Fantasy Annotation

The City of Brass

S.A. Cakraborty

Synopsis:

Nahri was a survivor and a swindler.  Despite her ability to find easy marks that would pay well she was always trying to make more money.  In the city of Cairo she had bribes to pay and a dream of leaving the harshness of Cairo for Istanbul to study real medicine.  With an ability she didn’t understand she could read and sometimes heal others illnesses and help Yaqib in his apothecary.  Yaqib warns her that she is dabbling in dangerous magic when he learns she is leading zars and exorcising djinn.  While leading a zar she finds out that she is more than a trickster, and the djinn are very much real.  The magical stories she remembers hearing as a child weren’t make believe, and she summons a mysterious djinn warrior.  As she escapes the ifrit with the help of the warrior they cross lands unknown to her and face creatures of fire, hawks that aren’t what they seem and ruins of once prosperous human cities, all on their way to the legendary city of brass where she thinks she will be safe.  But behind the gilded brass walls are the six gates of the djinn and old resentments are brewing.  Magic and politics are dangerous and have deadly consequences. 

Characteristics of a Fantasy:

Setting:  Readers of a fantasy novel read knowing and expecting to enter the realm of another world and authors meet that expectation with complex details.  Rich descriptions evoc sights, feelings and smells of this other world.  While a reader knows it is fantasy, while reading they feel like it is real.

The City of Brass is written in a richly descriptive style, drawing the reader from the real world of Cairo to worlds unknown to Narhi. The magic becomes greater the closer she comes to Daevabad.  Readers will be woven into the story with the details of sight, smells and sounds.

Characters:  Typically characters are defined as good or bad, typically with magical powers.  Characters are often challenged physically and ethically.  Typical fantasy novels are heavily loaded with characters.

While some characters in The City of Brass are easily defined as good or bad, the details of some characters make you as the reader question their loyalty, their powers and the reasons for their actions. Like a typical fantasy novel readers will learn of a whole cast of characters.  While some play larger roles than others they all have part of the story to tell.

Language/Style:  The language of a fantasy novel can vary, however as highly descriptive novels there is no shortage of adjectives.  Unusual names are commonplace and some fans believe they have a true fantasy when a glossary is included.

The City of Brass makes an excellent audiobook with the language and names setting cadence for the story.  The words have a sound and while the rhythm can be found reading it to oneself, terminology used lends itself to a flowing engaging audiobook.

Read Alikes: The selection below are all influenced by the Middle East, legends and lore. Readers will recognize some modern day Middle East cities. The protagonists are strong and complex characters that have a supernatural heritage.

The Golem and Jinn by Helene Wecker

The Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri 

Dijnn City by Saad Z. Hossain 

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Book Club

Book Club

I attended my first book at my local library in February.  While I have participated in book clubs before, this was the first library hosted book club I have attended.  In past book clubs the 'host' each month selected the book and led the discussion.  It was a social, fun and open dialogue about the book.  I enjoy leaving a book discussion pondering other perceptions of the book.

There were six of us attending the February library book club, including the library staff leading the book, Sold on a Monday.  The audience for this book club is older and only four of the six attending had read the book.  Overall we were there for 1.5 hours.  The majority of the time was spent trying to brief one other attendee on the book, the second one didn't participate he only listened and occasionally wandered away. (I was warned this was normal.) The library staff member began to brief the other attendee, but was often interrupted by another member of book club.  By the end of the evening I could see that this was her way of participating in the discussion, but I wonder if it would have been a more productive discussion had she let the staff member give a brief overview.  I was also under the assumption that the staff member would try to lead the discussion with a few questions regarding the book, but she didn't.  I don't know if this was because of the debriefing of the book took over the discussion or if this is how book club normally goes.  I could tell that she (staff member) was frustrated when the other member continually interrupted her.  She and I were the only ones there under the age of 65 so she would glance my way with a look of frustration.  I think she was also gauging my reaction to it.  Ultimately I realized this discussion was going to be a combination of explaining the book to the other member, and sometimes a deeper issue or style of writing would be brought into the conversation.  Every time I thought we had finally moved on to discussing the book, someone went back to explaining the story. Some of the actual brief discussions that took place were:

*Timeline- How quickly this whole story took place.  This also played into discussions about the reality of travelling as much as they did in the 1930’s. 

*Too many side stories- While there was the main plot, several characters had side stories going on.  There were mixed feelings about the value this added to the book

*Reality/History- There was a fair amount of discussion regarding the believability of the story and the idea of a child being sold.  This idea led to discussion regarding families and the value of children, the need for large families and the harsh reality of knowing that typically not all your children would survive. 

The book club ended with a general discussion of books that had and hadn't been read in book club.  I took a book for next month, I'll give the book club one more try but it wasn't the fun discussion and social atmosphere of other book clubs I have participated in.  The one interrupting member later told me she was glad to have someone young attending and was happy that I was willing to interrupt her in discussions as she thinks that it makes for a better discussion.  

Overall I found the experience frustrating.  It will be interesting to try and attend in March to see if everyone has read the book and if there is more discussion or if it is another retelling of the book.  Personally I think that when a library hosts a book club there should be more structure to it, and the librarian would take the role of leading the group.  This librarian has only been leading the book club for less than 6 months and so I do feel that she is struggling to change the format of the book club.  My guess is that those attending have been for several years and don’t see any need to change the way they have been doing it. I think this is a reflection on the library and what seems to be the attitude of this is how it has always been done so why change anything.  While staff is very friendly the programming and vibe of the library, from children’s to adults is rather stale. 

Special Topics Paper

If you look on the ALA website for a definition of readers advisory you will mostly likely find these two definitions.  Defined by Herald, “readers' advisory is the act of putting people together with the books they love." While Saricks defines readers' advisory as “a patron-oriented library service for adult fiction readers. A successful readers' advisory service is one in which knowledgeable, nonjudgmental staff help fiction readers with their reading needs."  While Saricks specifies adult fiction readers, this idea can be transferred to readers’ advisory for youth.  However, I would contend that readers advisory for youth provides more challenges, not only are they(youth) busy forming their own likes/dislikes and opinions much like an adult, but also because of parental and school constraints and reading levels.  Keasler recommends, “don’t pay too much attention to reading levels.”  Scales states “we’re treating reading too much like a science. It needs to be treated more like an art form. Science is exact, art is looking at the whole composition—to create a painting of a reader, [we need] to look at them as a person.”

Reader's advisory for our children in the public library and in the school need to be treated as art, as a whole person.  While in a public library, librarians may have direct contact with parents they typically won't have this contact in a school library.  Either way it is important that we do our best to uphold the ALA Library Bill of Rights interpretation for minors,  "Equitable access to all library resources and services should not be abridged based on chronological age, apparent maturity, educational level, literacy skills, legal status, or through restrictive scheduling and use policies".

Additional challenges faced in the school library is leveled reading.  While some teacher embrace and respect the child's right to choose others focus on students selecting only within their reading level.  It is important then as a school librarian to have your own policy in place that states students have the right to self select a minimum of one purely recreational read of their choice.  School librarians also need to help students that have a desire to read at the level of peers, when their own reading skills don't match the level.  By shelving easier to read chapter books with other chapter books students have that sense of security.  

Teaching younger patrons, in the public or school library, to self-assess is valuable.  Can they look at a book and ask themselves is this a ‘just right book for me?’  We are here to foster their love of reading and learning, if we don’t allow them to explore fiction, non-fiction, easy books and too hard books, then we are robbing them of the opportunity to express themselves through reading.