Review: The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

The City of Brass

S.A. Chakraborty

(The Daevabad Trilogy #1)

Publication Date: November 14, 2017

Hardcover, 533 pages, Harper Voyager

Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical

B&N | Book Depository | Amazon | Goodreads

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: 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 hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for...

My Review

Wow. So I haven’t had any strong reactions to reading a book in years. But this book. Whew. This book’s ending made me ANGRY. In a fantastic way. And I loved every moment of it. Almost. I actually kind of felt like the little boy in The Princess Bride when Westley dies. Remember him? Yeah, that was me.

We start The City of Brass by following Nahri’s POV. She’s a con artist in 18^th century Cairo, so when she summons a djinn warrior with a snarky attitude, I was hooked. I love me some romantic tension. Things were a little jarring, though, when the POV switched to Ali. At first I was wary, since his chapters were taking me away from Nahri and Dara’s storyline, but I quickly grew to love his viewpoints just as much as theirs. Each time either Nahri’s or Ali’s chapters ended, I was sad. I wanted to stay with the character longer. I give major props to Chakraborty for being able to make me disappointed each time a viewpoint ended.

Basically, I loved all of the characters. Even the evil ones. Ghassan is the evil ruler every evil ruler in fantasy dreams of being. (He’s actually logical at times and that’s what makes him so bad.) Dara is the mysterious bad boy with a humorous side. Ali is a clueless cinnamon roll, and Nahri is a strong woman who looks out for herself. I love it. It also helps that these main characters aren’t the leaders of the revolt that’s happening within the djinn city. All of these characters are kind of just stuck in the middle of this terrible situation. Of course, this may develop differently in the second book, but I appreciated the idea that not every fantasy protagonist is the leader of the rebellion.

Now, I do have to admit that while the beginning was a very fun adventure, with Nahri running to the city of Daevabad and Ali navigating his political family, the middle of the story did slow the pace down quite a bit, as both characters were put into the political minefield and there was a dip in the action scenes. But that ending. Oh boy, that ending. HOLY COW! It was chaotic and insane. I had the most visceral reaction I’ve ever had reading a book. Chapter 27 was heart-stopping. Needless to say, I’ll be buying books two and three. I must know what happens to these precious characters.

One reason I’m not giving this book five whole stars, despite the fact that it’s the only book in a long time to make me so unbelievably worried for a character that I had to spoil myself by looking up the sequel’s description on Goodreads, is that the world-building was a little confusing at times. The djinn/daeva have a complicated history that I’m still not entirely sure exactly how everything played out and when. I wish there was a timeline in the book for reference. But some minor confusion didn’t stop me from devouring this beautiful story.

All in all, if you’re a fan of YA fantasy books, read The City of Brass. If you’re a fan of epic fantasy books, read The City of Brass. If you’re a fan of djinn and less mainstream fantasy creatures read The City of Brass. Just read it.

*Note: I received a copy of this book at BookCon 2018. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Stacking the Shelves: The Booktube-Made-Me-Do-It Edition

 "Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

I’m kind of disappointed in myself for buying this one… *sigh*

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

I used to own the first two Daughter of Smoke and Bone books in the US hardcover editions, but I got rid of them. I just could never make myself pick them up. The one time I tried many years ago, I read that the main character had blue hair and decided the book wasn’t for me. (I’ve never, personally, been a fan of colorfully dyed hair on my protagonists. It’s a weird reading quirk that I’ve grown out of a little. Do you have any weird reading quirks?)

However, I kept hearing how great this series was from many, MANY booktubers, and one day, when a booktuber was talking about the UK edition of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I decided to look for it on Mercari. Simply because the cover was pretty. I randomly got a notification that someone was selling a copy for $20, so I went for it on a whim. Do I regret my decision? A little. Yes.

What books have you bought/received lately?

