The City of Brass
February 18, 2019 5:11 PM - by S. A Chakraborty - Subscribe

The future of a magical Middle Eastern kingdom rests in the hands of a clever and defiant young con artist with miraculous healing gifts.

“You're some kind of thief, then?"
"That a very narrow-minded way of looking at it. I prefer to think of myself as a merchant of delicate tasks.”
posted by Chrysostom (10 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Loved this book, but was perturbed by the ending. It kind of feels like she ended up in an abusive relationship? I can’t exactly remember how it ended, but it definitely left me feel amiss - and not looking forward to continuing the story.

Which bummed me out, because I really enjoyed the first 4/5ths of the book.
posted by weed donkey at 10:04 PM on February 18, 2019


[spoilers, obv]

The ending is: Dara is apparently killed. Ali is sent into exile. Nahri is going to have to marry Muntadhir, the heir to throne. It's clearly going to be a loveless match, but I guess I didn't feel it would be abusive? It's a strictly political marriage neither of them are interested in personally, but Muntadhir is not a bad person, I don't think there's any reason to think he would treat her inappropriately.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:18 PM on February 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


No, it was Dara. He did some crazy shit, and she still loved him - that was what made me uncomfortable. Like, he kidnaps her? He threatens to kill Ali if she doesn't leave with him. And then, after kidnapping her, he completely loses his shit and kills an entire army before Ali stops him. Despite all of that insanity, she still somehow loves him and wants to raise him from the dead. That was a big WTF from me - fuck Dara. He was completely psychopathic at the end.

Everyone, the whole book, was like "Dara is bad news". And then, surprise, he was.
posted by weed donkey at 10:36 PM on February 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


Fair enough, but I think Dara isn't under his own control at that point? There's definitely something going on with the ring. But I hear you.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:01 PM on February 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I read this back in December & enjoyed the world building and was also into the book until the end. I think the book suffers a bit by being the first book of a trilogy. It felt a lot like toward the end that things were just getting set up for the sequel, and that this book wasn't going to have a real resolution as its own thing.
posted by Jugwine at 1:07 PM on February 20, 2019 [1 favorite]


Very much agree with Jugwine. I have the second book in the trilogy on hold at the library, but I fully expect it to feel like it lacks a beginning AND an end.

I hope the sequel leans heavily on the court intrigue/politics/history of Daevabad, as I think that was the strongest element of the first book to me. I'm sure Dara' s coming back, but I wouldn't mind an extended hiatus from that storyline.
posted by the primroses were over at 1:38 PM on February 20, 2019 [2 favorites]


My library copy of book 2 just came today. I do know that it goes more multiple viewpoint, rather than just Ali and Nahri.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:24 PM on February 20, 2019


FanFare for The Kingdom of Copper posted.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:10 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


What was with the last line of the epilogue? Is Nahri actually Manizheh?
posted by azalea_chant at 8:08 AM on March 8, 2019


Nahri is not actually Manizheh, no.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:06 AM on March 8, 2019


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