The Kingdom of Copper

Kingdom of Copper is an intense, captivating, and at times disenfranchising read that brought a deeper and more elevated game compared to City of Brass. After a brief prologue, Kingdom of Copper picks up after a 5 year time jump from the ending of City of Brass. Nahri is now married to Muntadhir, Dara is serving the not-dead-after-all Manizheh, and Ali is happily living an exiled life in a remote village until he is forced to return to Daevabad. Nahri and Ali must navigate the politics and prejudices of Daevabad while Dara works to reconcile his new role in the world. Despite the length of the book, it never seemed to drag as the first one did at times. The action was intense and the politics and scheming were fascinating and nauseating (in a good way). I loved to see Nahri and Ali working together again. In the first book, I struggled to like find the characters likable enough to root for. But they was much improved in book two. Nahri was the most improved character of the book. She becomes a passionate and independent character that is willing to take a stand against the status quo. She could be naïve, and at times I questioned whether she would make the right choice, but that added a welcome level of realism. Ali was my favorite from the first book and that continued in book two. I actually enjoyed him more since his piety and devoutness didn’t show up on the page as much. He is the character I trusted the most and I loved the now anguished relationship with his family. I rather disliked Dara in City of Brass but once we got to see chapters from his point of view, I found him to be vastly more sympathetic and nuanced. It was a relief to see his regret and conflicted emotions about the travesties he has committed and is planning to commit again. I still was against him and his plans, but I felt sympathy for him and at times could understand his motivations. The shades of grey in almost all the characters is something that really brings the book alive. It is sometimes difficult to pick out who the villain is and no one is entirely innocent. They all think their actions are justified based on what has been done to them, their families, and their ancestors. They all are blinded by their prejudices and unwilling to see that it is not their enemies that suffer from the wake of destruction but the innocent bystanders. It is a poignant reminder that responding to violence with greater violence perpetuates the cycle of hatred and leads down a path that will never lead to peace. Overall, this book was both entertaining and thought provoking. It is vivid, beautifully written, and sure to stay with you for a while.

The Kingdom of Copper is an amazing follow-up to Chakraborty’s debut novel, The City of Brass. In fact, I may have loved it even more than the first book! If you haven’t read The City of Brass, please do so before reading The Kingdom of Copper. The rest of this review will contain spoilers for The City of Brass. Five years after the events of The City of Brass, and Daevabad is in trouble. The shafit, those with human ancestry, are being treated worse than ever, and tensions between all major fractions are high. Plus, the city’s facing intense economic issues. Nahri’s now married to Muntadhir and living a highly constrained life, as her father-in-law barely ever allows her to leave the palace. Ali’s survived assassination attempts and has made a life for himself in a small, backwater village where his powers over water left to him by the marid possession of the previous book can mean life or death in the desert. Meanwhile… Dara’s back. He’s somehow been raised from the dead, and furthermore, restored to what the djinn were before Solomon’s Seal. And he’s not the only one who’s unexpectedly alive — so is Nahri’s mother, and she’s planning to reconquer Daevabad, no matter what cost. I apologize for this, but I desperately need to get it out of my system — I hate Dara so much. So so much. When I saw he was back in Kingdom of Copper, I was like “urghhhh WHY.” I find Dara to be the possessive, alpha-male-character type who has all sorts of warning signs for abusive relationships and chockful of toxic masculinity. Also, he’s a literal war criminal, just throwing that out there. Frankly, he’s just the worst. But here’s the thing: the narrative knows Dara’s borderline abusive. While the narrative might have some sympathy for the horrible things that have happened to Dara, it doesn’t let them excuse the horrible things he’s done. I’m all here for stories holding shitty men accountable. But although this is my reading on Dara, a quick scan through Goodreads reviews reveals that I’m practically alone. Apparently, a lot of other reviewers really love Dara (this sometimes involves gushing about how “broody” he is)? And ship him with Nahri??? As much as I hate this, I guess it makes sense. So many stories treat abusive behavior as romantic (shout out to Naomi Novik’s Uprooted), so what I read as a deconstruction, other people might be reading as straight romantic. I guess it’s kind of like the Star Wars fans who ship Rey and Kylo. Yes, I did just call Nahri/Dara shippers equivalent to Reylo shippers. And I’ll stand by it. Now that I’ve finished yelling about how we shouldn’t romanticize dudes down with genocide, let’s move on to another topic: just how freaking good The Kingdom of Copper is. I adored The Kingdom of Copper. I did not want to put this book down. Do you know how much self-control it took to put the book down to go to sleep or go to class??? So much. Also, I legit avoided people before class so they wouldn’t try to talk to me and interrupt my reading. I had to find out what happened! The plotting is just so exciting because you’ve got these multiple strands that are obviously all converging in the worst possible ways for our protagonists. It’s delightful. The beginning of The Kingdom of Copper was a bit hard for me because I could remember so little from the first book. Mostly what tripped me up was remembering all the different divisions within Daevabad, but I figured it out eventually and was able to become really immersed from there. Otherwise, what I loved about The Kingdom of Copper was also present in the first book: superb world-building, excellent writing, and characters I quickly grew attached to. Weirdly enough, I kind of like the idea of Nahri and Ali as a couple? That’s super unusual for me. I’m mostly more into fictional friendships than romantic relationships. I think it’s the whole Chaotic Good/Lawful Good dynamic they’ve got going. Before I wrap up this review, let’s talk about queerness in The Kingdom of Copper! This series does acknowledge queer people exist and actually has two queer male characters who are in love with each other. One of whom is Muntadhir, Nahri’s husband. I was seriously scared that one of the two would die (this was a big fear in the first book too), and I am really hoping this series doesn’t involve queer tragedy. Spoiler: [( We keep almost getting a queer tragedy. Both with the ending of the last book, and some stuff in this one. Muntadhir was about to be fatally poisoned but got saved at the last minute. I really don’t know how I feel about how the narrative keeps edging up to queer tragedy because it stresses me out. ) (hide spoiler)] On another point, I think Muntadhir may fall into the promiscuous bisexual stereotype. I guess my verdict on queer rep in this series would be that it’s not terrible but also not super great. I’m really thankful I got the chance to read an ARC of The Kingdom of Copper (thanks specifically to Pam Jaffee at HarperCollins), and I can’t wait to read the third and final book in the trilogy. This is not a series you want to miss, and I highly recommend it! I received an ARC in exchange for a free and honest review.

