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S. A. Chakraborty: The City of Brass (Paperback, 2018, Harper Voyager)

Paperback, 576 pages

Published Dec. 6, 2018 by Harper Voyager.

ISBN:
978-0-06-267811-9
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5 stars (1 review)

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: 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 hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably …

10 editions

Review of the Whole Series

5 stars

Having finished the series, I felt I was time to add a review. On the occasion I find myself interested in someone's take on an entire series before I commit, I'm often disappointed to not find a condensed review, so I though I'd try and provide that in the hope it helps someone.

I came to the series wanting more from the author, having finished The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. I was drawn to the strong female and queer representation in a time and place where this is uncommon.

This series was a rollercoaster, I went from hating it to loving it almost as much as I cycled between those feelings for every main character. It took me a long time to realize how masterful the writing was to be able to add such nuance to the characters, their flaws and virtues filling a vessel that is far more than …