The City of Brass (S.A. Chakraborty, 2017)

(526 pages)

Book club selection (via NOC; session held 28 January 2018).

Book one of what's intended to be a trilogy.

Not necessarily my favorite style of book, but this had a lot going for it, and the author is skillful. 

I like that it was set in the Mideast (however defined); built around terms like "djinn" (described as something (or someone!) that an observant/sensitive human might occasionally see out of the corner of his/her eye - nice!); this takes the reader somewhere. 

Very good at drawing characters - avoided the all-good or all-evil trap; most were nicely nuanced.

Not a political novel, at least as far as I can tell - but a pretty sophisticated recounting of the kinds of pressures politicians face (and/or create/encourage!)

Nahri is the lead character - likable. 

Lots of magic - but presented in an interesting way - characters have to learn how to use it; some limits on duration/power; not just an elixir.

Forged Through Fire - War, Peace, and the Democratic Bargain (John Ferejohn and Frances McCall Rosenbluth, 2017)

(316 pages)

This book received really strong reviews and sounded really interesting, but I just didn't find it that compelling.  Not sure why.

The premise:  the more that a state needs to expand the size of its army, the more likely that the state will expand the franchise and otherwise function like a democracy.

Which makes sense - hard enough to whip up suckers recruits to prosecute the state's wars, so offering that sort of carrot might help.

Plenty of counter-examples, however.