Review: Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

Heart of Iron

Ashley Poston

(Heart of Iron #1)

Publication Date: February 27, 2018

Hardcover, 467 pages, Balzer + Bray

Genres: YA, Sci-Fi

B&N | Book Depository | Amazon | Goodreads

Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09—one of the last remaining illegal Metals—has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him.

Ana’s desperate effort to save D09 leads her on a quest to steal the coordinates to a lost ship that could offer all the answers. But at the last moment, a spoiled Ironblood boy beats Ana to her prize. He has his own reasons for taking the coordinates, and he doesn’t care what he’ll sacrifice to keep them.

When everything goes wrong, she and the Ironblood end up as fugitives on the run. Now their entire kingdom is after them—and the coordinates—and not everyone wants them captured alive.

What they find in a lost corner of the universe will change all their lives—and unearth dangerous secrets. But when a darkness from Ana’s past returns, she must face an impossible choice: does she protect a kingdom that wants her dead or save the Metal boy she loves?

My Review

Anastasia retellings in space with androids and gay protagonists? I’m here for it. It just took me a couple extra years to finally pick this one up, but once I did, I was hooked.

Heart of Iron presents a fun and interesting world that’s not too deep and very easy to follow. And in the age of A Song of Ice and Fire, The Expanse, and the Throne of Glass series, books that you can pick up and flip through without having to keep a mental map of character names and backgrounds are a blessing.

I decided to start reading this book on a whim, but I was hooked from the beginning. It’s fast-paced, and the adventure in the first half was super fun and intriguing. However, the middle slogged a bit. Things slowed down too much when all of the characters were at a standstill, but thankfully, the story picked up towards the end, and now I’m ready for book two.

To help keep that fun, SFF feel, there’s a cool mix of fantasy-like storylines and creatures in this one. Jax is sort of a fae/elf-like creature, but he’s in space! Space elves are a very, very cool concept. For this reason and many others, Jax and Robb were my favorite POV characters. Jax has such a cool background (again, SPACE ELVES!), and Robb is a clueless cinnamon roll. I will say, though, that their relationship developed a little too fast in that middle section of the book. I was a tad disappointed that there wasn’t as much romantic tension. Hopefully, the second book brings that tension back into play somehow. As for Ana and D09, they were fun too. I had no issues with their characters; I just liked Robb and Jax more.

All in all, Heart of Iron is a fun palette-cleanser between chunky SFF reads. It’ll give you all the fantasy and sci-fi vibes you need, while still keeping things rather simple and fast-paced.

*Note: I purchased a copy of this book myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

My Thoughts on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

I thought I’d share my thoughts and feels about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker film. In case you haven’t seen it, I’ve posted the trailer below:

So I watched The Rise of Skywalker when it was added to Disney+ on May 4^th. I didn’t see it in theaters because I wasn’t a big fan of The Last Jedi. Thus, there was no reason for me to pay for a $10 movie ticket when I knew all the Star Wars movies would eventually be on streaming. I’m really glad I waited. Not because The Rise of Skywalker was bad—I actually enjoyed 80% of it—but because it was ridiculously LOOOOOOOOOONG. I’m not sure my bladder would’ve held out for a theater viewing.

Besides being long, my thoughts can be summed up with “it was good.” Not amazing, but good. There were a lot of “force feelings” that were a little odd. Otherwise, it was a solid film. There was plenty of action, and the plot was fairly easy to follow. I was concerned with the return of Palpatine, but the way it played out was actually pretty interesting.

Even though a lot of people think Rey is overpowered (me included), I still think she kicks a$$. Her storyline and the way it mingled with the first three films actually impressed me. Even the Kylo Ren parts. And I am NOT a fan of Kylo Ren. I also thought all of the new (and old) droids and creatures were fun. There were some cute moments. I felt so sad for poor Chewbacca, though. I won’t go into spoilers, but his storyline was the only one that made me tear up.

