The Daevabad Trilogy Review Part Two: The Kingdom of Copper
The Deavabad Trilogy Book Two: The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty 
*Warning: This review contains spoilers*
Summary & Review
Ok, so when I say that I devoured this book, I mean, I literally devoured it. My hardcover copy of The Kingdom of Copper is 600 pages long, and I read it in approximately two sittings. I should specify, I don’t actually read at lightning speed. I love reading, and for that reason, I like to savor reading. I read slow. But I was physically incapable of reading The Kingdom of Copper slowly because I was just so invested in what would happen next with every chapter I read.
There aren’t a lot of series that exist where I feel that the second book was an improvement over the first. These instances are rare, and The Daevabad Trilogy is one of those rare instances. I had issues with the initial pacing of the first book (though it picked up quite a bit during the second half), but this book didn’t have any of those issues for me. It was the perfect balance of character driven moments, plot beats, and moments of tension that combined both elements from start to finish. I also feel that the characters really started to come into their own during this second installment and became more compelling—whether I loved or hated them.
This specifically applies to Alizayd. While I loved Nahri from the start of the first book, and she only got better in this book, Ali started off as being more of a mid-tier kind of character to becoming my favorite protagonist in the trilogy. I felt every raw emotion that he felt. I panicked when he was poisoned, I was rooting for him in his spat with his brother Muntadhir, I wanted him to patch up his friendship with Nahri and was rooting for them to get together, and I wanted to know everything about how going into the lake at the end of the City of Brass in the last book and how/why he was able to survive it at all. Most importantly, I just loved his growth. While he was never a bad guy, he was a bit underwhelming where he started out, but he becomes so much more well-rounded in every sense of the word in Kingdom of Copper.
I also just love the hospital that Ali and Nahri start together. It showcases both of their compassionate natures, but it was also the perfect way to allow Nahri to embrace both her Daeva/Nahid heritage and healing abilities as well as her Shafit origins too, by enforcing the way that everyone would be treated equally in her hospital. She also really came into her own with learning how to heal. Chakraborty does an excellent job of showing how Nahri struggles and has to learn the ropes of healing, but avoids the pitfalls of too much of a “training montage” moment dragging down from the pacing of the book or bogging up too much of Nahri’s development and characterization. It’s also wonderful to see this young woman go from being a thief and a con artist to being a healer who wants to save innocent lives, and it’s a bonus to see this transition in her character feel so natural.
Everything about Nahri’s political marriage to Muntadhir is wonderfully frustrating and just helps add to all the other layers of the political and inter-character strife that is going on.
Chakraborty also continues her streak on perfectly balancing the prejudices and not trying to downplay the sufferings of one group or another—she showcases prejudice against Daevas as well as Shafits equally in this book with no apparent bias towards one group or the other. She also further explores Ali’s Ayaanle heritage and those prejudices that exist within the society as well.
If I absolutely had to nitpick anything about this book (which I don’t really want to do, because I absolutely loved it, but I’m going to anyway because I like to be impartial in my reviews), it would honestly be the inclusion of Dara as a point of view character, which he wasn’t in the City of Brass. Don’t get me wrong, I like getting inside the heads of morally gray characters and better understanding them. I like seeing a redemption arc play out in the eyes of the character being redeemed. But the problem with the way that Dara’s chapters in the Kingdom of Copper function is that they actually take away the emotional impact that some of the biggest plot points could have had. Obviously it spoils that Dara as well as the infamous Manizheh are alive. But it spoils a lot more than that. It’s in Dara’s chapter right after Ali is poisoned that we learn Jamshid did it, instead of allowing the reader to have to sit and ponder and figure out who it might have been. Similarly, it gives away the fact that Nahri’s friend Nisreen is working with them and manipulating things around the Navasatem parade for them. They spoil Kaveh’s betrayal of Ghassan. And the biggest thing, they spoil the climax of the book: Manizheh’s planned invasion of Daevabad during the parade.
There are benefits to Dara’s chapters and his viewpoint being added to the book, obviously—that’s why they were included! But please just imagine for a moment an alternate version of the Daevabad Trilogy where:
- We don’t know Dara survived the end of The City of Brass for the whole book and only learn when Nahri does during the invasion, and we’re just as shocked as she is.
- We has no idea that Manizheh had survived and was going to be the antagonist for the final book.
- We didn’t know that the attack at the Navasatem parade was going to happen and weren’t prepared for something bad to happen ahead of time.
- We never found out Jamshid poisoned Ali in this book, and Chakraborty left us to ponder it, and we don’t get a full confirmation until the next book when Ali puts it together.
- We didn’t know Nisreen was conspiring with Manizheh except for maybe a few hints, genuinely thought she was a true friend to Nahri, until the next book when Nahri is forced to reckon with the understanding that Nisreen was working with them.
- Chakraborty convinces us that Kaveh is Ghassan’s simpering ally until the attack at the end, and we realize we had been as deceived into believing it as Ghassan.
I recognize that there would be drawbacks to removing Dara’s chapters, but I still think this would have been my personal preference. That being said, I can’t really complain about the story’s climax too much because it was fantastic.
I was literally on the edge of my seat through the entirety of the last couple chapters. There are just so many amazing things to say about it.
First off, Ghassan died. Good riddance.
Second of all, Dara’s growth. We know he hates Alizayd and would gladly see him dead. But even with those feelings of resentment, he isn’t willing to let the ifrit enslave Ali like he had been enslaved after his own death. Dara knows what that’s like, and it’s something he literally wouldn’t wish upon his worst enemy, so he actively tries to stop it. Amazing.
Then there’s Muntadhir’s sacrifice to save his brother. Also amazing. His entire feud with Ali just infuriated me (in a good way) all throughout The Kingdom of Copper. It only made his big moment at the end—when he jumps in front of Dara’s blade before he can bring it down on his little brother Ali, sacrificing his life—all the more emotional. I’ll admit it, Chakraborty tricked me. I really believed that Muntadhir was dead for real. I was near crying when he told Ali that they were okay just before he died (almost died, I should say), and when he said that he just couldn’t watch Dara kill him again after having witnessed Dara throw Ali in the lake at the end of the previous book. It was all just so much.
Then after Ghassan’s death, Nahri taking the ring out of his heart and giving it to Ali, as the two of them vanish to safety in Egypt—Nahri’s former home in the human world? Just perfect.
Final Thoughts
I would give this book 4.5 stars. Obviously, I mapped out how I felt that it could have been even better by omitting Dara’s chapters to surprise the reader a little bit more, but honestly I don’t even have that big of a problem with them. That was only a nitpick. This book was fantastic, I just think it could have been made ever so slightly better. The plot, the characters, the development. The lore expands from the first book in such meaningful ways. I don’t feel bad giving any book that captivated me this much a near perfect rating when my only complaint is a slight nitpick in its structure.
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