One more book
Jun. 26th, 2018 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironic
City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (2017)
GRRAARRR, I thought this was a standalone novel! Instead, it is another 500-page START to a story, which I did not know until facing down the last ~25 pages and realizing with a sinking sensation that there was no way everything could be wrapped up in that space. There are no references to a series on the book cover or in the title pages. Was not told by the person who recommended it to me (former grad program advisor).
...Of course, now that I Google it, it says "(Daevabad Trilogy #1)," so my fault, I guess.
I was divided on the reading experience as I went, and figured my overall opinion would be determined by how satisfying the conclusion turned out to be. So. That's casting a shadow over what came before.
The good: It's Muslim- and Middle Eastern-centric myth-based adult fantasy, which is fun, interesting and rare in U.S. English fiction. It's by a Muslim woman, albeit one who converted to Islam in her teens and who has spoken about the privilege she enjoys as an Italian-Irish kid from New Jersey and how the cultures and histories she's writing about both are and aren't hers. (I've gone to some of Chakraborty's panels at Readercon and enjoyed what she had to say.) I was fairly invested in the two main characters, Nahri and Ali; in sharing their desire for racial and class equality in the magical city of Daevabad; and in wanting the djinn antihero, Dara, to be somehow absolved of his past crimes and freed from his life of half-remembered servitude.
The not so good: A lot of the book felt clumsy and confusing. For example, on a sentence level, food was described as "glistening" three times in one page, followed by, "She blinked and leaned heavily into the soft cushions, a strange heaviness creeping over her limbs." Nahri and Dara progressed from mutual distrust and even disgust to romance in a few chapters, and while the signifiers escalated logically (glint of attraction --> flutter in the belly --> maybe want to kiss sort of stuff), the reasons behind them were a mystery.
I could not figure out Dara, right down to the last chapter. It didn't help that he, and the book in general, operated on the principle of 'withhold information whenever possible for the sake of Nahri's supposed safety and/or narrative tension.' Super annoying.
There was also a ton of explication from chapter to chapter. I stopped trying to understand the fine details of the political history involving half a dozen djinn clans and other magical creatures so as not to lose momentum -- although that may be less an editorial issue than my own education gap showing, since Chakraborty said the dynamics are based on Abbasid, Mughal, Fatimid, Omani and Safavid history.
Lastly, I was irritated by the naiveté displayed by Ali and Nahri when Ali had been trained from the age of 5 to be a devout warrior prince in the royal court and the author spent the first part of the book establishing Nahri's street smarts and ability to read people.
*shrug* Overall the frustrating elements outweighed the pleasurable ones. I'm curious what will happen, but I wish I'd known how long it was going to take to get anywhere. Not sure if I'll read the sequels when they come out or just the summaries.
GRRAARRR, I thought this was a standalone novel! Instead, it is another 500-page START to a story, which I did not know until facing down the last ~25 pages and realizing with a sinking sensation that there was no way everything could be wrapped up in that space. There are no references to a series on the book cover or in the title pages. Was not told by the person who recommended it to me (former grad program advisor).
...Of course, now that I Google it, it says "(Daevabad Trilogy #1)," so my fault, I guess.
I was divided on the reading experience as I went, and figured my overall opinion would be determined by how satisfying the conclusion turned out to be. So. That's casting a shadow over what came before.
The good: It's Muslim- and Middle Eastern-centric myth-based adult fantasy, which is fun, interesting and rare in U.S. English fiction. It's by a Muslim woman, albeit one who converted to Islam in her teens and who has spoken about the privilege she enjoys as an Italian-Irish kid from New Jersey and how the cultures and histories she's writing about both are and aren't hers. (I've gone to some of Chakraborty's panels at Readercon and enjoyed what she had to say.) I was fairly invested in the two main characters, Nahri and Ali; in sharing their desire for racial and class equality in the magical city of Daevabad; and in wanting the djinn antihero, Dara, to be somehow absolved of his past crimes and freed from his life of half-remembered servitude.
The not so good: A lot of the book felt clumsy and confusing. For example, on a sentence level, food was described as "glistening" three times in one page, followed by, "She blinked and leaned heavily into the soft cushions, a strange heaviness creeping over her limbs." Nahri and Dara progressed from mutual distrust and even disgust to romance in a few chapters, and while the signifiers escalated logically (glint of attraction --> flutter in the belly --> maybe want to kiss sort of stuff), the reasons behind them were a mystery.
I could not figure out Dara, right down to the last chapter. It didn't help that he, and the book in general, operated on the principle of 'withhold information whenever possible for the sake of Nahri's supposed safety and/or narrative tension.' Super annoying.
There was also a ton of explication from chapter to chapter. I stopped trying to understand the fine details of the political history involving half a dozen djinn clans and other magical creatures so as not to lose momentum -- although that may be less an editorial issue than my own education gap showing, since Chakraborty said the dynamics are based on Abbasid, Mughal, Fatimid, Omani and Safavid history.
Lastly, I was irritated by the naiveté displayed by Ali and Nahri when Ali had been trained from the age of 5 to be a devout warrior prince in the royal court and the author spent the first part of the book establishing Nahri's street smarts and ability to read people.
*shrug* Overall the frustrating elements outweighed the pleasurable ones. I'm curious what will happen, but I wish I'd known how long it was going to take to get anywhere. Not sure if I'll read the sequels when they come out or just the summaries.
no subject
Date: Jun. 26th, 2018 03:24 pm (UTC)GoodReads (where I have it on my to-do list) is clear that it's first in a trilogy, but good to know that it's VERY MUCH a start to a trilogy (as opposed to, e.g., Children of Blood and Bone, which very much sets up for a next book but is also complete-enough in itself).
no subject
Date: Jun. 26th, 2018 03:50 pm (UTC)I peeked at Goodreads this morning and understand why reviews are divided between those who loved sinking into the world of the story and those who shared impatience with the pacing and infodumps.
no subject
Date: Jun. 26th, 2018 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jun. 26th, 2018 04:04 pm (UTC)Which also happened a few evenings ago! "Chapters: 7/7," A LIE
no subject
Date: Jun. 27th, 2018 09:28 am (UTC)