The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy #2)

If the first book had pacing issues, this one quickly ramps up to a dizzying whorl of political machinations, ravishing magic, and action. The character development is likewise improved. But like the first one, this book also has some things I didn\’t like – in spite of some additional depth and greater variety of characters, most of them are still rather flat. Each has a main issue or trait that defines them, and that is as complex as it gets. Minor characters are even flatter, simplisticly echoing a defining group characteristic or role. Nahri, as the main character, is the most flawed in this respect. She seems to trudge through in an entirely powerless fashion, meek and lacking any resistance, but when it is needed for the plot to move forward, she pulls some incredible magic or political maneuver out of her hat. All while never having a single thought or belief that isn\’t purely good and largely also naive. Her ingenue-like wide-eyed naivete wasn\’t believable in the first book, given her upbringing as a street urchin and con artist, and after five years at court as part of the royal family through a political marriage, and a kind of high priestess of the Daeva people, it is even more eye roll inducing. Towards the end, the action gets extremely violent and gory, and yet it is somehow hard to take seriously or feel bad about, because the people don\’t seem real and there is a fable-like distance between them and me as the reader. But the excitement and world building make me feel that the score deserves to be rounded up rather than down.

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