thoughts on City of Brass

These are my thoughts on the book with a brief summary of the book. Read at your own risk for spoilers.

The book starts off a little slow as we are introduced to our characters and setting. We begin with a thief who only steals because she wishes to attend school to become a physician. Nahri is a likeable character that I find myself rooting for. Then we meet Dara, a magical, grumpy being who is 4,000 years in the past. They journey together to the safe haven of a magical city that Dara has not visited in centuries.

This city was overtaken by a family who ousted the ruling family with a genocide. There of course are still people who believe in the magical healers and that their rule should be reinstated. Enter political games and the fun begins.

The characters all have secrets and we see that both from Nahri’s perspective and Ali’s. The racism living within Dara is also apparent through Nahri as she listens to his comments and then shows him that she is just a person, so he seems to begin to rethink how he views shafit, or non-pureblood djinn.

The enslavement and power check of the djinn seems reasonable after seeing Dara do magic that no one being should possess, but to let a creature have so much power only to grant wishes of another being … the bloody history continues before and after the magical world was separated from the human world.

Nahri has always been on her own, but she finds a true friend in Ali, which makes my heart break by the end. Ali, a well-meaning prince bred to kill but only wants to help people unknowingly betrays his family and finds himself exiled while he discovers his own magical lineage and power. They both bond over their thirst for knowledge about the other’s world and their willingness to share it with enthusiasm.

As for the writing style itself, I enjoyed the descriptions and dual perspectives. Seeing things with new and old eyes, the City of Brass comes to life. I personally do not know much about the historical references in this book, nor do I know much about djinn lore except that iron seems to be the metal across fables that stops magic. I am interested to further dive into the history and culture of what this book is based on though. I believe fiction can bring about real interest as I felt the same when I read The Poppy War and followed up with learning about those events.

There are still many questions left unanswered after the first book which makes me want to dive right into the second.