Book Review
Dec. 8th, 2025 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe City of Brass
by S.A. Chakraborty
This is the first book in a pretty cool (so far) fantasy trilogy. It is set in a medieval, fairy-tale middle east. The main character, Nahri is a young woman making her living on the streets of Cairo via swindles and theft. She also has a gift for healing both herself and others, and can understand and speak any language she hears. In the course of one of her grifts, she accidentally summons a powerful djinn, the former general, Dara. He takes Nahri on a journey to the land of the djinn and their chief city, Daevabad, during which she learns that she is at least part djinn. Once in the city, Nahri is plunged into a world of magic and a den of intrigue between the Al-Qahtani ruling family and the other tribes of djinn. She forms close relationships with both Dara and the youngest prince, Alizayd. The opportunities and dangers Nahri faces are complex and intertwined with deep secrets about the djinn and their history.
I very much enjoyed The City of Brass. It had a really good mix of action and intrigue. I really liked Nahri - her life as a con artist prepared her very well for the machinations of the Al-Qahtani. Plus, under her toughness is a real desire to be a good healer. It was refreshing that Nahri's relationships with Dara and Ali were not played as a typical love triangle. The question wasn't who she would end up with, but how those two relationships would affect her life in Daevabad. There's a lot going on around Nahri that she is not fully aware of and had not figured out by the end of the book - I am eager to see how it all plays out in the rest of the series.
by S.A. Chakraborty
This is the first book in a pretty cool (so far) fantasy trilogy. It is set in a medieval, fairy-tale middle east. The main character, Nahri is a young woman making her living on the streets of Cairo via swindles and theft. She also has a gift for healing both herself and others, and can understand and speak any language she hears. In the course of one of her grifts, she accidentally summons a powerful djinn, the former general, Dara. He takes Nahri on a journey to the land of the djinn and their chief city, Daevabad, during which she learns that she is at least part djinn. Once in the city, Nahri is plunged into a world of magic and a den of intrigue between the Al-Qahtani ruling family and the other tribes of djinn. She forms close relationships with both Dara and the youngest prince, Alizayd. The opportunities and dangers Nahri faces are complex and intertwined with deep secrets about the djinn and their history.
I very much enjoyed The City of Brass. It had a really good mix of action and intrigue. I really liked Nahri - her life as a con artist prepared her very well for the machinations of the Al-Qahtani. Plus, under her toughness is a real desire to be a good healer. It was refreshing that Nahri's relationships with Dara and Ali were not played as a typical love triangle. The question wasn't who she would end up with, but how those two relationships would affect her life in Daevabad. There's a lot going on around Nahri that she is not fully aware of and had not figured out by the end of the book - I am eager to see how it all plays out in the rest of the series.
