A review by livesinthetub
The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

5.0

books #4-6 of 2022: City of Brass, Kingdom of Copper, and Empire of Gold (pub. 2017, 2019, 2020) by S. A. Chakraborty. this is the most fully realized fictional world with the best storytelling of any fiction I’ve experienced aside from Count of Monte Cristo and Dune (no, I have not read George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire nor J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and I have no plans to: I read fantasy only for very specific reasons, generally writing-related). I recognized elements drawn from the Qur’an, the bible, and even Tarzan and other superhero-esque fiction. packed with action, adventure, and drama, this story, set in Cairo as well as the magical city of Daevabad, in an absolutely compelling series (72 hours as audiobooks). based on Middle Eastern mythology, it includes an array of fantastical creatures such as djinn, ifret, shedus, and many others to bring to life a magical tale with very relevant themes, mainly socio-political: fascism, racism, bigotry, classism, demonization, biological warfare, the problems that result from people being too obedient to authority, but also identity and ecological considerations, etc. the writing is superb and impossible to break yourself away from: I will finally get some sleep after posting this review. I couldn’t find a scene which wasn’t crucial, the dialog is sharp and frequently hilarious, the characters are all rounded and most experience growth, the topics handled are evolved, everything works well, elegantly with the other parts of the work. this story was an extremely ambitious undertaking and it was marvelously well executed. it was a bit more focused on everyone’s feelings than I prefer, though without ever being cloying or sentimental, but I think it addresses personal emotional growth in ways most fiction I’ve read has not, especially not fantasy. I was relieved to find that the author will revisit this world in a new novel coming out in March: River of Silver. this set of books was memorable, though, and will be hard for other fantasy authors to measure up to. I’m glad I read Master of Djinn (2021) earlier this month because it feels like a very poor imitation.