The Kingdom of Copper: A Novel (The Daevabad Trilogy Book 2) Kindle Edition

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 recommend this trilogy! Honestly, without the fantastic TV serie the Game of Throne lengthy books would not have as much success. I have read 3 of those GOT books, with a lot of unnecessary details and subplots and stopped the serie tired of principal character being killed off and additional families added.Not the case here : it is a well constructed, fascinating trilogy, with enough intrigue to remain captivating.I enjoyed learning about Arabic mythology in so much depth as well.Bravo!

La portada es hermosa, al igual que la primera parte viene con un acabado metálico que la hace lucir increíble, aún no lo he leído pero espero que sea mejor que City of Brass

Très bon état, très bon livre

Nice, easy read but not so good as the first book, IMO. The story moves forward slowly and lacks some character development.

Non conosco personalmente la storia,preso per mia nipote che è rimasta contenta, quindi posso consigliare il prodotto!