Review | The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty

I think I’m going to officially dub 2019 the year of re-reads. I am not sorry.

The current re-reading was prompted by the recent release of Book #2 of the Daevabad Trilogy: Kingdom of Copper. I raced down to the bookstore on its release day – planted myself at the cafe next door to start reading – and soon realized that I had forgotten 95% of what happened in Book #1. So, off I went to the library to find a copy of City of Brass.

This book = Swoon

City of Brass is a multi-perspective story primarily centred on Nahri: a young woman living in Ciaro, who possesses the ability to heal and detect disease in others. She soon encounters a mysterious warrior; learns that she’s a lost daeva princess; and is forced to flee Cairo for her life. A wild chase, political intrigue, and action ensues.

City of Brass is a multi-perspective story primarily centred on Nahri: a young woman living in Ciaro, who possesses an unusual ability to heal. She soon encounters a mysterious warrior; learns that she herself is part-daeva; and is forced to flee Cairo for her life. A wild chase, political intrigue, and action ensues.

What I most appreciated with this re-reading was City of Brass‘s masterful handling of diversity. While representation is 100% important, I’ve often felt that diversity is a tacked-on feature of modern art/literature/film – aka tokenism. (Prime example: the inclusion of sexually-diverse characters in the A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy. I’m looking for a word that means the opposite “subtle” … ) City of Brass features a cast of diverse characters – race/ethnicity, religion, and sexuality – all of whom are embedded in a world where these characteristics make sense and carry meaning. Better: Chakraborty has enough respect for her audience that she doesn’t go about lighting things up with a spotlight or ridiculous stereotypes. The characters are allowed to grow and evolve organically so that, by the end of the book, their traits are traits rather than defining features.

And, really: bravo for that.

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The Details:

• The Book: The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty
• Published: 2017, Harper Voyager
• My Copy: KFPL
• Read date: February 20-27
• Rating: ★★★★★
• You should read this if you like … exploring non-western fairy tales
• Avoid this if you dislike … having “Friend Like Me” stuck in your head