A review by jenn_geeks_out
The Kingdom of Copper, by S.A. Chakraborty
5.0
The plot of the previous book was complex and intricately woven, and it had been a while since I read the first one, so I was a bit worried to jump in without rereading the first one. Thanks to the good people at recaptains.co.uk who recap previous books in a series, I ended up being good to go and was able to jump right into this one again.
I love that the plot is complicated. No one character stands out as wholly in the right or wholly in the wrong. Good and evil are largely absent in the one-dimensional Disney way. Instead, the reader is presented with tribal loyalties, superstition, tradition, and cold pragmatism. In that sense, this book about mythological beings seems all too real; their political intrigues could be the story of any nation. While reading it, it was difficult to decide whom to root for and was ever-changing. See for example: this book made me like Muntadhir. Mundtadhir!
This book also deserves five stars because it doesn't suffer the same fate as many middle books in the trilogy. Many times, middle books seem like they don't have any narrative arc or resolution of their own: they just exist to set up the payoff in the final installment. Kingdom of Copper doesn't suffer from that syndrome.
I love that the plot is complicated. No one character stands out as wholly in the right or wholly in the wrong. Good and evil are largely absent in the one-dimensional Disney way. Instead, the reader is presented with tribal loyalties, superstition, tradition, and cold pragmatism. In that sense, this book about mythological beings seems all too real; their political intrigues could be the story of any nation. While reading it, it was difficult to decide whom to root for and was ever-changing. See for example: this book made me like Muntadhir. Mundtadhir!
This book also deserves five stars because it doesn't suffer the same fate as many middle books in the trilogy. Many times, middle books seem like they don't have any narrative arc or resolution of their own: they just exist to set up the payoff in the final installment. Kingdom of Copper doesn't suffer from that syndrome.