Ali has been raised and trained with the expectation of becoming his brother’s protector. The two have different roles and expectations. Prince Alizayd (Ali) is one of the main roles here and has his own POV chapters. Strangely enough Nahri and Dara are not the only key characters. Bring into the mix a warrior with a very troubled past and a potential Daeva with blood in her veins from a line of healers who have long been thought to have been killed off and you can imagine the machinations that are afoot. On top of this Ghassan himself treads a precarious line keeping the ambitious nobles in check. Shafits – as mixed bloods are rather derogatorily called – are treated terribly and it seems that rebellion is brewing. The six pure blood tribes keep those with mixed blood firmly under the heel.
Ruled by something of a tyrant, King Ghassan, fear and oppression are the main order of the day. Of course, on arrival, don’t expect all their troubles to disappear. The story then follows the two as they travel rough terrain, constantly pursued by evil as they try to reach the protection of the legendary City of Brass. Recognising that Nahri may herself have mixed blood the safest course is to take her to the magical city of Daevabad, her only protection against the ifrits that will now hunt Nahri to her death. Dara is the most notorious and fearsome warrior in Daevabad history. At one such ceremony Nahri unwittingly calls forth a djinn warrior, or daeva warrior – as is the preferred term.
She also takes part in cleansing ceremonies, ridding people of their demons, or ifrits, as they are known. By night she practices slight of hand relieving the wealthy Ottoman nobles of their precious baubles. She can see a person’s illness although she can’t always make them well. By day she is a healer and the small glimmer of magic that she hides gives her a genuine ability in this field. In her twenties Nahri lives a double life on the streets of 18th century Cairo. We start the story by making the acquaintance of Nahri. The world building is sumptuous, it oozes with details providing a rich and colourful vision for the mind to feast on at the same time as bringing to mind tales of the Arabian Nights with all the magic that those entail. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed this to be a debut novel. I completed City of Brass a couple of weeks ago and with a couple of minor issues I would say that it worked out as quite an amazing read.
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