche trick to pull.
Graphic: Classism, Xenophobia, War, Slavery, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Misogyny
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Grief, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Cancer, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content
abigails_books's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Daevastana...the land of the Daevas...it was said to be a violent, terrifying time. Most people embraced their new tribes, clinging together for survival and forming within the tribes caste groups determined by their new abilities. Some were shapeshifters, others could manipulate metals, some could conjure up rare goods, and so forth. None could do it all, and the tribes were too busy fighting each other to even consider revenge against Suleiman...But brilliant as he might have been, Suleiman failed to consider the consequences of giving my people solid, mortal bodies."
Wow, I loved this book. From start to finish I was mesmerized by the colorful, descriptive magic Chakraborty details in The City of Brass, the debut novel in The Daevabad Trilogy.
Spoiler
The book is split into two narrators: Nahri and Ali, who live very different lives but end up entangled in each other's worlds soon enough. At the start, we're introduced to the Nahri, an Egyptian con-woman who uses her healing abilities to get by on the rough streets of Cairo, until one day she accidentally summons a being she didn't believe existed—a Daeva, or Djinn, as known to humans—and she soon learns that she is also a Daeva.
Spirited away on a journey with her protective Daeva—Dara—Nahri learns about the magical world around her, and the history of her long-lost family, the Nahid's—who were all murdered, the last of them when she was born 20 years ago. Nahri and Dara return to the city she should have been raised in, the city that was once ruled by her family, Daevabad, where she walks into the political divides between the six tribes of the Djinn, struggles to understand her own heritage and that of the usurpers that now rule the city.
There she meets Ali, the second son of the now-King of Daevabad, who we are now familiar with as a narrator. While Ali is a prince, he can never marry and is expected to be Qaid, or the head of his brother, Muntadhir, and future king's, protective guard. Ali has trained his entire life to be the ultimate fighter with his zulfiqar, a weapon unique to his tribe—but he also wants a better life for the Shafit, a group of people who have mixed Djinn and human blood, who are at the bottom of the class system and suffer under the city's reign. Ali is a deeply conflicted character, struggling against his family duty and what he believes to be right, all the while developing a friendship with Nahri, the last of the Nahid's, his ancestral enemy.
"Deadly and swift, it was nonetheless easily cured by a single visit to a Nahid. Except there weren't any more Nahids...There was no substitute for a Nahid healer, and that was a dark truth that most people—Ali included—tried not to think about."
Magic, politics, beauty, love, class, fear, and violence are all key features in this book and I loved every page. The myth of the Djinn brought to life was so much more fantastical, mesmerizing, and real than I ever thought it would be. Nahri was such a fantastic heroine to follow along with—feisty and powerful and unwilling to be taken advantage of by any of the men that attempt to do so. And while she and Ali seem to be on different ends of a political spectrum, they are actually so similar. Their friendship and the subsequent thin lines between what is right and what is political are so powerfully told in this story. The love story is complex and left me wanting more, even till the last page's ultimate cliffhanger. I cannot wait to pick up the rest of the story in The Kingdom of Copper.
"You're my Banu Nahida. This is my city...Nothing will keep me from either of you."
Moderate: Violence, Abandonment, War, Slavery, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Rape
dracorum's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Abandonment, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Slavery
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Medical content, Racial slurs, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Rape