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Sep. 7th, 2019 08:23 amI spent the entire first book of S.A. Chakraborty's epic Muslim fantasy trilogy, City of Brass, trying to figure out how I felt about the series. Midway through the second book, Kingdom of Copper, I decided that overall I thought it was very impressive and my mixed feelings were largely because it's also VERY STRESSFUL.
The books are set in an extremely complicated world of djinn politics: to be honest, I don't always follow the details of who is angry at who for which historical/mythological reason, but the main groups right now that we're concerned with are
a.) the Daevas, part of a fire-worshipping religious subset who used to be the ruling clan led by a family of Suleiman-endorsed magical healers, the Nahids, but were overthrown in a rebellion a few centuries ago and are now a moderately oppressed minority in the city they used to rule; angry at absolutely everyone
b.) the shafit, a half-human half-djinn underclass; were oppressed to the point of potential genocide by the Daevas, who consider them an abomination under their particular religious rules, but are not actually much better off under the current regime; also angry at everyone, but the Daevas especially
c.) the al Qahtanis, the current ruling djinn family; still riding high on a reputation as righteous desert rebels who overthrew the Daevas and the Nahids because of their moderately genocidal behavior towards the shafit, but not really doing a currently great job creating a better society for anyone, including the members of their own clan who still live out in the desert rather than as fancy nobility in the city
Also, there are also several other extremely powerful supernatural players with their own historical grudges against the entirety of djinn society complicating matters, so THAT'S fun.
Obviously, the whole situation is a powder keg, and the kind of powder keg that's extremely difficult to resolve; everyone has a lot of historical atrocities that were committed on them that they're righteously angry about, and also a lot of historical atrocities that they committed on other people in attempts to right those wrongs, and at this point -- as with most comparable real-world situations -- it's all a huge mess with no clear answer as to what a 'just' solution would be, which is a large part of the reason the book is so impressive and yet also so stressful!
And, of course, the major players are all aligned with different elements:
a.) Our Heroine Nahri, who grew up as a street rat in Ottoman Cairo and gets dropped in the middle of magical djinn political nonsense when it turns out that a.) she's the long-lost daughter of the last Nahid princess, who died under mysterious circumstances several decades ago and b.) very much appears to be also partly human; I had mixed feelings about her in the first book but liked her increasingly well in the second as she became less one hundred percent focused on getting out of the situation in the city and more interested in trying to figure out ways to improve it
b.) Our Hero Ali al Qahtani, second son of the current ruler, an earnest disaster child with extremely strong religious beliefs and an overwhelming sense of ETHICS and JUSTICE that leads him to commit righteous political suicide over and over and over again in attempts to try and create a better situation for the shafit; my favorite
c.) Dara, a long-lost legendary Daeva warrior who committed a lot of war crimes and then was enslaved by ifrit (as distinct from djinn) for several hundred years; Nahri's initial love interest, until she finds out about all the war crimes, and then things get more complicated; my least favorite
d.) the other al Qahtanis: Ali's brother Muntadhir, the charming and sybaritic heir to the throne who is more warmly inclined towards the Daevas than the rest of his family due to his extremely close [cough] relationship with his sweet Daeva bodyguard Jamsheed, and Ali's sister Zaynab, their father's favorite and the only person who is generally on good terms with everyone in her family on any given day
I'm very invested in:
a.) Ali and Nahri's friendship, which, at the points when they're not enemies due to plot, is extremely adorable and based on the fact that at heart they're both secretly HUGE NERDS who love history and weird old books; there's a large part of book 2 where they're collaborating together to build a hospital and various ominous plot points are moving in the background and I'm just like STOP EVERYTHING ELSE AND LET ME HAVE A NICE HOSPITAL SHOW!
(It seems likely that the trilogy is going to end up endgame shipping Ali and Nahri and that's fine, better to spend two books building up the friendship rather than springing Oh No S/he's Hot right from the first meeting, but secretly I'm a little like 'do we have to? they're so cute right now as pals!')
b.) Ali's relationship with his siblings, which is great but doomed in the first book and a complete mess in the second book but maybe will be better again in the third book? one can dream
c.) Muntadhir and Jamsheed, slightly reluctantly and late-breaking; honestly the romance bit of this is only minimally on the page so mostly I started out like "well Jamsheed seems nice and I want him to be happy although that seems unlikely given the givens," but Muntadhir wormed his way into my affections at the very end of book two and now I guess I care
d.) most importantly, Ali and Nahri both continuing to be people who firmly believe that mass slaughter is generally unacceptable, rather than being driven by various sorrows and trauma and betrayals to consider that mass slaughter might be OK in the right circumstances and directed towards the right people; part of the reason the books are so stressful is that I kept worrying that this was going to be the kind of story where Everyone Gets Hardened and Crosses The Line Eventually, but I think? it's going to be okay?? MAYBE. I hope I don't regret typing this when the third book comes out
ANyway, the third book seems likely to take us back to human Cairo for the first time since the very beginning of the trilogy, so right now I'm operating under the pleasant delusion that the entire first half of the plot will be Ali and Nahri having a nice human food tour; please don't try to change my mind.
