The Kingdom of Copper

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Everything that I liked about the first book is still here — the sweeping beautiful descriptions of the city, the magic that awes, and the stellar cast. But compared to the first book, this one just didn't hit quite as well for me. I'm not entirely sure why — The Kingdom of Copper moves at a remarkably quick pace, and everything really comes to a head right at the end — but I found myself not enjoying it at as much as The City of Brass. It's possible its just a me thing, but who knows. Perhaps I just missed Nahri being amazed and shocked at how most of the djinn and daevas live, and in aw of the city around her. In The Kingdom of Copper, Nahri is seemingly done with being amazed, and has circled back around at being annoyed at the lack of progress and the amount of bigotry present.

Poor Nahri has been through a lot in her relatively short life, and everything just seems to be getting worse for her. She's handles it all admirably though, so she continues to be one of my favorite characters in the bunch. Dara, on the other hand, I want to shake silly. I can't really get into it too much without spoilling anything, but he makes some really crappy decisions here, and doesn't fight hard enough, in my opinion. Instead of fighting to break the circle of war, he just...goes along with it. It was frustrating to the extreme. And Ali, oh Ali. Yes, to all of those who said he grows on you, he definitely does. But that doesn't mean I still don't want to slap him sometimes. He's remarkably short sighted, and makes some really stupid decisions, but he's infinitely more likeable in this book than the first.

I think a lot of the conflict in this particular book could have been avoided (obviously) if anyone ever, actually bothered to explain to Nahri what was going on, and what was being planned around her. Instead, everyone just assumes that she'll go along with whatever they're concocting. I really loved that she didn't just fall into line. She remained herself, and kept who she was in spite of everything.

Overall, still enjoyable! I'm giving it 3.5 stars. I'm barely into the next book, but keep your eyes peeled for my review of The Empire of Gold soon!