I bought this book back when it had just come out and though I had plans to read it, I held myself off from doing it. Why? Because I wanted to read the whole trilogy in one go. Well, when my request for The Empire of Gold was approved on NetGalley, I knew it was time. So I finally started the trilogy from the start. The review for the first one is right here! I should warn you going in, this might get spoilery as the review goes on. It is the second book in the trilogy and a lot happens that I just have to talk about, okay? Right, that’s you warned in case you haven’t caught up with this series yet. So, the book starts with the immediate-ish aftermath of what happened in the first book. Some dead people are brought back, some people are discovering some horrifying things and two people are married against their will. You know, the usual aftermath of a massive cliffhanger. Then we are immediately thrown in five years in the future. Some people have had issues with it and I can see why but for me, personally, I am really glad that it took that leap. After the political upheaval of the first book, Daevabad needed some time to get to a new normal. Nahri has been learning heaps about her healing and also trying to learn more about her people and how the religion plays into the whole Nahid business. Muntadhir is trying his best to live his life the way he always had, while showing an absolute brat face to the world like usual. Ali is struggling to survive after the mess of the fight at the docks. The less said about Ghassan the better because his only strategy to ‘keep peace’ in Daevabad is to kill people. So yeah. As far as characters are concerned, my favourite will always be Ali, I think. There’s such growth in the characters in this one, there’s still room to grow but from the first book to this one, Ali and Nahri really flourish as characters. There’s a depth to them that wasn’t quite there before. We also see Dara slowly learning that perhaps there’s not just one side to it to anything and despite that, he doesn’t really have a choice according to him. There’s politics aplenty in this one and the secrets are just, frankly, bursting forth like a dam breaking. There’s so much action and it’s more tightly packed than the first book which I really appreciated. The secondary characters (Jamshid and Zaynab, I love them with all my heart, okay?) also get more space in this one. There’s a few in particular that I absolutely enjoyed reading about. Relationships were explored in this one too! I love that Dara and Nahri, both have had time to have that weird closure to their intense feelings that were so obviously apparent in the first book. Nahri, in particular, is far more pragmatic than I thought was possible as far as first love goes. Let’s talk about the Al-Qahtani siblings because god, I just need to! I loved the weird dynamic they had back in the first book but this one showed more depth and feelings and boy, am I weak for siblings in series where they are actually there for each other despite not being the best sibling at times. Ugh, it’s so good! Overall, I really loved the pacing and the reveals of the book and thank gods I had the next book ready because once you have finished with this one, you are gonna want that next book on hand. While not quite the five star read I was expecting, this is nonetheless a perfect second book, in that, it didn’t suffer the middle book syndrome.

Surprisingly fresh - another world building, from the 1001 nights but way different. Really nice trilogy.

I devoured this book. Couldn’t put it down and loved it so much!

I thought I could never like a book more than The City of Brass: I was wrong! The Kingdom of Copper lets us into the minds of not-so-candid-anymore characters and takes us into a complex world, not so different from ours, where very few are either bad or good. It also offers us a journey into the medieval Middle eastern world and I never felt so utterly lost and out of place as when I tuned over the last page of this book. Thank you, S.A Chakraborty!

The three main protagonists from the first book have to settle down to the subtle shift in power and authority that the main character's arrival in the kingdom has caused. On the surface life goes on as usual with magic covering up any cracks in the constant power struggle in the Royal family and among the nobles. The presence of the Djinn is one such crack as is the presence of the younger son, and both are subject to outside forces. The political situation is well described, as are the personal lives and feelings of people living in fear, in spite of all the beauty and wealth that the gift of magic brings. Its a situation similar to many real life revolutions when those in power have so much they cannot see the needs of the people they govern with a heavy hand. If anything, this is better than the first book, where we were introduced to Daevabad, and Nahri, Dara her Afshin, and Ali, the younger son who is destined to protect his apparently good-for nothing elder brother. The atmosphere that they are all treading on thin ice, their futures subject to the whims of a capricious and cruel tyrant, is well set up and there is always that hint that maybe the ice is about to give way, that betrayal is only a whisper away, and that trust can never be relied on. The road to disaster becomes unavoidable as old enemies seek revenge and marginal players suddenly become important. The book does end on a cliff-hanger, and with a few surprises as tangled relationships have unforseen results. This is not a book or series for a casual reader as the plot twists and turns and there seems to be a cast of thousands. The author does explain who people are, and generally includes their title, to make it easier to keep track of what is going on and who is doing it. Nahri, the central character, is not interested in politics, and her ignorance is an excellent device to keep us informed. I don't normally like cliff-hangers in books, but these are big stories, and any reader who has got this far is going to want to read the third book simply to find out what happens next. For once this device works really well. Its a great read if you like epic tales with a sweeping canvas. Throw in Djinns, magic, and an Arabian Nights background with unrequired or forbidden love, and this is what you get, a massive explosion of dynastic and person tales of tragedy and hope, and we all hope for and love happy endings.