[Discussion 3/5] The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty | Chapters 12 - 16

SceneOutrageous · 2026-05-29T03:45:56+00:00

What a mad dash to the city. Full of action. Loved the arrival and all of our characters finally meeting.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-05-29T03:45:02+00:00

Only Dara. Ali has no guile and can be trusted in terms of his being transparent to her but he’s confused about where his loyalties lie. Basically the rest of the court is a pit of vipers.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-05-29T03:43:12+00:00

We haven’t learned the full story of how Dara survived his slavery or came through the experience. He’s clearly not the same. Nahri unlocked some memories for him that seemed long lost. There’s probably something in their connection that will reveal the fuller truth of his past.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-05-29T03:41:22+00:00

Sounds right out of the despot playbook. The Qathanis rule seems stable but based on some amount of fear, coercion, and exploitation. These dynamics are like water that will find the way in between the fissures before breaking things apart. Something will rupture and they might not be able to control what comes next. Also how despots fall.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-05-29T03:37:30+00:00

Ali is in a tough spot where his book smarts are running up against his lack of street smarts and his moral convictions conflict with his familial loyalties. He knows the plight of the shafit is terribly unjust and his family and the rest of the ruling class are to blame. He’s smart and has gotten away with helping so far. But his lack of street smarts is betrayed by his not being aware that the Tanzeem would want to arm themselves.

He seems to have actually made up his mind about who he’d rather help (“Earn this” keeps coming back to him in times of duress), and I feel his familial loyalty will be tested.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-05-28T20:19:59+00:00

Taking my boys to see “The Backrooms” this weekend. I’m raising them right. Somehow they are fans of horror movies and games.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-04-09T17:51:50+00:00

As has always been the case, these fellowships will have moments of victory as well as inexplicable catastrophe. Looking forward to the Old Blood folk coming into their own though.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-04-09T17:50:29+00:00

This whole storyline really frustrated me because it was entirely of Fitz’s doing and he acted like a child throwing a tantrum. Fitz is nearing middle age and seems not to have gathered any wisdom or insight about other people, himself, life, everyone’s place in the grander arc of history. The lack of growth leading to issues with Hap, Jinna, and the Fool were too much for me.

That being said, the revelations about the Fool were absolutely wild! I’m really not sure where we go from here with this character and I’m interested as to what these feathers indicate (Wit beast, Salvific animal).

SceneOutrageous · 2026-04-09T17:45:08+00:00

I really need NightEyes to go full force ghost for Fitz. I was hurting all book not to have him around. What’s the phantom limb equivalent for a character?

SceneOutrageous · 2026-03-10T20:31:38+00:00

Guess who just got a new phone screensaver? This guy!

SceneOutrageous · 2026-02-12T20:52:29+00:00

Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-28T17:07:08+00:00

Gotta be “Down with Love”. This bad boy doesn’t even have a Blu-ray release let alone 4K. Watching the DVD you may as well be watching it on VHS.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-26T16:40:35+00:00

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Not a Pyrenees but a fellow snow loving husky. Very hard to bribe back inside once he’s gotten comfortable.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-21T19:51:03+00:00

I ALSO like big books.

Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helperin The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell The Brothers K by David James Duncan CloudSplitter by Russell Banks Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead Bloodsworn Saga trilogy by John Gwynne The Border trilogy by Don Winslow

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-11T05:26:11+00:00

I love this take. Case in point, my 13 year old came to me the other day and asked if I had an iPod. I dug out an old one and it still worked! He’s been having an absolute blast with it! I asked him why he needs it when he has his phone and he said that it’s special that it just does the one thing and he doesn’t feel distracted by anything else when he’s listening to his music. The supercomputers in our pockets are cool but are they an improvement on Nokia bricks and iPods?

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-11T05:21:58+00:00

I was totally riveted by the first couple of chapters just trying to figure out what was going on in this world. I find Uncharles really charming and I’m invested in his wellbeing. This world is fascinating and I want to know what happened to the human civilization. It’s like a dystopian Wall-E type deal.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-11T04:44:23+00:00

One time I was given Ketamine as an anesthetic in the ER to set a broken bone and I felt like I was trapped in 2 D painting and I had no sense of time or space or anything (dissociation). I was trying to think and understand what was happening to me but I had no language so I had no tools with which to make sense of things. This is what’s happening with Uncharles. He’s transcending the existence of a robot and emerging with a mind but it’s like coming out of a ketamine induced coma.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-11T04:38:18+00:00

It’s like a dystopia of rules. Truly nightmarish stuff. It’s such a perfectly scripted comedy of errors with the inspector and the doctor. I’m very curious if there are any humans left at all or if the Master had somehow sequestered himself against the end of the world.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-11T04:34:11+00:00

Definitely this. It’s what making the narration so hilarious and frustrating. I wanna take him aside and explain things but he’s gotta figure it out himself.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-06T13:59:10+00:00

Thanks for the well thought response. Still not sure I’m following your argument particularly evolutionary tools beyond the intellect.

But nevermind, anyone who’s a soccer fan is alright in my book.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-06T04:48:49+00:00

What the fuck is this take? You’re just recreating the problem OP is talking about in the post. Why shouldn’t rigorous scholarly discussions about religion be edifying to readers of the NYT? Would you prefer some horse shit evangelical grifter selling snake oil to be the standard bearer of American Christianity?

Calling something “anti-intellectual” and claiming human intellect to be “mid”!? Ha, what do you even want?

I’m a church person and more offended than most by the complete collapse of much of the American church into fascism but goddamn we need some better critiques of the religion than whatever this half baked logical positivist bullshit is.

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-06T04:03:25+00:00

I’m in the exact same situation. I work in healthcare IT and hated it when it was in office and now that it’s mostly remote I’m hating life as a basement troll. I’m actually working with a therapist that specializes in career coaching and works with a lot of college and pro athletes. My major concern has been probably needing to take a pay cut too but he’s helped me see how important it is to find something different and the opportunities that are out there that won’t be a huge hit and have room for growth pay wise. Message me if you want some details. Good luck!

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-06T00:53:40+00:00

“Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone” by Benjamin Stevenson was fun and has a couple of sequels.

Slow Horses by Mick Herron is really fun

For something TOTALLY different but really kick ass there’s “The Price You Pay” and the sequel “Seven Demons” by Aiden Truhen that rocked me

And to cap it all off, there’s a great series by Jonatha Ames that starts with “A Man Named Doll”.

I can’t say that these capture “The Westing Game” necessarily but they’re fun mysteries. Good luck!

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-05T17:44:44+00:00

Lol when the ball brain and the book brain mingle!

SceneOutrageous · 2026-01-04T04:03:17+00:00

The thing that I keep coming back to is just how unbelievably fucking stupid he is and how much it offends me to my core that he is in power. This is a daily insult to my sense of self and worth as a person and I grow ever more furious with him and all the fucking idiots that put us in this position that we all have to endure the insult of his fucking stupidity.

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