The Kingdom of Copper by SA Chakraborty

 

“Because a lost little girl from Cairo thought she was living in some sort of fairy tale. And because for all her supposed cleverness, she couldn’t see that the dashing hero who saved her was its monster.” ― S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper

The Kingdom of Copper is book two in the Daevabad Trilogy and the characters we've come to know and love return to us. Nahri is now living a life married to a husband who despises her, trapped in the palace by the cruel King Ghassan. Homesick for the streets of Cairo, she must find happiness in her new home of Daevabad. Ali, exiled from his home by his father, finds comfort in a rural village but that changes when a stranger shows up with the intention of throwing Ali back into Daevabad's dangerous politics. Dara, resurrected by a vengeful djinn, is once again force to be The Scourge, the living weapon, in a vicious plot to bring the city of to its knees.

This book didn't start out as gripping as the first. It was very slow to start, detailing the lives of our characters five years after the conclusion of the first book, which to be fair, was necessary to the plot of the story. It also was necessary to delve into the political games in the King's court and the civil unrest growing within the city. But all of these things combined to make for a slow burning drama so if you're expecting a story as fast as the first, you're going to be a little disappointed. If you want a book with a little more meat on its bones...this is it.

The setting and characters remained richly described and thick with magic as Ali and Nahri continue their fight to bring peace to the shafit and the djinn, a union consistently sabotaged by the dark forces that surround and oppose them. This story elevates itself from the pure adventure that was The City of Brass, to include intrigue, politics, traitors, and inevitably war. I'd put this on the list of books I just couldn't put down, I just couldn't sleep without asking the question: But what happens next?

Its pacing may make or break your love for the story, but if you read the first book, the second is a must read.