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A review by sreddous
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The worldbuilding is really what shines in this book. The scenery and architecture is dazzling here. Every room, city, palace, stretch of desert, is described beautifully. There's a great sense of adventure here, and the sizes of the landscapes and how far all the characters go both in the city and around the region really have weight. This feels like a big, scary, magical WORLD, and that's super fun.
The princes and king are especially interesting characters -- it's really satisfying to watch Ali try to be a good leader but his naivete and youth make him not-always-efficient, and it's cool to watch his brother and father have to try to navigate political things as more-experienced people around him.
A few things didn't really work for me though -- in the beginning of the book, it makes sense that Nahri has a prickly personality and doesn't trust easily. But her quick temper started becoming annoying by the middle and ending of the book, because a lot of times she was pushing back on, and arguing with... people who were, like, definitely right and she was definitely wrong. This book is long, so the fact that she didn't really grow in that regard became pretty frustrating for me because by the time I saw her being snarky and causing fights near the end of the book, I was like, "lol, what are you going to ruin now, sigh."
I think that's partially the reason the romances didn't really work for me either. With all the fighting and bickering it's hard to see where any connections and love blossom, and it makes me not really care about rooting for which romance arc is "going to work out" per se.
The ending is high-stakes and terrifying and amazing though. For me personally, I'd definitely say that the plot overall is exciting and that the intrigue of the politics and magic and world itself can make up for any times that the characters themselves do things that aren't working for me.
The princes and king are especially interesting characters -- it's really satisfying to watch Ali try to be a good leader but his naivete and youth make him not-always-efficient, and it's cool to watch his brother and father have to try to navigate political things as more-experienced people around him.
A few things didn't really work for me though -- in the beginning of the book, it makes sense that Nahri has a prickly personality and doesn't trust easily. But her quick temper started becoming annoying by the middle and ending of the book, because a lot of times she was pushing back on, and arguing with... people who were, like, definitely right and she was definitely wrong. This book is long, so the fact that she didn't really grow in that regard became pretty frustrating for me because by the time I saw her being snarky and causing fights near the end of the book, I was like, "lol, what are you going to ruin now, sigh."
I think that's partially the reason the romances didn't really work for me either. With all the fighting and bickering it's hard to see where any connections and love blossom, and it makes me not really care about rooting for which romance arc is "going to work out" per se.
The ending is high-stakes and terrifying and amazing though. For me personally, I'd definitely say that the plot overall is exciting and that the intrigue of the politics and magic and world itself can make up for any times that the characters themselves do things that aren't working for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery