Welcome to the Fantasy Hive’s Read-along for Women in SFF!

For our first ever Women in SFF Read-along, we held a Twitter poll to choose the book – and the book that one the majority of the votes was S. A. Chakraborty’s THE CITY OF BRASS!

Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

 

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

 

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

 

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for…

This will be the first time reading this story for Nils and I (Beth), but it’s been on both our TBRs for quite some time. This is also the first time we’ve ever hosted a Read-along, so if we hit any teething problems along the way, please bear with us.

Our plan is to:

• release discussion points mid-week for that week’s section, and on Saturday, Nils and I will be posting our replies.

• Each week, we’ll share a Google doc containing the discussion points on social media.
  
• When you post your replies and thoughts, please do tag us or use #WomenInSFFReadalong so we can add your links to our Saturday post.

The Read-along will be split up as follows:

Week 1: 5th – 10th July

Start – Chapter 6

Week 2: 11th – 17th July

Chapter 7 – Chapter 14

Week 3: 18th – 24th July

Chapter 15 – Chapter 22

Week 4: 25th July – 31st July

Chapter 23 – End

I may have already started City of Brass to get a jump on writing the discussion points, and I may already be utterly in love with it. In my defence, it’s hard not to love the absolute whirlwind that is Nahri.

Can’t wait to discuss this magical book with you!