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    The City of Brass
    The City of Brass
    The City of Brass
    Audiobook19 hours

    The City of Brass

    Written by Shannon Chakraborty

    Narrated by Soneela Nankani

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Discover this spellbinding debut from Sunday Times bestseller S.A. Chakraborty.

    ‘An extravagant feast of a book – spicy and bloody, dizzyingly magical, and still, somehow, utterly believable’ Laini Taylor, Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author

    Among the bustling markets of eighteenth century Cairo, the city’s outcasts eke out a living swindling rich Ottoman nobles and foreign invaders alike.

    But alongside this new world the old stories linger. Tales of djinn and spirits. Of cities hidden among the swirling sands of the desert, full of enchantment, desire and riches. Where magic pours down every street, hanging in the air like dust.

    Many wish their lives could be filled with such wonder, but not Nahri. She knows the trades she uses to get by are just tricks and sleights of hand: there’s nothing magical about them. She only wishes to one day leave Cairo, but as the saying goes…

    Be careful what you wish for.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 8, 2018
    ISBN9780008239435
    Author

    Shannon Chakraborty

    Shannon Chakraborty is the author of the critically acclaimed and internationally bestselling Daevabad Trilogy. Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages and nominated for the Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, Crawford, and Astounding awards. You can find her online at sachakraborty.com or on Instagram and Twitter as @SAChakrabooks.

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    Reviews for The City of Brass

    4/5

    1,225 ratings69 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be an enjoyable and well-built world with good pacing, intrigue, and believable characters. The narration is praised, and many readers are looking forward to the next books in the series. Some readers express a desire for a different accent in the narration. Overall, readers are gripped by the complex and interesting plot and love the book.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      American accent of narrator really jarring. Should have hired actress/ narrator that sounds a lot less American and more from someone who comes from continent of Asia, or Africa. FYI saying this as a Black British woman
    • 5/5
      So good. The characters are interesting and I am invested. I completed it in one sitting and then picked up the next one. I think I discovered my Series of the Year.

      Pick it up if you like


      ~ stories by poc authors

      ~ strong female characters.
      The female protagonist Nahri is an orphan who belonged to a now extinct group of powerful magical race called nahid. She grows up alone in a Cairo hustling and scamming people who dreams of being a healer one day.

      ~ nerdy, bookish autistic coded male characters. Alizayd al qatani my beloved

      ~ enemies to friends to enemies to
      will they be lovers slow burn ( I ship Ali and Nahri so bad)

      ~ a refreshing brilliantly woven tale of identity, race politics, friendship, love, family and betrayal set in the fictional world of Daevabad (feels like modern day West Asia and North Africa).

      ~ something different
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! I can’t wait for book #2!!!

      All of the characters were so deep and multifaceted and I felt like I was there with them in this world.
    • 5/5
      Complex interesting plot. Gripping. Action filled. Can’t wait to read the next one.
    • 3/5
      I liked the pace, the level of intrigue, sass, mystery and, of course... Magic.
      I started with the next one already.
    • 3/5
      I think I would have liked this to be read with an accent that was not American. Maybe a middle Eastern accent.
    • 5/5
      The lore, the adventure and intrigue was wonderful. Looking forward to reading the next one.
    • 5/5
      I adored this story! And it was so well narrated by Nankani that I had no trouble identifying with several characters. I cannot wait to get my hands on the City of Copper, the second in the series.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable book! Cannot wait to get to the next one
    • 5/5
      The City of Brass was an astounding read despite having a slow beginning and middle. The storytelling and prose, there are no words, well there are many, many words I could use but let’s just go with breathtaking, for now. In this world there is a fascinating magic system and everyone has a little bit of magic in them. Some are more inclined than others but the use of magic is not a strange occurrence and that was so much fun! Also, I am a huge fan of any story that includes Djinn and the plot and subplots in this story was out of this world. Just lovely!There is a ton of political machinations going on in this story, so if political intrigue is your thing then wow, you need to get this book! There are plenty of rules and laws that are applied to the different classes/ethnicities in this story and everything is for a reason, for better or worse. I applaud the amount of effort that went into building this political system and its inner workings because it is spot on and extremely detailed. For those like myself who don’t love political intrigue so much, it was a wee bit…yeah…all that.The characters are all inspiring and fleshed out amazingly well. I felt like I knew the characters intimately. They were very real to me. I feel like Nahri and Prince Alizayd were introduced as very strong characters in the beginning. I also was wondering for the longest time what Prince Ali’s role was in this story because it took forever for them to come together. Anyway, great characters in the beginning, loved them but they seemed to make rash choices and I felt like they regressed as the story went on. By the end I felt that their choices were relatively predictable and they lost their shine for me somewhat.Now I know I just mentioned something about predictability but that is actually what saved this story for me, the ending was nothing like I predicted. I was actually shocked a few times with the twists and turns that took place and that made me extremely happy. I will say that the epilogue alone was the deciding factor for my choice to continue the series. The story was beautifully written but without that epilogue I would not have had anything to really come back for because I was not so in love with the remaining main characters enough to want to continue the journey with them. Overall, The City of Brass was a wondrous story that was a delight to read despite my fussiness and I highly recommend it for all readers.
    • 4/5
      Interesting book. very well built world but did drag on a bit at times. could've been shorter but overall it's an enjoyable listen.
    • 2/5
      I couldn't get into this one, perhaps there were too many unfamiliar terms for me. The context didn't always help. Also the first part of the story seemed to be heading for one of those "they hate each other then they suddenly love each other" stories that is a pet peeve of mine. And there was a lot of pure blood/mixed blood nonsense, not my kind of fantasy. The book was just not a good match for me and I abandoned it. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 5/5
      incredible! well spun and full of believable characters a young girl from Cairo comes to a whole new world she knew nothing about, a city with factions and politics in which neither side is clearly good or bad.
    • 5/5
      It was a re-read (I've read the entire trilogy in 2020 for the first time) and I have to say, I still love it.
    • 5/5
      Well narrated, good story, looking forward to the third book of the daevabad trilogy
    • 3/5
      This book is the story of a thief and orphan girl named Nahri who discovers that she is part of a magical, fantastical world that she never knew existed. I have mixed feelings about this book. On the plus side, it was wonderful to read a fantasy book that wasn't based in "western" mythology. There are far too few fantasy books like that. The writing was good, and the world building was interesting. My biggest problem with this book is that it was at least 200 pages too long. There were parts of it that dragged painfully and that added nothing to the story. This would have been a fantastic 300 page book but 526 was just absolutely unnecessary. Still, it's not a BAD book, and it's almost worth reading just for a taste of another culture that is so hard to find in fantasy literature.
    • 5/5
      *I received an ARC from the publisher thanks to Edelweiss. This does not affect my review.*

