In The City of Brass, an LJ Best Fantasy also short-listed for the Locus Award, a street hustler named Nahri in 1700s Cairo manages to summon up the dark and wily djinn warrior Dara, who takes her to the royal court of Daevabad. Now Dara has been slain in battle by Prince Ali, exiled for resisting his father, and Nahri finds herself alone and at the mercy of a king who could destroy her people. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Five years ago, young con artist Nahri discovered her ability as a Daeva healer and traveled with djinn warrior Dara to Daevabad. The city is ruled by King Ghassan, who is descended from the Geziri tribes that conquered the Daevas and seized the magic-controlling Suleiman's seal. At the end of the last book, City of Brass, Dara was killed by Ghassan's younger son, Ali. Nahri was forced to marry Ghassan's older son, Muntadhir, relinquishing her powers and people to his control. As Nahri chafes under Ghassan's thumb and increasingly cruel whims, she faces decisions she never thought she'd have to make. Not only is Ali alive, thanks to water magic from the fearsome marid, but Dara has been summoned back to the world to dethrone Ghassan and reclaim Daevabad from the Geziri. VERDICT With a richly immersive setting and featuring complex familial, religious, and racial ties and divides, Chakraborty's second book in the trilogy wraps readers in a lush and magical story that takes over all the senses. [See Prepub Alert, 7/23/18.]—Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Chakraborty plunges right back into the action set up in The City of Brass with uneasy alliances, bitter rivalry, and explosive secrets in this richly developed fantasy set in an alternate 18th-century Egypt. In the aftermath of a thwarted escape and ensuing battle, heartbroken series heroine Nahri weds the king's heir; Prince Ali, seen as a threat to the king, is exiled and flees into the desert ahead of assassins; and Nahri's mother, Manizheh, uses warrior Dara's ring to recall him into service. Five years pass and Nahri remains in Daevabad, trapped by a vicious king who's using the lives of her people to force her compliance. But Ali's return sets in motion a chain of events that pushes the kingdom to the brink of civil war and intersects with Manizheh's campaign to recapture the city. Nahri must decide whom to trust when, once again, she is surrounded by death and betrayal. Chakraborty raises the tension and the stakes with emotional dilemmas that bring out the best and worst in these conflicted characters. This intriguing fantasy series appears to be well on its way to an exciting conclusion. Agent: Jennifer Azantian, Azantian Literary. (Jan.)