The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy, #1)

by S. A. Chakraborty

I loved the different cultures that we saw in this book, but they could have been better developed in my opinion. It felt as if they were mainly used for building the physical elements of the world and not at all to add an actual cultural element or a belief. However, this is (as far as I know) her debut novel and I am sure that once the series progresses, the world building will only get better.
The story itself may have quite a generic story, it was so captivating and I loved seeing it in a different setting. I also think this book touches the aspects of racism and discrimination a lot better than most fantasy books that I have read. Do keep in mind that this story has a very slow start, but the end definitely makes up for it.
One tiny little complaint I would have is that the magic system doesn't make any sense yet (at least not to me), but maybe upon a reread this will be easier to understand or upon reading the second book in this series.