The City of Brass

Books | Fiction / Fantasy / Epic

(5.4K)

S. A. Chakraborty

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Library Journal | Vulture | The Verge | SYFYWireStep into The City of Brass, the spellbinding debut from S. A. Chakraborty perfect for fans of The Golem and the Jinni, The Grace of Kings, and Uprooted, in which the future of a magical Middle Eastern kingdom rests in the hands of a clever and defiant young con artist with miraculous healing gifts. On the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, Nahri is a con woman of unsurpassed skill. She makes her living swindling Ottoman nobles, hoping to one day earn enough to change her fortunes. But when Nahri accidentally summons Dara, an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior, during one of her cons, she learns that even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences. Forced to flee Cairo, Dara and Nahri journey together across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire and rivers where the mythical marid sleep, past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises and mountains where the circling birds of prey are more than what they seem, to Daevabad, the legendary city of brass. It’s a city steeped in magic and fire, where blood can be as dangerous as any spell; a city where old resentments run deep and the royal court rules with a tenuous grip; a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound—and where her very presence threatens to ignite a war that has been simmering for centuries. *Finalist for the World Fantasy Award: Best Novel*Nominated for the Locus Award: Best First Novel*Finalist for the British Fantasy Award: Best NewcomerFeaturing a stepback and extra content including a bonus scene and an excerpt from The Kingdom of Copper.

Fantasy

High Fantasy

Magic

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Author

S. A. Chakraborty

Pages

576

Publisher

HarperCollins

Published Date

2017-11-14

ISBN

0062678124 9780062678126

Ratings

Google: 5

Community ReviewsSee all

"I genuinely couldn’t put it down. I don’t want it to ever be made into a movie because the image I have in my head is so vivid and beautiful..can’t even trust HBO after what they did to GOT. If you’re looking for a new world to dive into, look no further. "

Diana

"I am not into reading fantasy books. I avoided Harry Potter and the likes. I prefer to watch theses books as movies. However, what an excellent read this was - wow - yes some some chapters a bit too stretched before getting to the meat of the book and descriptions about the tribes but I enjoyed this book a lot and the creativity is absolutely in every page! Well written for sure!"

Boujeh

"I appreciated the characters here. The narrative and story building had my attention slipping a bit. Was drawn to a fantasy novel around Middle Eastern culture and was hoping for more of that. I can see the appeal to the story just had other expectations. "

J H

Joe H

"This book took me forever to finish, the beginning is slow with all the world building but it is worth it because she created a BEAUTIFUL world. But the end, the cliff hanger (as it is the first of a trilogy) are most definitely worth it. I absolutely love the change and growth the main character, Nahri, goes through. In the end you can see a night and day difference, from a scared poor girl scavenging to survive, to a self made calculating queen in the making. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorn :)"

S C

Soni C.

"Binge worthy. "

T C

Trish Campbell

"Dnf This was very difficult to read. Partly my fault and partly the writing style. To be honest I'm ignorant to most middle eastern culture so I had to research as I read but it was nice to gain more knowledge of their customs. This story wasn't for me. The writing style gave me a migraine. While I appreciate the glossary, I felt it was very distracting as it stalled my pace. The plot also dragged, so on top of research and flipping to the glossary, after hours I had gotten nowhere it seemed. Of course I love maps and was so happy The City of Brass included one. Also the details of each tribe in the opening was a nice touch. Their resources/landscape is always welcome information that help me build the world and above board world building it was indeed. While I enjoy traveling with fictional characters, I couldn't get invested with Nari and Dara. Also this happens quite often in fantasy but its off-putting to me when century year old character acts childish. It's not just not natural and makes it hard to connect with them."

Ashley

"Extremely well written and enjoyable - the characters are incredible, the world building is amazing, and the story is full of action and personality and general awesomeness - but it is loooooooong. And between all the the general awesomeness there is just a wee bit too much tediousness that had me very quickly losing patience with everyone and everything. It's also full of ruthless and conniving politics that gave me a headache and didn't help with the whole losing patience thing. "

M L

Maren L

"City of Brass was an interesting read. I definitely love the setting, and even the characters I was sort of "meh" on at first I grew to appreciate immensely. I won't go through the entire book, there's too much there. What started as a casual fantasy read for me evolved into a compulsion to read the entire series. Those last few chapters! That epilogue! I felt like everything we thought we knew about the situation got turned on it's head in those moments, and I loved every minute of it."

A G

Alicia Gudge

"I Enjoyed this book. The storyline transports you away into exotic settings full of magic and mystery. I do have to say that a good chunk of the book is buildup and it drags on the plot a bit but once you make your way through all the character intros and the different religious/political groups you really start to get into the magic behind the story (It has an Alladin/Jasmin essence to it with the flying magic carpet ride). The ending itself was a bit on the weak side but of course it leaves much room for the storyline to expand into the 2nd book. Having invested a lot of time in this book, I have already purchased the 2nd and look forward to seeing how the rest of the story unfolds. Overall a good read, could have deff. been a shorter book."

Chrissyg

"Book 1"

Reagan

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