The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So, I was fairly excited to read a fantasy involving Jinn in both Cairo and Daevabad. I was only slightly worried that it was YA. In the end, I give it more of a 3.5 rating.

BUT WHY? (Says the hoard of YA enthusiasts)

Because while I actually didn't mind the love triangle-ish direction of the tale near the end while Nahri and Dara and Avi have their little intrigue in the famous City of Brass (Daevabad), getting there was something of a slog.

Wait, wait, have you heard this one?

Thief discovers she has magic, binds an old magic to herself, has to run a LONG WAY AWAY, has adventures, makes it to a magical city, is heralded as a lost princess, has two magical guys fighting over her, and it ends with a tragedy with a silver lining.

Oh. Right. It's like, the most common story EVER.

But that shouldn't stop us from enjoying it, right? Right. As long as it's done well. Right? Right. So it has times where it's done right. Good long stretches. And then I'm bored. And more good long stretches where I'm pumped up. And then I'm bored.

The place where I was pretty much entertained was in Daevabad... despite the love triangle.
I had a pretty good time there. The reveals for Avi, and I don't mean the whole financing the rebels bit, were pretty good. The END was pretty good.

The rest of this rather long novel, though? Long segments were just ... dull. An editor to tighten this up would have turned it into something rather better. My opinion.

Still, it wasn't bad. Just not drop-dead gorgeous. I've read 3-4 Jinn based novels that WERE gorgeous. This one was kinda... well... I've read this same story a million times. *sniffle* Sorry.

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