The City of Brass (Daevabad Trilogy)

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One-Hit Kill: A single cut from a zulfiqar is enough to kill due to the poisoned blade. Not even the Nahids can heal zulfiqar wounds. Early into his marriage with Nahri, Ali is haunted by fears of what happened to his namesake's first family. Fears made worse when Zaydi al Qahtani's poisoned scabbard is found and returned to Daevabad in a misguided tribute, forcing Ali to reveal the last of the truths he kept from Nahri regarding her beloved hospital and its horrid past. Language: English Words: 11,892 Chapters: 2/3 Comments: 12 Kudos: 51 Bookmarks: 10 Hits: 880 King of Beasts: The Nahids once rode winged lions into battle, and still use a winged lion as their symbol. By djinn law, shafit (those with human blood) are not allowed to leave Daevabad. Once we see the City of Brass, we discover that there's a huge divide between pureblooded Djinn nobility and the shafit, with the former believing that the latter are incapable of powerful magic.

Proud Scholar Race: The bird-like peris are quite knowledgeable about most subjects, but their smug aloofness means getting them to act is an exercise in frustration.The world building is so….complex it actually crossed over into the line of “complicated” and overshadows ANYTHING ELSE Cool Chair: The Shedu Throne, located in the palace of Daevabad, carved to resemble its namesake winged lion and encrusted with jewels, serves as the seat for the ruler of the magical world; first the Nahids, and then the Qahtanis. Nahri has it sold off to fund the rebuilding of the city at the end of Empire of Gold, but not after she has a good old lounge in it first. AFSHIN: The name of the Daeva warrior family who once served the Nahid Council. Also used as a title.

Regional Redecoration: After freeing Daevabad, Nahri uses the full power of Suleiman's Key to move the city into the nearby mountains, restoring the marid's sacred lake to its original state. She then passes out. Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of a devastating battle, Nahri must forge a new path for herself. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage,watched bya king who rules from thethrone that once belonged to her family—and one misstep will doom her tribe. What’s more, the trilogy is very pointedly set in the early 19th century — Napoleon is mentioned very early in the first book — right before colonization of the Middle East by European countries began in earnest. At every level of her trilogy, Chakraborty is examining why so many people who believe they’re doing the right thing are willing to subjugate others in the name of what they perceive to be good. Creative Sterility: After Nahri gets him to open his mind a little, the high priest Kartir points out to Dara that—for all the supposed inferiority of humans—the daevas and djinn made human society a model for their new world after Suleiman. Their styles of architecture, art, clothing, and worship are all based on customs that were invented by humans.And I Must Scream: What enslavement by the ifrit is like for a djinn. It is widely regarded as a fate worse than death, reducing them to prisoners in their own bodies. Most go insane after a few centuries.

Ifrit are those daevas who refused to submit to Suleiman's judgment. They're all quite ancient at this point, not to mention vindictive and crafty. The city and its many djinn tribes is a kindling box that King Ghassan al Qahtani holds together with an iron fist, and Nahri and Dara's arrival in Daevabad threatens to set it all on fire. Both as Nahri as the return of a Nahid healer that revitalizes her Daeva tribe that revered the Nahids and resented the djinn, and Dara as the ancient warrior whose brutality in the war 1400 years ago is still remembered and feared by present-day djinn. Nahri learns more about the healing arts, her new role as leader of the Daevas, and the complicated politics of the city, while Ali learns more about the corruption and prejudices of the city and his family's role in it. Dara meanwhile leaves the city with a group of djinn soldiers and Emir Muntadhir to chase rumors of ifrit sightings and is gone for months.Okay, so this is slightly hilarious but I before I read this tragedy, I wrote a pre-review of sorts gushing my heart out about how proud and honoured I was to see an #OwnVoice muslim+/middle eastern fantasy so well celebrated in the YA community (don’t get me wrong, I still am SO HAPPY to see such diversity become a more common occurrence) but LIKE AT THAT POINT I WAS WILLING TO 5 STAR IT ON THAT BASIS ONLY I DIDN’T KNOW THE PAIN AND DISAPPOINTMENT THAT WAS IN STORE FOR ME :’) Garden of Love: Nahri's parents first met while both of them were hiding away from the unpleasantness of court life in the palace gardens. Rustam magically cultivated the gardens as a refuge from his Gilded Cage; the shafit washerwoman Duriya was secretly growing molokhia for Comfort Food; and she accidentally punched him while trying to stop him from uprooting the vines.