Although I enjoyed Rey, Leia, and the droids and creatures, I have to admit that sometimes Poe and Finn got on my nerves. Finn’s role during the entire film just seemed to be overacted yelling, while Poe was able to make terrible decisions in The Last Jedi but still become a high-ranking operative in the Resistance. Talk about Glass Escalator. It’s kind of sad how the two characters were made to be so awesome in The Force Awakens, but their story (like most of the characters) got messed up in the sequels. I mean, Finn was a stormtrooper who joined the Resistance! He could have had a way better storyline. (Oh, and again, no spoilers, but why are the current showrunners of Star Wars obsessed with having characters ride terrible CGI horse-like creatures. It didn’t work out in The Last Jedi, and it just looked weird in this film as well.)

All in all, other than the strange “force feelings” that all of the main characters seemed to have, as well as a few questionable storylines for our two male characters, I was impressed by The Rise of Skywalker. It had beautiful scenes and imagery. Some of the shots were just gorgeous. And Rey is so kicka$$. I’m actually sad to see her go, though as Luke said in The Last Jedi, I too think “It’s time for the Jedi to end,” or at least, the Skywalker saga. Thankfully, we still have Baby Yoda….

Can't-Wait Wednesday: The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty

 "Can’t-Wait Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted over at Wishful Endings, that spotlights upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.

This week, what's really got my pages in a twist is...

The Empire of Gold

S. A. Chakraborty

(The Daevabad Trilogy #3)

Publication Date: June 30, 2020

Hardcover, 784 pages, Harper Voyager

Genres: Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads

The final chapter in the bestselling, critically acclaimed Daevabad Trilogy, in which a con-woman and an idealistic djinn prince join forces to save a magical kingdom from a devastating civil war.

Daevabad has fallen.

After a brutal conquest stripped the city of its magic, Nahid leader Banu Manizheh and her resurrected commander, Dara, must try to repair their fraying alliance and stabilize a fractious, warring people.

But the bloodletting and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara’s dark past. To vanquish them, he must face some ugly truths about his history and put himself at the mercy of those he once considered enemies.

Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad’s deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own. While Nahri finds peace in the old rhythms and familiar comforts of her human home, she is haunted by the knowledge that the loved ones she left behind and the people who considered her a savior are at the mercy of a new tyrant. Ali, too, cannot help but look back, and is determined to return to rescue his city and the family that remains. Seeking support in his mother’s homeland, he discovers that his connection to the marid goes far deeper than expected and threatens not only his relationship with Nahri, but his very faith.

As peace grows more elusive and old players return, Nahri, Ali, and Dara come to understand that in order to remake the world, they may need to fight those they once loved . . . and take a stand for those they once hurt.

My Thoughts

I just recently finished The City of Brass, and I’m barely holding off the urge to read book two in this trilogy, The Kingdom of Copper. The only reason I’m waiting is because I want to purchase all three books from Fairyloot. They’re selling special editions with the UK covers. And, while normally, I’m the weirdo who likes the US covers better, in this case, the UK versions are the prettiest. Only a couple more months to go until I can binge the last two books and have the pretty copies in my hands.

What book are you waiting for this Wednesday?

April Wrap-Up & May TBR

My second wrap-up post of 2020! I can’t believe I’m actually keeping up with my blog posts after a year and a half of neglect. It’s exciting!

In the wrap-up portion of this post, I’ll list the books I read, the books I reviewed, the books I bought/received, and my TBR for next month. Now, let’s get this bookish party started!

Books Read in April

Crush the King: 3/5 stars (my review)

The Burning Shadow: 3/5 stars (my review)

Entice: 3/5 stars (my review)

Broken Throne: 4/5 stars (my review)

Heart of Iron: 4/5 stars (review to come)

The City of Brass: 4.5/5 stars (review to come)

This Shattered World: 3/5 stars (review to come)

I read seven books this month! I have a feeling most of these reads are a result of being on lockdown for the entire month of April, but still, I read them! And, better yet, I read six books that were on my TBR prior to 2020. Considering my goal is to 15 books I already owned prior to 2020, these six plus my one from March leaves me at seven books read that I already owned.  I’m almost halfway there! Woot! Woot!

