Kingdom of Copper
by SA Chakraborty
I feel like I've covered Mrs. Chakraborty with enough depth in the last review of The City of Brass and I honestly hate repeating myself. So I'm gonna ask folks to go take a look at that review for the information on the author. Instead, I'll note that The Kingdom of Copper was published in 2019 by Harper Voyager books. Harper Voyager is an imprint of HarperCollins Books, one of the five biggest publishers in the English-speaking world. It was founded in 1999 as Eos Books and relaunched in 2011 focusing on fantasy, urban fantasy, and science fiction. They also published The Poppy War and authors you might know such as Raymond E Feist, RA Salvatore, and more. The Kingdom of Copper itself is the second of a 3 book series, the first of which we've already reviewed, so let's go ahead and dive in, shall we?
The Kingdom of Copper takes place in the magical city of Daevabad, the central city and capital of the world of the Djinn. The Djinn are a magical people (the bigger, badder leprechaun of the Levant). They're not entirely unlike humans, but whereas humanity are creatures of earth, Djinn are creatures of fire. Once upon a time they were more spirits than physical creatures, but as punishment for tormenting humanity the prophet Suleiman (aka King Solomon) turned them into what they are now, excluding a group of outcasts who refused to submit called Ifrit. The modern Djinn are split into 6 tribes who inhabit the Earth out of view of humanity, living within the bounds of the traditional Islamic world stretching from Central Asia to the western shores of Africa. Another group in Djinn society are the Shafit, who are people with mixed Djinn and human ancestry, who aren’t members of the tribes by law but can be adopted, even against their will.
While there are six tribes, only 3 of them hold any importance in the series so far. The first is the Daevas, the tribe of our main character Nahri. The Daevas used to be the head tribe of the Djinn world due to being the first Djinn to submit to the prophet Suleiman, and thus their ruling family was allowed to keep and maintain rather wondrous powers to harm or heal (a-ha! Vichy djinn {They were kidnapping people and starting wars and etc so I feel comparing Suleiman to Nazi Germany is incredibly unjustified}). After submitting to their punishment, the Daevas built Daevabad as a refuge and a place apart from humanity. They practice a type of Zoroastrianism with the focus of their religion being the temple in Daevabad itself. They're also deeply bigoted towards the Shafit, as they see the very existence of people with mixed blood as a violation of the rules given to them by prophet Suleiman in the first place, chief among them leaving the bloody humans alone! (“These folks ain’t djinn! Hell, they ain’t even old-timey!”) As a result, under Daeva rule the Shafit would suffer terribly to the point that they could be enslaved and literally bought and sold under the guise of being “reunited” with full blood kin who had full power over them.
The Geziri overthrew the Daevas, claiming that the cruelty of the Daevas towards the Shafit left them unfit to rule. They took up the rulership of Daevabad as well as taking control of Suleiman's seal which allows the holder their own magical powers within the bounds of the city separate from the innate powers of the ruling family of the Daevas. The Geziri for the most part follow Islam and live closer to humans than other Djinn tribes, so they're more traditionally sympathetic to the Shafit. However, the ruling Geziri family has maintained control over Daevabad by playing the Daevas and Shafit off each other, allowing carefully measured atrocities to happen so both groups are so busy fighting each other that they can't present a threat to Geziri leadership. This has caused a rift within the tribe itself as more traditionalist and religious members of the tribe deeply disapprove of this and of the luxurious lifestyle of the royals on top of that. I'll come back to that.
To combat the rift within the tribe and try to expand their alliances the current King Ghassan took a wife from a 3rd tribe when his first wife died - The Ayaanle tribe, who live along the Nile and are incredibly wealthy, especially in gold and salt. While most of them practice Islam or at least claim to publicly, it's a very different Islam than the one followed by the Geziri (sounds like a more… worldly interpretation{Given the princess can discuss wines in-depth, gonna say yes}) and despite one of them being the queen, they find themselves undecided on whether an alliance with the royal family is that good an idea. On top of this, the Ayaanle have their own secrets to protect, and becoming too deeply invested in the politics of the capital is a threat to those secrets.
The other 3 tribes, while mentioned, don't really carry any weight in this story as they've all decided to stay at arm's length away from royal politics and who can blame them? Especially when the risks are high and the rewards are low. There is a non-Djinn group getting involved - the Marid, creatures of water as the Djinn are of fire, start to move again after having disappeared for centuries (that is not dead which can eternal lie, / And with strange aeons even death may die + insert eerie fish-type noises). What their goals are and why they're moving now may have consequences beyond the borders of Daevabad but let's look at our characters.