The books are set in an extremely complicated world of djinn politics: to be honest, I don't always follow the details of who is angry at who for which historical/mythological reason, but the main groups right now that we're concerned with are
a.) the Daevas, part of a fire-worshipping religious subset who used to be the ruling clan led by a family of Suleiman-endorsed magical healers, the Nahids, but were overthrown in a rebellion a few centuries ago and are now a moderately oppressed minority in the city they used to rule; angry at absolutely everyone
b.) the shafit, a half-human half-djinn underclass; were oppressed to the point of potential genocide by the Daevas, who consider them an abomination under their particular religious rules, but are not actually much better off under the current regime; also angry at everyone, but the Daevas especially
c.) the al Qahtanis, the current ruling djinn family; still riding high on a reputation as righteous desert rebels who overthrew the Daevas and the Nahids because of their moderately genocidal behavior towards the shafit, but not really doing a currently great job creating a better society for anyone, including the members of their own clan who still live out in the desert rather than as fancy nobility in the city
Also, there are also several other extremely powerful supernatural players with their own historical grudges against the entirety of djinn society complicating matters, so THAT'S fun.
Obviously, the whole situation is a powder keg, and the kind of powder keg that's extremely difficult to resolve; everyone has a lot of historical atrocities that were committed on them that they're righteously angry about, and also a lot of historical atrocities that they committed on other people in attempts to right those wrongs, and at this point -- as with most comparable real-world situations -- it's all a huge mess with no clear answer as to what a 'just' solution would be, which is a large part of the reason the book is so impressive and yet also so stressful!
And, of course, the major players are all aligned with different elements:
a.) Our Heroine Nahri, who grew up as a street rat in Ottoman Cairo and gets dropped in the middle of magical djinn political nonsense when it turns out that a.) she's the long-lost daughter of the last Nahid princess, who died under mysterious circumstances several decades ago and b.) very much appears to be also partly human; I had mixed feelings about her in the first book but liked her increasingly well in the second as she became less one hundred percent focused on getting out of the situation in the city and more interested in trying to figure out ways to improve it
b.) Our Hero Ali al Qahtani, second son of the current ruler, an earnest disaster child with extremely strong religious beliefs and an overwhelming sense of ETHICS and JUSTICE that leads him to commit righteous political suicide over and over and over again in attempts to try and create a better situation for the shafit; my favorite
c.) Dara, a long-lost legendary Daeva warrior who committed a lot of war crimes and then was enslaved by ifrit (as distinct from djinn) for several hundred years; Nahri's initial love interest, until she finds out about all the war crimes, and then things get more complicated; my least favorite
d.) the other al Qahtanis: Ali's brother Muntadhir, the charming and sybaritic heir to the throne who is more warmly inclined towards the Daevas than the rest of his family due to his extremely close [cough] relationship with his sweet Daeva bodyguard Jamsheed, and Ali's sister Zaynab, their father's favorite and the only person who is generally on good terms with everyone in her family on any given day
I'm very invested in:
a.) Ali and Nahri's friendship, which, at the points when they're not enemies due to plot, is extremely adorable and based on the fact that at heart they're both secretly HUGE NERDS who love history and weird old books; there's a large part of book 2 where they're collaborating together to build a hospital and various ominous plot points are moving in the background and I'm just like STOP EVERYTHING ELSE AND LET ME HAVE A NICE HOSPITAL SHOW!
(It seems likely that the trilogy is going to end up endgame shipping Ali and Nahri and that's fine, better to spend two books building up the friendship rather than springing Oh No S/he's Hot right from the first meeting, but secretly I'm a little like 'do we have to? they're so cute right now as pals!')
b.) Ali's relationship with his siblings, which is great but doomed in the first book and a complete mess in the second book but maybe will be better again in the third book? one can dream
c.) Muntadhir and Jamsheed, slightly reluctantly and late-breaking; honestly the romance bit of this is only minimally on the page so mostly I started out like "well Jamsheed seems nice and I want him to be happy although that seems unlikely given the givens," but Muntadhir wormed his way into my affections at the very end of book two and now I guess I care
d.) most importantly, Ali and Nahri both continuing to be people who firmly believe that mass slaughter is generally unacceptable, rather than being driven by various sorrows and trauma and betrayals to consider that mass slaughter might be OK in the right circumstances and directed towards the right people; part of the reason the books are so stressful is that I kept worrying that this was going to be the kind of story where Everyone Gets Hardened and Crosses The Line Eventually, but I think? it's going to be okay?? MAYBE. I hope I don't regret typing this when the third book comes out
ANyway, the third book seems likely to take us back to human Cairo for the first time since the very beginning of the trilogy, so right now I'm operating under the pleasant delusion that the entire first half of the plot will be Ali and Nahri having a nice human food tour; please don't try to change my mind.
