He let the Afshin pursue him across the training room, their fiery blades clashing and sizzling. He was actually an even better fighter than he’d let on.īut the zulfiqar was a Geziri weapon, and Ali would be damned if some Daeva butcher was going to beat him with it. The Afshin’s calm was gone and with it, much of the reserve Ali now realized the other man had been showing. Check out this excerpt, courtesy of Tor, which sees Ali fighting Dara, an extremely powerful djinn with a connection to Nahri:

Ultimately, they must both choose between doing what they suspect is right and doing what they know is best for the people they love and/or themselves. It is this balance of the political and the personal and, more importantly, the recognition that the two are inextricably intertwined that Charaborty does best.Ĭhakraborty is also an admirable action scene writer, infusing complex fight scenes with character and world-building. These are two characters who try to do their best, but who are only human, so to speak, in their naivete. While the fierce, stubborn Nahri serves as the outsider perspective as we explore Daevabad and djinn culture, self-serious scholar Ali is the insider, humanizing the hierarchy while never apologizing for its injustice. Ali is endlessly struggling to understand his own privilege and to balance exercising his own power with the love he has for his powerful family.īoth characters are young (this book walks the line between young adult and adult), which makes the mistakes they make and the eventual lessons they learn all the more believable.

While this book is mostly being marketing as one with a single, female narrator, the dual narrator set-up ended up being one of my favorite aspects of the storytelling. Past that, Chakraborty subverts the patterns of a love triangle to tell a refreshingly realistic story of love, desire, and the dangers of under-communication.

Of particular interest to this reader was the familial relationships between Ali, his father, and his two older siblings.

However, even at its most confusing setting-wise, the character-driven storytelling of the book is easy to follow and engaging.

Download the new for mac City of Brass