      I started this one last year, but ended up putting it down. Why? One, because I had some review deadlines that I had to meet, and two, because early on, I knew this was one of those books that I would love so much that I wouldn't want it to end! So, after six months of putting off the ending, I finally finished this one...and I need more!

      I loved this book, and it really amazed me. I don't normally read things that are Muslim based, so the fact that I loved this one so much amazed me. I normally avoid books about religion because most are anti-Christian and just end up making me mad. This one wasn't like that at all, and only somewhat focused on religion, and mostly avoided using names.

      The characters? -Sigh- Where to start? I enjoyed Nahri's will to survive, and was intrigued by the fact that she was more than she appeared, and than she had magical powers that were strange and yet familiar to her. Dara? Okay, it seems that I fall quickly for at least one character in any YA fantasy that I love. From the first, I was a fan of Dara, but strangely, I also quickly found myself cheering for Ali.

      The world-building is complex and beautiful. I love all the characters and races in this. Many were only mentioned, so I'm hoping to see plenty more creatures throughout the series. The Daeva cities were unique and while not always the cleanest, they were impressive, and I loved seeing how the different tribes handled daily life.
    • 3/5
      We need diverse books, so it's good that this one is in the world.

      It's a very dramatic, intricate tale -- with sweeping blend of new and old mythologies surround the Djinn and their secret city, with a love triangle, court intrigue, mysterious origins, ancient and bitter feuds, caste and racial and religious tensions, oh, and some fascinating magical structures -- it's packed. It's so packed that I found it a bit overwhelming. Also, the characters are full of betrayal and almost anti-heroes, and I found them difficult to love. On the whole, I'm going to go with excellent book, but not my cup of tea. I hope other readers will find it to be their heart's delight.
    • 3/5
      It got better after halfway, but Ali was still the maker of his own problems.
    • 4/5
      a light tale to amuse the djinn in the room
    • 4/5
      Published as adult but reads like YA, in that it’s about identity formation and it MOVES. Total page-turner, despite being massive and ending on a cliffhanger.
    • 3/5
      I thought this was good, but not great. The setting, with its multiple species of magical beings of the elements and humans, is good and interesting. Unfortunately I thought it was poorly described. The characters are good though and definitely drive the story.
    • 3/5
      I liked the two POV characters (Nahri and Ali) and Jamshid, and the setting was interesting. The pacing felt kind of uneven -- the first half of the book dragged on with little happening, and the ending felt rushed and didn't resolve anything. There is a lot of political intrigue, which isn't really my thing, and little time spent on the oppressed shafit themselves as opposed to how they fit into everyone's schemes. I also have little patience for Nahri's continuing infatuation with Dara as he continues to demonstrate just how awful of a person he is.
    • 3/5
      This story was so much better when the main characters meet up in the palace but the first 100 pages did nothing for me reading about the journey to get to the city was a bit of a slog. Two stars for the start and four for the ending.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed the world building, and the characters were very interesting. I got a little confused about some of the terminology, and only discovered the glossary after I'd finished the book. :/ Don't be like me -- find and use the glossary!
    • 5/5
      Nahri is a twenty-ish con artist living in Cairo. She has special healing powers which she uses in her cons. But one of her cons turns her world upside down when she accidentally summons a djinn. She suddenly finds herself travelling with him to Daevabad, a magical city, the City of Brass from the title. There, as a guest in the royal court, she discovers more magic, friendship and scheming to rival her own.
    • 4/5
      I wasn't sure at first with this book - it seemed a little too much YA fantasy with the forbidden romance with the misunderstood "bad boy" and the poor woman who is secretly a princess. It was easy to read though and with small dip in the middle where I was a bit "so what?", the last quarter really tipped things up and I sped throught to the end and it became really interesting. People on LT seem to really like the series so I will get the next one soon.
    • 5/5
      One of the best new fantasy series in awhile
    • 5/5
      This was beautiful. I loved the world. I love the characters. I love the way that everyone is shades of good and bad and the complex political history. I'll admit to getting lost sometimes as to who did what in the past as far as tribes go, but overall that was me being ditzy, not the book not telling me. This plot goes to interesting places that you won't predict, and the sheer beauty of the world is something to enjoy. I love this book. Where's the sequel?
    • 5/5
      I love stories about the Djinn & their histories & stories. This is no less an incredibly moving novel as it is an a story about a lost woman finding home...& that home is both less and more like the place she grew up in.

      Also, the depictions and descriptions of food made me hungry. Yay!