The Empire of Gold: 3 (Daevabad Trilogy)

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Manizheh has committed atrocities, and while Dara himself is sitting in a glass house and shouldn’t throw stones, he at least recognizes that. The titles sound cool and allow the author to strike the right balance between cryptic and engaging. It seems wrong when so many minor characters died (and there are ways to kill characters that won’t crush the reader’s soul like A Little Life 😅). After a slow start, this book delivered pretty much everything I had hoped for and managed to stick the ending. I mean, there are legitimate reasons, but it never really felt like there was a weight really baring down on them.

Dara admits that there is no such thing as justification, but there is the possibility of redemption, of changing paths no matter how far down into the darkness you have gone. But if you’ve read the series, and especially, The Empire of Gold, you’ll know the heartache and book hangover that ensued after finishing. I said it in my review of The Kingdom of Copper, if I had to choose between Ghassan and Manizheh, I’d choose Ghassan.There’s a pretty fair amount of exposition and info-dumps throughout all three novels, but it’s all delivered pretty painlessly. What a memorable tale of the stars, harrowing exploration and adventure, romance, friendship, and breathtaking mystery. There is a tendency to assume that because something is “merely” genre fiction, it is not capable of providing the same depth and meaning that a more “literary” style of fiction can provide. I understand the choices that were made, and why they were made, but with semi-heavy emphasis on character relationships – especially the ones between Nahri, Ali and Dara – I was kind of hoping for a little more. From the moment in City of Brass that it was announced that the two were going to get married, I had no idea what to expect, but the friendship that grew between the two was remarkably written.

Nahri’s parentage has been a long running thread throughout the series, and it was resolved in a really satisfying way here. Though having Suleiman’s seal is a good thing for them because that means Manizheh doesn’t have it, Ali cannot access its power. So much of what happens to him in this book, either makes you want to shake some sense into him, because how can he be blind to Manizheh’s actual goals, or your heart just breaks. When Nahri realizes what has happened to him, why he’s done some of the things he’s done to Daevabad…your heart shatters alongside hers.And at the surface, the political intrigue, war, inter-family rivalries, and scheming all make each chapter fascinating.

They had such a beautiful platonic friendship, and it really sucks that Chakraborty had to go down that road, especially when it felt super out of place them lusting all over each other when their city was on the brink of war. The characters come full circle, each flawed and yet ultimately well meaning (well, except Manizheh). Peopled with irresistible characters and steeped in the myths of the Middle East, The City of Brass is a dazzlingly inventive tale, set in a world that feels both familiar and new. A hazy black cloud revealed itself to be a swarm of flies, and the ruined Citadel still lay bare to the sky like a scar, its tower half-drowned in the lake. Still, I got the confused-Ali that I wanted when he learned about Muntadhir and Jamshid, and the way he handled it was really sweet.Empire of Gold is beautiful for its wisdom and introspection, its complexity in that heroes and villains alike are flawed and relatable.

She portrays a particularly oppressive state, with a system designed to crush resistance, and places within it people who are willing to fight for justice. I enjoyed both sides – and Ali’s reactions to being in the human world were fantastic – and I loved that we not only got to see more of the world, including the home of his mother’s people. By the time that The Empire of Gold begins, it’s clear that he has some significant doubts about his mistress, who increasingly demonstrates that she’s not that much different from the tyrant that they have just overthrown.Despite what Nahri and Ali were feeling at the beginning of this book, I loved seeing them in this setting. Then it comes time for him to embrace his marid past he just becomes, I don’t know, self-sacrificing, annoying? Lost in Egypt, with nowhere to go and no allies to rely upon, they’re about to make some startling discoveries about Nahri’s past and Ali’s mysterious connection to the marid.