Clare L. Deming

The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty is the second book in The Daevabad Trilogy. I listened to this as an audiobook last year and loved the entire series. You can find my review of the first book, The City of Brass, here.

Also – beware! Spoilers below!

Here is the blurb:

Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there.

Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of the battle that saw Dara slain at Prince Ali’s hand, Nahri must forge a new path for herself, without the protection of the guardian who stole her heart or the counsel of the prince she considered a friend. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family, and one misstep will doom her tribe.

Meanwhile, Ali has been exiled for daring to defy his father. Hunted by assassins, adrift on the unforgiving copper sands of his ancestral land, he is forced to rely on the frightening abilities the marid, the unpredictable water spirits, have gifted him. But in doing so, he threatens to unearth a terrible secret his family has long kept buried.

And as a new century approaches and the djinn gather within Daevabad’s towering brass walls for celebrations, a threat brews unseen in the desolate north. It’s a force that would bring a storm of fire straight to the city’s gates . . . and one that seeks the aid of a warrior trapped between worlds, torn between a violent duty he can never escape and a peace he fears he will never deserve.

Set a few years after the tragic ending of book 1, we see Nahri settling into her new role as a healer as this book begins. But she still grieves both Dara and Ali, and resents the king who essentially keeps her captive in Daevabad.

This book complicates everything that you thought you knew about this world, and looking back at it now, I don’t know how so much fit into one book. The politics entangles the characters more than before, new secrets are revealed.

Like the first book, this one reaches an ending but leaves more to be done. Look out for my review of book 3, The Empire of Gold, in the next week.

Have you read The Daevabad Trilogy? What did you think? Let me know in the comments above.

Find more of my reviews here.