Books Like The City of Brass

S. A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass is the great modern epic of the djinn: Nahri, a con woman in eighteenth-century Cairo who has spent her life swindling the city’s wealthy with her fake healing rituals - until the night she accidentally performs a real one, summoning a djinn warrior named Dara, and is carried off to Daevabad, the legendary city of the djinn, where she must navigate a world of politics, magic, and war.

The book is a masterpiece of world-building: the city of Daevabad, the six tribes of the djinn, the centuries of history and hatred between them, the magic that runs through everything. It is political fantasy at its finest, and it is utterly immersive. If you have finished it and want to return to the city, here is where to go next.

If You Loved the Djinn: The Old Stories, Made New#

The djinn are among the most ancient figures in folklore - beings of fire, older than humanity, full of power and caprice - and Chakraborty treats them with complete seriousness. These books have djinn of the same kind.

The Golem and the Jinni (Helene Wecker)#

The essential companion: a golem and a jinni find themselves in New York City in 1899, two immigrants among millions, trying to understand what it means to be human in a new world. It shares the City of Brass’s reverence for the old myths - Jewish and Arab folklore - and its conviction that the creatures of the old stories are worth taking seriously. Where Chakraborty’s book is an epic, Wecker’s is a meditation; together they show the full range of what the djinn can do in fiction.

A Master of Djinn (P. Djèlí Clark)#

Cairo, 1912, where magic is real and djinn live openly among humans: Fatma el-Sha’arawi, the Ministry’s first female agent, investigates the murder of a brotherhood of alchemists. Clark’s novel is a dazzling blend of history, magic, and mystery, and it shares the City of Brass’s love of the djinn and its joy in setting them in a real, specific, meticulously researched world.

The Golem and the Jinni, Read for the Other Side#

Where Chakraborty’s djinn are political - divided into tribes, bound by histories of conquest and oppression - Wecker’s jinni is a single being, alone in an alien world, trying to understand what it means to be trapped in a body of flesh. The two books are complementary portraits of the same creatures: the djinn as a civilization and the jinni as a person.

If You Loved the World-Building: Cities You Can Live In#

The defining achievement of the City of Brass is Daevabad itself - a city of brass and magic, of palaces and slums, of six tribes with six histories and six grievances. These books build worlds of the same depth.

The City of Brass, and the City Itself#

Chakraborty’s world-building is the book’s signature: the geography of Daevabad, the politics of its tribes, the theology of its magic, the centuries of history that explain every present conflict. The book is immersive in the truest sense - you live in Daevabad while you read it, and you miss it when you leave. The trilogy that follows - The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold - only deepens the world, and taken together the three books are one of the great achievements of modern fantasy.

The Goblin Emperor (Katherine Addison)#

A very different city, but the same depth of world-building: the elven empire of Addison’s book is rendered with the same care for politics, history, and culture - and the same conviction that the reader should live in it, not just visit it. Addison’s book is warmer and quieter than Chakraborty’s, but the craft is comparable.

The Priory of the Orange Tree (Samantha Shannon)#

A sprawling epic of dragons, queens, and the war between East and West: Shannon’s book shares the City of Brass’s ambition, its love of world-building, and its interest in the politics of magic. It is longer and more complex than Chakraborty’s trilogy, but it rewards the same immersive reading.

If You Loved the Politics: Fantasy as Statecraft#

The City of Brass is political fantasy at its finest: the book is as much about diplomacy, alliance, and the manipulation of power as it is about magic. These books share that focus.

The City of Brass, and the Art of the Court#

Nahri arrives in Daevabad with nothing but her wits - and the book is about how she uses them: reading the court, navigating the factions, surviving the politics of a city where everyone has an agenda and no one can be trusted. It is a book about power in its most practical sense: who has it, who wants it, how it is wielded, and what it costs. The book’s deepest pleasure is watching a clever woman learn the rules of a deadly game - and begin to play it better than the players.

A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin)#

The essential political fantasy: Martin’s series is the modern master of the genre, and its blend of magic, history, and statecraft is the template for everything that followed - including Chakraborty’s trilogy. The City of Brass is a different book in a different register, but readers who loved the politics of Westeros will find the same pleasure in the politics of Daevabad.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant (Seth Dickinson)#

Baru Cormorant is an accountant sent to a colonized island to bring it into the empire - and the book is about the price of her success: the betrayals, the calculations, the cost of doing what must be done. It is the darkest political fantasy on this list, and it shares the City of Brass’s conviction that power is a game with real costs.

If You Loved the Heroine: The Con Woman Who Becomes a Queen#

Nahri is one of the great fantasy heroines: a con woman who has spent her life reading people and surviving on her wits, who is carried off to a world where her talents are more valuable - and more dangerous - than she ever knew. These books have heroines of the same kind.

