Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi- Egyptian mythology. Bad ass middle aged lady pirate captain. Found family. What more do you need to hear??

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S. A. Chakraborty

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Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend. Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire […]

Absolutely no second book slump to be found. Not even close. The opposite of that.

The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy, #2) by S.A. Chakraborty

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That was super intense. I need a break before diving into the last book, even though I need to know what happens. There are just some books that put you through it, and this is one of them. Luckily, the book is also excellent, which is a huge part of why the book was so affecting. This book picks up three (?) years after the events of City of Brass. I am not going to go into plot specifics bc it is labyrinthine, and won’t […]

“So you just live quietly with these powers? Haven’t you ever wondered why you have them? Suleiman’s eye . . . you could be overthrowing governments, and instead you steal from peasants!”

The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy, #1) by S.A. Chakraborty

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Yet another book I don’t want to review because I put off writing the review so long that I’ve forgotten details of the book and what I wanted to say about it, if I ever knew. Mostly I’m just mad I didn’t read this sooner, although now I don’t have to wait in between books if I don’t want to. (I don’t want to, but I can’t manage to fit the second book into my OCD color-coded TBR—don’t ask, it’s too complicated to explain—and also! […]

Got brass in pocket Got bottle I’m gonna use it Intention I feel inventive

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

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Wow, that was a tremendous letdown. I really ate up the first, say, third, of the City of Brass, and then slowly watched the wheels come off. The premise is terrific. Nahri is a conwoman and healer living in Cairo and scraping by because of her skill at picking up languages and her remarkable healing (both herself and others) prowess. Little bits of backstory emerge in a fairly organic way: she is an orphan who grew up on the streets, she is ‘odd’ in some way […]

This book pulls the rug out from under your feet, but not necessarily in the best way

The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty

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HMMM this book, this book. I had SO very many thoughts after reading it, and I definitely should have just pounded this out immediately after reading it because now I am onto book the next and already some of my biting insights have started to flutter away. I would say that for large portions of the the middle of this book, I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to read on and would instead force one of my friends who had finished the series […]

A fitting end to a wonderful trilogy

Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

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Empire of Gold featured in my ‘Best Books of the Year’ blurb, so why haven’t I written a review yet? I’m not quite sure, but I do know that it’s not the malaise that sometimes comes with ‘average’ books. I have loved each entry in the Daevabad trilogy more than the next, and Empire of Gold was that gold standard (no pun intended)–a conclusion that manages to surprise and yet feel inevitable and right, one that hits a perfect thematic ending note. Chakraborty has built up […]



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