Djinn, daeva... you are all the same, short-sighted and as destructive as the element that smoulders in your hearts.
The Kingdom of Copper
by S.A. Chakraborty
Genre: YA Fantasy
About: Five years after the events of The City of Brass, Nahri has become a member of the Royal family, wife to the future king and seemingly the only healer in the magical city. She's also watched every moment of the day and her new father-in-law may just be planning her assassination - she wouldn't put it past him, not after exiling his own son and treating his other children like pawns in a cruel game only he can win. Family, loyalty, honour, none of it matters in the palace of djinn.
The Good
I loved going back to Daevabad. Nahri, Ali and Dara are still the main three but plenty of others have interesting storylines to follow. Even Zaynab who was barely present in the first book has a part to play here. I really enjoyed following each thread: the desert struggles, the hospital rebuild, the brother rivalry, conversations with the ifrit. There are so many side characters to love as well: Lubayd, Hatset, Nisreen et al. It's a big book with a lot going on but it's all so good to feast on. I think what worked the best was Chakraborty's climb to the climax. There are hints of an attack from all fronts, and with one of them you know how potentially destructive it could be in terms of character deaths. A lot of characters do feel vulnerable here. You have the shafit attack, Ali's coup, Ghassan's counter, Dara's attack... Nahri's throwing sandstorms, the marid are taking down towers, Manizheh is crafting poisons... there's a lot of power flying around, so for the end to have magic striped away, that was a stunning move.
The Bad
It can still read somewhat confusing with the sheer epicness of the history in this world. There are so many different cultures to understand and they all have a layered history and myths that might not just be myths, and history that might not be the true history. It's a lot. Most of it is very intriguing and all of it is impressive, but sometimes it can bog the book down when I don't remember the importance of one of the tribes or the history of another. Also as much as I love the ifrit (and I do), I can't really picture them. The descriptions are just a bit too magical at times that it becomes hard to ground what I should be seeing.
The Somewhat Iffy
I enjoy how Chakraborty can get me to side with a character and then be infuriated by that same character over and over again. She does this with Ali/Dara and Ali/Muntadhir quite consistently. With Muntadhir and Ali, I loved the brother rivalry being a plot point but got a bit of whiplash with how quickly Muntadhir seemed to switch from very clearly hating his brother to them getting along again (not just for the arrow scene, but particularly in the lets-hatch-a-coup-in-the-closet moment). The tone was too drastically changed towards the end - it went from what had been very good tension, born out of a lifetime of resentments, to comedic and then emotional.
I also wasn't crazy on how quickly characters picked up powers. Ali's marid ability being part because the cursed lake took him and part his family have some unclear connection to water powers, was a bit convenient and made him crazy powerful, crazy fast. I also wasn't clear on why some of the ifrit seem to view Dara as more powerful than them when he's new to his power and they aren't. Or even why the ifrit were working for Manizheh - what do they get out of it?
Overall
Exciting, magical, brilliantly clever. There's so many things going on and so many questions I want answering. I love these characters and this world. Looking forward to Dara getting some peace in the next book, for Nahri to have her happy ending and for Ali to maybe chill a bit.
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