Book Review: The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Book One of the Daevabad Trilogy

Genre: fantasy

4 stars

Another one from my yearly TBR tackled. City of Brass is one that has been sitting on my shelves for a minute now. I bought it when it first came out and also already own the second in the trilogy. 

We have Nahri, a con woman on the streets of Cairo, who doesn’t believe in magic. She knows how to work the system in her favor and has big dreams, until she accidentally summons djinn. Now what she thought were childhood stories to keep children in line, is now real in front of her. The djinn shows here that there is a whole world right under her nose, a world full of mystery and magic. During this unplanned adventure Nahri discovers secrets about herself and her connection to Daevabad, The City of Brass. Enter a range of characters, both good and bad. Grudges that have been held for centuries and all the schemes.

This story is full of political intrigue and adventure. It’s also full of rich detail, that makes for feel transported. I can see why so many people love this story. I both listened to the audiobook and read it. Lately that has been something that I love doing, especially now that I’ve started using Scribd. Nahri is an interesting character, I personally always love when a character starts as a con woman. For some reason, for me it adds so much depth to a character. It typically means that the character has already lived a life unlike anyone else. It also typically means that the character already has a bit if strength.

COB is written in multiple POVs, which for me is always a good thing. We have Nahri and Alizayd, son of Daveabad’s king. I love multiple POVs, for me it always makes a story that bit more interesting, especially when the characters start of in different areas and they have to make their way towards each other. 

Warning though, I did find it a bit slow paced. Sometimes that can really do me in and I DNF a story, but what helped me was that I was listening the audiobook. I find that when listening to an audiobook I can push myself to get through a story. In this case it was worth it and I’m excited to get to the next installment. I’ll most likely listen to the audiobook again, since I am just so into them. Audiobooks have been really helping me tackle my TBR. I’m going too continue listening to these, I might wait until it’s a bit closer to the conclusion, so I can marathon the rest of the trilogy. 

Have you read The City of Brass? I’d love to know your thoughts

Advertisement