The press release describes the story as "an imaginative alchemy of The Golem and the Jinni, The Grace of Kings, and Uprooted, in which the future of a magical Middle Eastern kingdom rests in the hands of a clever and defiant young con artist with miraculous healing gifts.

"[1] When asked about writing the novel in an interview for The Huffington Post, Chakraborty explains that it "began as a world-building experiment... the world that became The City of Brass–one I imagined djinn might have created by combining their nature and the influences of the particular human societies they lived amongst.

The story also follows Alizayd al Qahtani, "Ali" for short; a devout Muslim and second son of the djinn king whose family currently rules Daevabad, and whose ancestors had violently overthrown the Nahids.

The city and its many djinn tribes is a kindling box that King Ghassan al Qahtani holds together with an iron fist, and Nahri and Dara's arrival in Daevabad threatens to set it all on fire.

When Ali refuses his role as Qaid and his connection to the Tanzeem comes to light, King Ghassan forces him to become friends with Nahri as a way to warm her to their family so that eventually she and Emir Muntadhir can marry.

Their escape is soon interrupted by a hidden warship full of soldiers, and a massacre ensues when Nahri unintentionally unleashes Dara's slave powers and he murders nearly everyone on the ship, including Ali.

[citation needed] In a review in The New York Times, columnist Suzanne Joinson says "it's clear that Chakraborty has great fun alluding to these tales," and continues "most enjoyable is the gusto with which everything is thrown into her story, from massacres to zombies to djinns.

"[3] A review by Paul Di Filippo in Locus compares the novel with One Thousand and One Nights in terms of its imagery and storylines, and summarizes by writing "with its blend of royal politesse, djinnish magic, human loves and fears, and Middle Eastern Machiavellianism, The City of Brass offers pleasures worthy of Scheherazade.

readers whose only experience of the djinn is Disney, The City of Brass is going to be a lush, entertaining fable inspired by Middle Eastern and Islamic folklore that has just enough familiar elements to not be considering worrying alien, and yet is exotic enough to thrill and entice and tick off diversity boxes in the right way.