The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

Stringing inspiration from lores of Turkish, Arabic, Assyrian, Egyptian, and other domains in Western Asia, S.A. Chakraborty offers “The City of Brass” as a fresh concoction of magic, djinns, and mythical beings. This is a book I immensely enjoyed and packs all things I want in a fantasy novel and more.

Set around 1800s in a time touching Ottoman Empire rule in Cairo, con artist and healer Nahri, proffers medicines and procedures to assuage illnesses and mishaps to her ‘marks’ in exchange of hefty prices. Driven to accumulate a coffer that would help her change her fate and become a true medical practitioner, she will do anything to breathe life to this dream. Yet all are but lies in what she offers until she finally gleans there is truth to her abilities to heal when during a Zar ceremony – a ritual of songs, dances, and offerings to cure the possessed – she sang an old chant that summons a djinn.

Dara, having been unceremoniously called for vowed to kill his summoner. In an onslaught of ghouls led by an ifrit, Dara concludes it was the Banu Nahida, perhaps the only remaining Nahid healer of the Daeva tribe, that summoned him. Bound by his duty as a daeva warrior, he and Nahri travels to the hidden city of Daevabad. Both are catapulted to a series of events that would unfold the many faces of secrets of men and djinns – a multi-faceted exposition that would change Nahri’s life forever.

Chakraborty has a decent world-building in the bag. This is one of the most fascinating and entertaining fantasy worlds I have read in a while. Daevabad is a magical city folded in with political intrigue, a history encompassing a millennia, century-old grudges, and tribal incongruities. There were so many vivid descriptions in the structures and being an own voices Muslim tale, I lived for the rich culture and religion at play. There are also many familiar elements used here such as Suleiman’s seal, ifrits, rukhs, and djinn slavery that are commonly used in olden tales. I appreciated how Chakraborty picked through these and took elements which she molded as her own.

The magic system is very complex and quite vague. Readers are made known that the Creator had four major beings placed in this world – daevas, creatures of fire; marids, creatures of water; peris, creatures of air; and humans, creatures of earth. Except for humans, all of which seemed able to wield magic not necessarily true to their origin. Dara, for an instance, is capable of creating sandstorms which should have been much suited to a peri. On the same boat, a shedu breathes fire but they are creatures of the air. The extent of magic one can wield is not fully laid out so I am not sure what is at stake when someone uses magic to the extreme. Also, there is a power-scaling issue that I think would have made sense if better explained. So in a scene before Nahri and Dara reached Daevabad, a marid is stonger than a daeva but a peri outclasses a marid. However, it left me thinking that if that is absolute then why are the peris not rallying against djinns? There must be some reason to it which I would love to see tackled in the next installments.

People following me know that I live for diversity and yes this book prospers in it. In an event that divided the daevas into six tribes, it brought forth so much diversity in the physical attributes, cultures, and even ideals in this book that realistically reflects the world we are in today. If there is one thing o complain about, that would be that I felt there is queer-baiting in three of the characters here. If you are keen to the allusions, you’d definitely catch that these characters are not straight. Chakraborty could have been more upfront with this and is something I wished to be addressed in the succeeding books.

“Someone steals from me, I steal from others, and I’m sure the people I stole from will eventually take something that doesn’t belong to them. It’s a circle. ” 

Although there is quite a pacing issue, this tale is rich and packed to the brim. I kind of lost the plot a bit about half to 75% of the book due to extensive expounding. Despite that, I genuinely thought that the writing is elegantly entertaining and one that is not afraid to skirt around many issues that could be shoved under the rug at times. It tackled oppression (purebloods versus mixedbloods), caste system, slavery, cultural norms/shackles e.g. cultural crossovers, rape, sexual inequalities (male vs female), the upshots of war and deep rooted grievances in a way that fluidly molds in her story. What also stands out is the use of two perspectives and the characters used are definitely effective to compare and contrast. We follow Nahri as she assumes the duties of her birthright while the people behind he clan’s demise reigns, an awkward situation to be in. I liked that she is the chosen one that does not have all it takes from the start. We see her fail and make wrong decisions and try to recover from them. On the other hand, we also witness Ali’s struggle in living up to his royal duties which often clashes with his ideals. Their paths are opposing and yet there is no black and whites in the turns they took. This is true for many of the characters you will meet in this book. The color is all but gray.

This book is definitely about differences and the compromises we make to uphold what we deem just. It inscribes that despite the differences, there is a commonality in everyone and that might just be the difference that is common. Ultimately, it is a solid adult fantasy debut with complex layers enveloped in its pages. “The City of Brass” definitely left a track for a richer oasis that is yet to be explored in the second book and I can’t wait to be sucked back in Daevabad again.

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• FORMAT: Trade Paperback
• PUBLISHER: Harper voyager
• ISBN-10: 0062678108
• ISBN-13: 9780062678102
• RATING: 4.75 stars