The Kingdom of Copper

About The Kingdom of Copper

The Kingdom of Copper is the second book in S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad Trilogy and a masterful expansion of the political and moral complexity introduced in The City of Brass. The city of Daevabad - an ancient djinn city hidden from human sight, built on five millennia of religious war, racial hierarchy, and political violence - has rarely felt more vivid or more precarious than it does in this volume. The novel follows three perspectives. Nahri, the human healer who discovered her djinn heritage in the first book, is now trapped in Daevabad's palace, her skills valuable enough to protect her but her freedom entirely conditional. Ali, the Qahtani prince who was exiled at the end of The City of Brass, returns from the southern provinces changed - more powerful, more dangerous, and carrying the influence of water spirits who have taken up residence in his blood. And Dara, the Daeva warrior who has been resurrected by forces whose motives he is only beginning to understand, is preparing for a war he believes is necessary. Chakraborty writes political conflict with the care of a historian and the urgency of a novelist. The tensions between Daevabad's five tribes - each with legitimate grievances and each with their own version of the city's history - refuse to resolve into simple sides. Characters who appear to be antagonists act from comprehensible motivations; characters who appear to be protagonists make choices that complicate that identification. The magic in the Daevabad Trilogy is rooted in Islamic tradition and myth, rendered with specificity and respect, and The Kingdom of Copper deepens the magical worldbuilding considerably. New locations, new political factions, and the revelation of Daevabad's buried history add layers to a setting that was already the richest in contemporary fantasy. The Kingdom of Copper ends in catastrophe, and Chakraborty earns it. This is political fantasy at its most intellectually rigorous and its most emotionally devastating.

Tropes & Themes