The City of Brass is a stunningly creative and detailed world. I found the characters really compelling and complex. The novel is very political, and the characters often have biases, blind spots, and goals, which shift, are challenged, and change throughout, which I really appreciated. There's great commentary about the treatment of immigrants, mixed populations, and the lower classes. All that said, I found this book pretty confusing. I used a chapter-by-chapter summary at times to help me keep up and also did a little reading on the wiki to try to understand some of the political and geographic eccentricities that end up being a central part of this book. Granted I was listening for most of the book, but it was a bit confusing and took work to untangle some of the conflicts going on. It's also pretty slow, and fairly long. But once we got to the last bit, it really picked up and the setup paid off. The next book ended up being easier because I wasn't spending most of the book trying to figure out the politics. I would say 3.5 stars I think, but I was definitely compelled and wanted to continue.