The City of Brass, and the Education of Nahri#

Nahri’s journey is the book’s engine: from con woman to princess, from survivor to leader, from a girl who faked magic to a woman who wields it. The book is about her education in the most complete sense - learning the history of her people, the politics of the city, the truth of her own heritage. She is not a chosen one in the traditional sense; she is a woman who chooses herself, over and over, in a world that keeps trying to choose for her.

Spinning Silver (Naomi Novik)#

Miryem is a moneylender’s daughter who discovers a talent for turning silver into gold - and the book is about the bargains she makes and the prices of them. She shares Nahri’s sharpness, her practicality, and her refusal to be anyone’s pawn.

The Priory of the Orange Tree (Samantha Shannon)#

Ead is a mage in disguise, sent to the queen’s court to protect her - and the book is about her navigating the court while hiding what she is. She shares Nahri’s double life, her cleverness, and her slow rise to a power she did not ask for.

If You Loved the History: The Middle East in Fantasy#

The City of Brass is rooted in the real history and culture of the Middle East - Cairo, the djinn of Arab folklore, the centuries of Islamic civilization - and the book treats its sources with reverence. These books share that grounding.

The City of Brass, and the Sources of Its Magic#

Chakraborty’s world is built from real material: the djinn of pre-Islamic and Islamic folklore, the history of Cairo, the culture of the Arab world. The book is a love letter to that heritage, and it is part of a welcome movement in fantasy - the turn away from the European Middle Ages and toward the other great civilizations of the world. The book’s magic is not generic; it is specifically, beautifully Arab and Persian, and that specificity is part of its power.

The Golem and the Jinni (Helene Wecker)#

The Jewish and Arab folklore that Wecker draws on - the golem of the rabbis, the jinni of the desert - is the same heritage Chakraborty mines, seen from a different angle. The two books are companions in the truest sense: the same myths, the same reverence, two very different stories.

The Lions of Al-Rassan (Guy Gavriel Kay)#

A historical fantasy set in a world inspired by medieval Spain - a land of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, of poets and warriors, of a civilization at its height and about to fall. Kay’s book shares the City of Brass’s love of the Middle East and its conviction that the great civilizations of the region deserve fantasy epics of their own.

If You Loved the Epic Scale: Trilogies That Demand Everything#

The City of Brass is the first book of a trilogy - The Kingdom of Copper and The Empire of Gold complete the story - and it is an epic in the truest sense: generations, wars, civilizations. These books share its scale.

The Daevabad Trilogy (S. A. Chakraborty)#

The great news for readers of the first book is that the story is only beginning. The second book, The Kingdom of Copper, is a political thriller set years later, with the city changed and the stakes higher; the third, The Empire of Gold, brings the whole saga to a close. The trilogy, taken as a whole, is one of the great achievements of modern fantasy, and readers who loved the first book owe it to themselves to finish the journey.

The Poppy War (R. F. Kuang)#

An epic inspired by twentieth-century Chinese history: Rin, a war orphan, wins admission to an elite military academy and discovers a god’s power within her. Kuang’s trilogy is darker and more brutal than Chakraborty’s, but it shares the ambition, the scale, and the conviction that fantasy can reckon with real history.

The Priory of the Orange Tree (Samantha Shannon)#

A standalone epic of dragons and queens, East and West: Shannon’s book shares the City of Brass’s scale and its love of world-building, and it is the perfect single-volume read for readers who want the epic without the trilogy commitment.

Building Your Own Daevabad: A Reading Order#

Here is a suggested path that moves from the closest match outward:

• Start with The Kingdom of Copper for the next book in the trilogy.
• Move to The Golem and the Jinni for the quieter djinn companion.
• Try A Master of Djinn for the Cairo mystery.
• Pick up The Goblin Emperor for the politics without the epic.
• End with The Priory of the Orange Tree when you want the epic in one volume.

For more books with this kind of magic, our best no-spice romance list gathers love stories that are romantic without being explicit, and our no-spice romance themes and values guide explains what makes them work. The stories section of our site is full of guides like this one, so there is always another door to open.

The City That Waits for You#

The City of Brass endures because it is a book about a place - and the place is so real, so deep, so alive that you want to live in it. Daevabad is a city of brass and magic, of six tribes and a thousand years of history, of politics and war and wonder - and Chakraborty builds it with such care that you miss it when you close the book. Nahri is the door into it: a con woman who becomes a princess, a survivor who becomes a leader, a girl who faked magic and found the real thing. The books on this list are cities like that - places you can live in, worlds you can return to, magic you can carry with you. The gates are open. Step inside.