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The City of Brass

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The City of Brass

By: S. A. Chakraborty
Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
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About this listen

Discover this spellbinding debut from Sunday Times bestseller S.A. Chakraborty.

‘An extravagant feast of a book – spicy and bloody, dizzyingly magical, and still, somehow, utterly believable’ Laini Taylor, Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author

Among the bustling markets of eighteenth century Cairo, the city’s outcasts eke out a living swindling rich Ottoman nobles and foreign invaders alike.

But alongside this new world the old stories linger. Tales of djinn and spirits. Of cities hidden among the swirling sands of the desert, full of enchantment, desire and riches. Where magic pours down every street, hanging in the air like dust.

Many wish their lives could be filled with such wonder, but not Nahri. She knows the trades she uses to get by are just tricks and sleights of hand: there’s nothing magical about them. She only wishes to one day leave Cairo, but as the saying goes…

Be careful what you wish for.

©2018 S. A. Chakraborty (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical Horror Scary Ottoman Empire City Imperialism

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Critic reviews

" The City of Brass is the best adult fantasy I've read since The Name of the Wind. It's stunning and complex and consuming and fantastic. You must read it." (Sabaa Tahir, New York Times best-selling author of An Ember in the Ashes)
"An extravagant feast of a book - spicy and bloody, dizzyingly magical, and still, somehow, utterly believable." (Laini Taylor, Sunday Times and New York Times best-selling author)
"A richly imagined, stunningly immersive book that takes you into a world. You will race to the end of this bold and brilliant debut." (Ausma Zehanat Khan, award-winning author of the The Bloodprint)
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This was a wonderful fantasy drawing on the rich mythology of the Middle East. A very promising start to the trilogy.

Wonderful epic fantasy

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The narration of this book makes the reading experience much more accessible to the whole story. This is a layered and complex world which in a couple of sections can feel overwhelming. I highly recommend staying with the story though as you will soon become familiar with a strange vibrant world. It has beautifully described scenes and unique adventure. The characters are fully formed with conflict and heritage. It’s just brill.
If you’re a fan of Daughter of Smoke and Bone series you’re enjoy this!

Fantastically imagined adventure

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Exciting, picturesque story telling. The first in a trilogy. Looking forward to the next two stories with great anticipation.

I enjoyed this story more than expected

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I'm still in two minds about this book. It took so long to get anywhere and by the time it did the book finished, I wanted to give up around a third to half way through but persisted. By the end it set up to be a good story but by that time I'm not sure I want to Devote any more time to it, so not sure if I'll read the next book especially if it follows the same arch and takes forever to get any where. Had the potential to be a really good epic but for me fell short

So much potential but failed to deliver

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I thoroughly enjoyed City of Brass. The main characters are engaging, the world building rich and complex, the setting sumptuous and dangerous. Three for story as I have a couple of qualms. The world building is world class but as a result is complicated and takes a lot of concentration, the use of multiple names for each character makes keeping track of characters outside the main difficult to begin with and the central relationship between Nahri and Dara is a tad cliche and problematic what with her being young and naive and he being old, overbearing, demanding and holding much of the power. I hope ‘Kingdom’ addresses the imbalance. With a great final sting, Brass is a novel length set up to what looks to be a great trilogy.

Dense, complex and compelling

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it's even better than i thought
everything about this book is amazing.
the narrator did a good job.

So goooooood

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I didn't make it to the end of the book which is a shame, but the book seems to expect quite a lot of prior knowledge about Djin and Cairo. It skitters over a very complex series of world's and mythology and I just got confused and disinterested. Can't get attached to the characters because they and what they are doing isn't described with enough clarity. The narrator did a very good though. For those a bit less ignorant of culture from that side of the world than me it's probably a much easier listen.

A bit hard to follow and understand.

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Really interesting tale and, for me at least, a breath of fresh air having fantasy based off a different culture than the usual elves and dwarves.

wonderful story

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Nahri behaves in the most bizarre way a lot of the time.
It is an intriguing setting though.

Interesting setting but at times behaviour nonsensical

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Enjoyed the concept the setting the different characters were interesting each with their own motives for the politics in the book. Good narators and voice actors chosen.

Interesting concept of a magical world

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