Review: The City of Brass

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

S.A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass is one of those books where I could not decide if I was interested or not. On the one hand, the Daevabad trilogy sounded like the kind of series I would enjoy, there were plenty of people saying positive things, and I’m always happy to dive into a new fantasy world. On the other hand, the Daevabad trilogy didn’t grab my attention in the way other series have, there were reviews making me believe this one was overrated, and there were plenty of other series I wished to dive into. The pros and cons were equal, were mirrors of each other, leaving me uncertain. In the end, I opted to borrow The City of Brass from the library to sate my curiosity.

Like my feelings prior to diving into The City of Brass, my feelings after reading are mixed. I enjoyed it, sure, yet I had been hoping for a wee bit more. I am curious about book two, but I will not be going out of my way to dive into it the moment it is out in the world. I was happy to power through the book, but I could have easily put it aside and read something else.

The City of Brass was an interesting new fantasy world to dive into, one of those that mixes the known with the unknown. It uses a mythology little known, introducing us to new things and adding a unique spin, and it certainly sucked me in. However, at the same time, I feel as though the story was never quite as powerful as it could have been. There was a lot of learning new things, there were plenty of things happen, but it never had me on the edge of my seat in the way other fantasy books have.

It was fun, it sucked me in, but I really had been hoping for much more from this one. As there were plenty of layers introduced, plenty of things I wish to see come together, I’ll be giving the second book a read. However, I’ll be going in with lower standards. In other words, I’ll be reading it for answers and not because of addiction to the world.

That being said, I know many have really enjoyed this one, so I’m going to label myself part of the minority.

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