I hope next month can produce the same or better reading results, but I’m not sure. Lockdown is over for Missouri starting May 4^th, so I won’t be working from home anymore. But on the pro side, my mom and I finally caught up on my re-watch (and her first watch) of Supernatural, which means I now have free time on my hands after work. So I’m curious to see how the month of May works out reading-wise.

Books Bought/Received in April

I bought four books this month. Kind of. I actually bought Storm & Fury in March. However, I wasn’t able to include it in my March wrap-up post, since it arrived via mail this month. Also, I recently purchased a copy of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but it won’t get here until May. So technically, I only really “bought and received” three books this month: House of Blood and Earth and the collector’s editions of Red Queen and Glass Sword, all of which were ordered online from Barnes & Noble. Oh, and because I’ve already read three of these, I’ve only added one book to my TBR this month! Yay!

I also ordered a pair of bookends for my bookshelves as well as copies of the Supernatural Entertainment Weekly magazines. I’ll be sure to take some pics on my Instagram account of what the bookends are holding up. I’m actually pretty excited for it.

Currently Obsessed With

Normally, I use this section to share what I’ve been obsessing over lately. Unfortunately, I haven’t really had anything to be obsessed over in April, though. My mom and I finished Supernatural, I haven’t found a new show to binge watch, and no movie theaters are open right now. So instead of “obsessed with,” I’m just going to share some things I’ve been doing this month.

My biggest entertainment has come from re-watching episodes of Parks & Recreation. I put on episodes for background noise whenever I’m working or waiting for a Zoom meeting to start. I think I only have one season left though. I’ve been going through them pretty fast. I guess I’ll need to find another background-noise show, since I’ve already used The Office. I'm thinking it may be That 70s Show. Oh, and I also finished season one of Wynonna Earp. I’m a little iffy on that finale—and episode one of season two—but I plan on continuing with the show by watching an episode every week or so. It’s not something I want to binge.

On Youtube, I’ve been watching a lot of Booktube lately. This is bad. Why? Because Booktube typically encourages me to buy books, especially the pretty ones. Why do you think I decided to buy collector’s editions of Aveyard’s books?

Currently Reading/May TBR

In May, I’m going to try to finish Kaufman and Spooner’s Starbound trilogy, so I’m currently reading Their Fractured Light (not pictured). Other than that, I have five other books I’d like to get to, but only two are ones that I really want to read this month: A Queen in Hiding and Emblaze. Like I’ve previously mentioned, I’m trying to read all of the books in Shirvington’s Violet Eden series, so the third book is on my list. As for A Queen in Hiding, I just want to marathon the entire series, and since I have the first three books, I thought I’d go ahead. (I’ll order book four online if I end up liking the series.)

As for The Lost Prince, Allied, and Starfall, these are just books I’d like to get to in order to finish some series I’ve been putting off. However, I’m only going to make myself read one of them. If I read more than one, that’s okay too, but I’d like to have a bit of a looser TBR this month.

***

Okay, well, that’s the month of April, plus some May sneak peeks, all wrapped up into one post. Do you have a wrap-up post for this month? If so, share in the comments!

Stacking the Shelves: The Collector's Edition

"Stacking the Shelves" is a weekly haul meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and Reading Reality. It allows book buyers to share their accumulation of books with the online book-loving community.

I didn’t buy any books last week. This week, well… This week I was weak.

Red Queen and Glass Sword Collector’s Editions

So I recently went from part-time to full-time at my job. Finally! I went into the job knowing I’d be part-time for a while, until my boss could afford to hire another full-time employee. And thank the heavens, that day came! I was super surprised considering all that’s going on in the world.

To reward myself, I bought the collector’s editions of Red Queen and Glass Sword. I hadn’t originally planned on buying these. I don’t normally purchase special editions or keep more than one copy of books, unless they’re Harry Potter or Narnia. However, I recently read Broken Throne, book #4.5 in the series, and I realized how much I LOOOOOOVE this series. So I bought these. I just hope this doesn’t create a pattern of me buying special editions. I don’t have the money to do this all the time. Eek.

