The City of Brass is my book recommendation for the month of October!
One of my big efforts this year has been to expand my library of multicultural literature. The City of Brass, and its sequel The Kingdom of Copper, play with cultures of the Middle East including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and more.
I was fascinated by Chakraborty's exploration of 'djinn', the relationship between enslaved djinn and human masters, the religious and military tensions between the social castes of djinn, and how magic becomes the medium for discourse about social inequality.
Introduced to us as a healer/con artist combo, living on her wits in the streets of Cairo, leading-lady Nahri is certainly no angel. She is, however, full of information about her home. I learned so much about Egyptian culture within the first two chapters that I was almost sent off on another 'Egypt Phase', the likes of which I have not had since middle school. The world building is particularly fun because we, the reader, experience the intrusion of magic right alongside Nahri. As a result, we are just as surprised as Nahri when things start to get weird (boy do they, and how!).
I appreciated the narrative structure of the book, which moves in third person limited but between characters, because the fantastical elements and the complex plot threads would have been too much to process otherwise. Unfortunately, the trap is that we build sympathy for characters who may end up really letting us down, or we're torn between sides of a conflict....I'm still upset about the choices different characters made because they were missing information, or because they refused to compromise. Overall, I laughed, I sorrowed, I yelled, and I cheered... and now I thirst for the final installment.
If you love flawed but complex characters, dramatic irony that will sweep you along, detailed multicultural elements, and political intrigue, then add The City of Brass to your reading list right away.
Let me know when you get a chance to read it. Of course, if you are going to purchase the book, please consider using any of the affiliate links connected to the book title on this page. Send me a comment or email, and don't forget to share this post with others so that they too can read The City of Brass.
Can't wait to hear your thoughts!
-C
**I've read several other stories where a character unwittingly summons a power they are not prepared for, but the only series I can think of that used djinn (as opposed to a genie, a daemon, etc.) is Jonathan Stroud's The Bartimeaus Trilogy (the first book is currently free on kindle with prime). That series still sits right on my shelf though I haven't read it in years. From what I remember, however, it too invloves race relations, political change, and revolves around the relationship between the djinn and human main characters. That series too, I think is worth a read, perhaps more appropriate for younger audiences than City of Brass, and without the same multicultural perspective.