The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
City of Brass
Kingdom of Copper
Empire of Gold
On the streets of eighteenth-century Cairo, Nahri is a con woman of unsurpassed skill. She makes her living swindling Ottoman nobles, hoping to one day earn enough to change her fortunes. But when Nahri accidentally summons Dara, an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior, during one of her cons, she learns that even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.
Forced to flee Cairo, Dara and Nahri journey together across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire and rivers where the mythical marid sleep, past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises and mountains where the circling birds of prey are more than what they seem, to Daevabad, the legendary city of brass.
It’s a city steeped in magic and fire, where blood can be as dangerous as any spell; a city where old resentments urn deep and the royal court rules with a tenuous grip; a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound - and where her very presence threatens to ignite a war that has been simmering for centuries.
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This book series has stolen my heart completely. WHY did it take me so long to finally pick up?! I think I knew in some small way that it would destroy me but every second of this series was worth the hurt. Chakraborty is an expert storyteller and the writing in these novels was so rich and beautiful that it was extremely hard to pull myself away and out of her world. I never wanted it to end and I never wanted to leave. I physically felt like I was there, in Daevabad experiencing everything that these beloved characters experienced. Nahri, Ali, and especially Dara are top tier characters that will be hard to beat with any other series I read this year, or ever honestly. It had the rich storytelling of One Thousand and One Nights with the excitement of modern fantasy, splashes of historical fiction, and the action of top tier adventure novels. I loved it from start to finish and I will definitely read anything this author writes in the future.
This series follows the story of Nahri, a young orphan from Cairo thrown into a world and a legacy she never wanted any part of, and Ali, a rebel prince who is torn between loyalty and goodness. The first book follows the discovery of this new world for Nahri, her hesitation in belonging, her journey into trust and ultimate danger as she becomes a pawn in a game much larger than herself in a city where her ancestors once ruled in tyranny. As we follow along Nahri’s journey we jump forward five years in the second book to how she’s adapted to the city and its games after losing everything dear to her. As she tries to keep her feet in a city hurdling towards destruction while simultaneously finding her calling as a healer and attempting to remake her family image. Finally, in book three, we see the culmination of centuries of hate and religious differences come to a head with the cities’ fate left in the hands of a not-entirely-Daeva Prince and a healer who isn’t at all what she claims to be. As we delve deeper into the story, Dara, the djinn warrior that brought Nahri into all this mess becomes more and more important and watching his struggles with faith and loyalty is the ultimate heartache. Every character brought this story to life in the most vivid of ways.
It’s hard to choose what my favourite thing about this series was. The character development was amazing. We watched each of our characters go from slightly grey morality to ultimate heroes but without losing their flaws, instead, turning those flaws into strengths. But one piece of this series that stands out above all else for me was Dara’s journey. I fell in love with this character in book one so seeing the descent he took in book two broke my heart and his struggle through book three and all he’d been through tore those last shreds of my heart into further bloody pieces. This is a character that has done the absolute unthinkable in the name of his beliefs, groomed from a young age into a weapon of mass destruction and in this series his growth in finally recognizing things for what they are and making his own decisions for the first time in his life which was beautiful to see. And even though I loved this character, I hated so many of his choices. He is a prime example of why it was hard throughout this series to truly hate or love any of the characters (except for one, it was REALLY easy to hate the main baddy).
I did feel that Nahri had less character growth than the other two characters. Maybe that was because she didn’t have as far to go for redemption? But I did find some of her childish thoughts frustrating, mainly because the way she reacted to things is exactly how any person thrust into those situations WOULD have reacted. And her not immediately knowing the right thing to do made us readers face the reality that it’s not always that easy to be the hero. Ali, on the other hand, had a ways to go to earn my respect after so many blunders in the first book. He starts off as a somewhat selfish zealot. He claims to want equality and fairness yet carries out his fathers abominable orders as if he has no other choice but to obey. I didn’t like the hypocrisy of his character in the first book but the jump in growth at the beginning of book two was astounding. It was sudden, yet not at all unbelievable because of the five year gap and once we got to know the grown-up Ali who knew where he stood in his beliefs, I admired his characterization so much. His naivety is what makes him loveable, but he has the heart of a warrior and a leader.
The constantly warring tribes, harsh religious differences, politics grounded in racism, and the endless cycle of revenge was such a good depiction of actual history and held such similarities to a lot of real wars and power struggles that happened in the Middle East during that time that I wasn’t entirely convinced I wasn’t reading historical fiction. The attention to detail was so good and the subtle hints to the origins of each tribe was prime story-telling. I have such a yearning now to read more of this type of lore to better understand the legends brought to life in this series.
Overall, I can see this series being the best series I’ll read this year and has definitely become a fast favourite of mine. If you like fantasy, you cannot miss this series. It’s everything. 5 stars, but I’d give it 5 million. Read it immediately!