I also bought the latest Supernatural Entertainment Weekly editions. I  don't normally collect magazines. I actually only really started purchasing them in the past year, but it's just for shows I really like, such as GoT and SPN. Both are over now, so I shouldn't be adding to this collection any time soon. Though I have been considering purchasing some back issues of both shows and the Buffy reunion edition. Yikes.

What books have you bought/received lately?

Review: Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard

Broken Throne

Victoria Aveyard

(Red Queen #4.5)

Publication Date: May 7, 2019

Hardcover, 480 pages, HarperTeen

Genres: YA, Fantasy, Dystopian

B&N | Book Depository | Amazon | Goodreads

Return once more to the deadly and dazzling world of Red Queen in Broken Throne, a beautifully designed, must-have companion to the chart-topping series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Victoria Aveyard.

The perfect addition to the #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen series, this gorgeously designed package features three brand-new novellas, two previously published novellas, Steel Scars and Queen Song, and never-before-seen maps, flags, bonus scenes, journal entries, and much more exclusive content.

Fans will be delighted to catch up with beloved characters after the drama of War Storm and be excited to hear from brand-new voices as well. This stunning collection is not to be missed!

My Review

I love the Red Queen series! Love it. I’m honestly not sure why it gets so much hate. But when I heard Victoria Aveyard was releasing another book in the series with stories from characters after the events of War Storm, I was super excited. For some reason, though, I put off picking this one up. I guess I just didn’t want the world to officially end. Now that I have read it, I definitely want to go through and do a re-read of the entire series soon. But let’s get on to my review, shall we?

Please note that because this book is #4.5 in the series, there will be spoilers in my review.

So the first two stories are ones I have already reviewed, since they were previously published in Cruel Crown. I originally gave “Queen Song” four stars and “Steel Scars” three stars, and I stand by those ratings. Cal’s mother, Coriane, has a terrible, fascinating story, while Farley’s story in “Steel Scars” really only gets interesting when the Barrows get involved. I re-read Farley’s short story simply because I wanted to read the entirety of Broken Throne. I don’t think I’ll ever read that story again, though. (Check out my full review of these novellas.)

The next short story in this bind-up is “World Behind,” and it follows Lyrisa. I didn’t remember this character from the original four books at all. I never could place her while I was reading. I had to do some research to figure out who she was. This meant I felt kind of “meh” about the first half of her story. I did like the ending though. It gave off some fun Six of Crows vibes. I’d give this short story three stars as well.

Next, we got an Evangeline story. It was good, though I wish there had been more in terms of her and her brother’s relationship and their next steps. I think it does provide a satisfactory ending to Evangeline’s story compared to what happened in War Storm, though. I’m giving this one 3.5 stars.

Towards the end, we get a few different short stories, but the main one is Cal and Mare’s. I always want more Cal, so this story and all of the ones that followed were great. I think these ones could have been fifty pages longer just to make me happy and give me more. Despite that, they did put a smile on my face. Cal is kind of clueless when it comes to the real world (i.e. the cabin scene). I’m still a little bitter about how poorly Cal gets treated sometimes writing-wise. However, I do appreciate how Aveyard ended the series in War Storm more now than I originally did when I first finished that book, and I do think Broken Throne is a necessary epilogue to the series. I’d give these stories five stars.

All in all, Broken Throne just re-ignited my love for this world. I really want to re-read the entire series when I get the chance, though I’ll probably skip the first three stories in Broken Throne during my future re-reads. I will skim through all of the maps, texts, etc., in the book, though, because those were fascinating. Everything was purple, even the font! Purple is my favorite color, so this book will have a place of honor on my shelves. Oh, and the Calore family tree poster also made me super happy. I love when publishers include extras inside books.

*Note: I purchased a copy of this book myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.