Nahri, who grew up on the streets of Cario scourging for every scrap of healing knowledge she could find and dreaming of getting enough wealth together to get formal medical training is living both a dream and a nightmare. A dream, in that she is now a figure of wealth and political power, the last surviving member of the old royal family of the Daeva tribe. She is also gifted with powerful healing magic that can pull people back from the very brink of death which makes her a figure of near-religious veneration among the Djinn. A nightmare in that she is a hostage held by King Ghassan, and any move she makes that displeases him results in punishment for other Daevas. She is trapped in a palace that should be hers, in marriage to Ghassan's eldest son Muntadhir, and in the politics of blood feud and ancient curdled hatred that she despises. Nahri is determined to build bridges between the Shafit and the Daevas and at least try to stop the cycle of atrocities and make life better for the people of the city. She also dreams of taking vengeance on her jailer King Ghassan for the humiliations and slights piled on her and her loved ones.
Meanwhile, the exiled younger son of the King, Ali, is returning to the city of Daevabad against his own better judgment, drawn by rumors of the city balancing on the edge of rebellion and of fear for his own family (but is this Prince Ali also fabulous?? {Only when his mother dresses him}). Ali finds himself torn between his love of his family and his sense of right and wrong. He loves his father but believes that his father is destroying thousands of innocent lives. He loves his brother but believes his brother is being a coward in refusing to confront his father. On top of that, he's in love with Nahri, but can't bring himself to admit it and Nahri is incredibly angry with him given that she believes that he killed her best friend Dara, who was also the Djinn she was half in love with. Worse, the Marid have meddled with him and left him with mysterious powers over water that have driven his sister and mother frantically to find a way to protect him. Queen Haaset, his mother, wasn't much of a character in the first book but shows up to much greater effect here, as a mother trying to protect her only son, even from his own father. Ali increasingly finds himself having to make a choice between virtue and loyalty in this book.
But that choice might not even matter because Dara, the Daeva everyone thinks is dead, is alive and has been called to service once again. Outside of the city, a rebellion is forming in the countryside, one made up of unlikely alliances and willing to use dark knowledge and powers. Dara finds himself in the familiar position stuck between loyalty and virtue. It was his loyalty to the ruling family of the Daevas in the last war that led to him being remembered as a war criminal by the Geziri, and frankly, that's because much of what he did was criminal. He, under orders, engaged in mass slaughter. The hands of the Geziri are just as dirty, mind you, but they won so they got to write the history books (“I am the writer of all history books everywhere! Suck it down!” - Victor Victorson). Dara's life has been extended unnaturally (even for a Djinn) but he's prepared to go to the well one more time and the people using his loyalty are set to wring every advantage from it. The rebel alliance however is fragile at best (easy pickings for a few star destroyers) and as it grows increasingly morally compromised the question of will they be any better than the people they replaced becomes a very important one.
The Kingdom of Copper is a book of deadly royal and familial politics, where the ties of brotherhood, filial piety, and marriage are strained past the snapping point by paranoia, ambition, and cold calculating ruthlessness. Where layers of crimes and brutality lay between people of goodwill and create massive barriers to trust as a mistake can lead to the deaths of hundreds if not more. It's a story about people trapped in a cycle of violence and hatred and how that cycle is protected by the people in power because they're afraid of what happens if they try any other way. Of course, this book is also about the danger of getting so wrapped up in your own infighting that you don't see the wolf pushing in through the front door. Mrs. Chakraborty does an amazing job of breathing life into this and if I'm going, to be honest does a better job with 2 books than George RR Martin did with 5.
The character interactions are just beautiful and incredibly believable. My favorite example of this is a scene where the entire royal family is gathered for a private dinner. Everyone is straining very hard to be friendly, polite, and mend ties. There is, however, so much resentment, misunderstandings, and paranoia towards each other's intentions that it takes everything the family has not to break down into infighting on the spot. Between the King and the Queen, between the two brothers, between Nahri and both brothers, between the princess and just about everyone else. It's an amazing scene that would single-handedly justify a book all on its own and the rest of the book is just as good. As an example of intrigue, feuding and brutal political infighting The Kingdom of Copper is a great book. Most of the action of the book takes place near the end as everything comes to head but people looking for clashes of arms and action can take comfort that there is a good amount of it in the last quarter or so of the book. The Kingdom of Copper by SA Chakraborty gets an A and a well-earned one. Don't miss your chance to enjoy this fantasy inspired by the legends of medieval Islam full of well-realized characters, shocking magic, and dark secrets.
Apologies for the late post dear readers, various goings-on with my living situation had me a bit distracted. For the record, I’m okay and will be so for the foreseeable future. Anyways, The Kingdom of Copper was chosen by our ever-wise patrons, and as always you can join their ranks at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where a dollar a month gets you a vote on upcoming reviews, theme months and more. This also helps pay for editors and other expenses. Speaking of editors, a special thank you to our guest editor Mike this week! Next week, we review a book also chosen by our patrons, the Peshawar Lancers by SM Stirling! Until then stay safe and keep reading!
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