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A review by arthuriana
The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty
3.0
it's absolutely fascinating to me how s.a. chakraborty has written a book so well and fleshed out such complex characters with believable flaws, arcs, and reactions to the point that she's actually got me sympathising with a racist, genocidal, brainwashed war criminal.
in my defence, darayavoush makes it so easy even when it's clearly so wrong. though i know that he is 100% not the man to root for in this whole series, it is still so absolutely incredible that he ends up being the most sympathetic for me. i've scrolled through other people's reviews and it's not just me that's saying it. very many people are. what is it about dara's character that most would forgive the most egregious of crimes?
nevertheless, that strength is also the reason for much of this book's weakness. much of the action of this book takes place in daevabad itself (therefore away from dara), and chakraborty digs deep into the socio-political milieu of the city. i do not say these parts are boring because of the lack of dara — there are moments of brilliance that sparkle where it's very clear that chakraborty was onto something — but the pacing was sluggish. the slow pace made everything feel so inconsequential. the political mindgames weren't engrossing enough to justify the pace — the stakes were simply not high enough, in my opinion — and so the vast majority of the book is spent dissecting the repercussions of events that, in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter.
this is not to say those scenes were not without their value. as exercises in character study, they excelled marvellously. despite dara taking the #1 spot in the triumvirate of the main characters of this series, i also do quite adore nahri and ali as well so i didn't begrudge them my time and attention. that said, all of their scenes felt rather weightless. i feel as if this story could have caught them at a much later time — that is to say, started somewhere else down the timeline — and the narrative would not have suffered at all.
all in all, it was — well, i hesitate to call it a chore because reading chakraborty's prose is the exact opposite of a chore, but if i were to be quite honest, it took me a few days to get through the first 70% of the book. then i sat down today and finished the rest in one sitting because the things that should have been happening for the literal 2/3 of the series was finally happening.
look, i love this book. i truly do. i just think it could have gone for a couple more rounds of editing before landing onto the laps of readers. if you like the characters, i guess everything's okay, since that's more time spent with the characters you like. but if one doesn't, then one might be in for a very bad ride indeed. in my own case, i loved the characters — which is why i think they should have been given scenes they deserved.
in my defence, darayavoush makes it so easy even when it's clearly so wrong. though i know that he is 100% not the man to root for in this whole series, it is still so absolutely incredible that he ends up being the most sympathetic for me. i've scrolled through other people's reviews and it's not just me that's saying it. very many people are. what is it about dara's character that most would forgive the most egregious of crimes?
nevertheless, that strength is also the reason for much of this book's weakness. much of the action of this book takes place in daevabad itself (therefore away from dara), and chakraborty digs deep into the socio-political milieu of the city. i do not say these parts are boring because of the lack of dara — there are moments of brilliance that sparkle where it's very clear that chakraborty was onto something — but the pacing was sluggish. the slow pace made everything feel so inconsequential. the political mindgames weren't engrossing enough to justify the pace — the stakes were simply not high enough, in my opinion — and so the vast majority of the book is spent dissecting the repercussions of events that, in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter.
this is not to say those scenes were not without their value. as exercises in character study, they excelled marvellously. despite dara taking the #1 spot in the triumvirate of the main characters of this series, i also do quite adore nahri and ali as well so i didn't begrudge them my time and attention. that said, all of their scenes felt rather weightless. i feel as if this story could have caught them at a much later time — that is to say, started somewhere else down the timeline — and the narrative would not have suffered at all.
all in all, it was — well, i hesitate to call it a chore because reading chakraborty's prose is the exact opposite of a chore, but if i were to be quite honest, it took me a few days to get through the first 70% of the book. then i sat down today and finished the rest in one sitting because the things that should have been happening for the literal 2/3 of the series was finally happening.
look, i love this book. i truly do. i just think it could have gone for a couple more rounds of editing before landing onto the laps of readers. if you like the characters, i guess everything's okay, since that's more time spent with the characters you like. but if one doesn't, then one might be in for a very bad ride indeed. in my own case, i loved the characters — which is why i think they should have been given scenes they deserved.