Reviewed by Joséphine on
Initial thoughts: As much as I enjoyed The City of Brass the first time that I listened to the audiobook, I didn’t quite love it enough. My reread of the hardcover in order to continue with the sequels rectified that however. This is a such an intricately woven fantasy set in an alternative historical Middle East, it starts off slow but then suddenly everything you think you know about anything and anyone unravels right in front of your face.
The reason I docked half a star though, is that I’m not the biggest fan of “travel to a distant land to discover the protagonist is not who they thought they were” tropes. I find the in between time from leaving a place to arriving at the destination a little cumbersome and often unnecessarily long drawn. In the case of The City of Brass, Chakraborty managed to find a good balance but I still. breathed a sigh of relief when they finally arrived.
In any case, The City of Brass is a wonderful book, and I’m sure I’ll return to it again in future. Well worth the purchase for my personal library.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 26 March, 2018: Finished reading
- 18 August, 2021: Reviewed
- 18 July, 2021: Started reading
- 17 July, 2021: on page 0 out of 544
- 19 August, 2021: Finished reading
- 18 August, 2021: Reviewed