Title: City of Brass

Series: The Daevabad Trilogy

Author: SA Chakraborty

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for…

Nahri is on her own in Cairo and is basically a con artist, but she also has a real ability to sense illness in people. In one of her cons she accidentally summons a djinn, Dara, who tells her who she really is and takes her to Daevabad.

Along the same timeline, we also meet Ali who is the son of the King who doesn’t like how his father’s regime treats Shafits, half djinn, half human people. (I hope I have all the spellings right as I listened to it!)

As I said above, I listened to this book and, at first, I wasn’t sure it was the right format for this story for me. I was a bit confused at points with all the different magical groups, political issues but then it all sort of slotted into place, not sure if it was me or not! 

But as soon as Nahri arrived at the Palace, I was hooked to every word! I love Dara is all I have to say!!!

Onto book 2 for me!