Rave Review: "The Empire of Gold" by S. A. Chakraborty

Quick Summary

Type: Novel, book 3 in Daevabad trilogy

Genre: Fantasy, historical fiction

Back Cover: "Daevabad has fallen.

After a brutal conquest stripped the city of its magic, Nahid leader Banu Manizheh and her resurrected commander, Dara, must try to repair their fraying alliance and stabilize a fractious, warring people.

But the bloodletting and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara’s dark past. To vanquish them, he must face some ugly truths about his history and put himself at the mercy of those he once considered enemies.

Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad’s deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own. While Nahri finds peace in the old rhythms and familiar comforts of her human home, she is haunted by the knowledge that the loved ones she left behind and the people who considered her a savior are at the mercy of a new tyrant. Ali, too, cannot help but look back, and is determined to return to rescue his city and the family that remains. Seeking support in his mother’s homeland, he discovers that his connection to the marid goes far deeper than expected and threatens not only his relationship with Nahri, but his very faith.

As peace grows more elusive and old players return, Nahri, Ali, and Dara come to understand that in order to remake the world, they may need to fight those they once loved . . . and take a stand for those they once hurt."

Read Time: 1 day

Rating: 5 stars

Review

Obviously, I came into this book having read and loved the previous two books of the series, so I was primed to love the finale book. In fact, I loved this book (and this series) so much that I'm wondering if I wouldn't label this series as one of my All-Time Favorites. I just loved all of it so much.

Now, for the spoiler-y parts.

Let's start with Nahri. I always knew that Nahri would eventually be the person to wield Suleiman's Seal. But the journey to that point was thrilling - she has to cut it out of Ali's heart; she tries to make Jamshid wear it; she's told she has to kill Dara for her heart to truly accept the Seal; she stabs herself to avoid what she sees as an unnecessary death. That last part especially - manipulating the peris and sacrificing herself to save Dara - was a twist that I didn't see coming but that I enjoyed.

Now the Nahri/Manizheh relationship. Manizheh sells out her own people to get what she wants (including magic while there is no magic). This backfires, obviously (since she's used the magic of the ifrit, she can't touch Suleiman's Seal), but she still has to fulfill her promises to the ifrit, so she gives them Nahri's 'real' name. Obviously, this is a huge betrayal coming from a mother, which played on a doubt I'd been harboring from the last book. And sure enough, Manizheh is not Nahri's mother - she lied. Manizheh is Nahri's aunt who tried to kill Nahri as an infant.

Moving on to Ali - his was the plotline I had the most unresolved feelings about. While I thoroughly enjoyed his storyline, I felt that there were some conflicts between his promises to the marid and his actions at the end of the book. He promises to belong to the marid, renouncing his powers of fire, but at the end he still takes a prominent role in the new Daevabad. However, I like that he's still in the city, mostly because that's what I hoped would happen (I'm rooting for him and Nahri).

Finally, Dara. He certainly had the most dynamic character arc over three books. He started as the good guy, went off the rails, went to morally gray guy, went off the rails again, followed some really bad orders and went even further off the rails, questioned the orders and went back to morally gray, became a slave controlled by Manizheh and thus turned into the poor little victim, tricked and killed her and thus became the hated hero. Like I said, a rollercoaster. But I enjoyed every second of it. I especially enjoyed the poetry of Dara tricking Manizheh into issuing an order that led to her death.

As for his story's resolution (or non-resolution, as it were), I'm glad he's left Daevabad to hunt down the ifrit and recover the slave vessels. In fact, I could read an entire other book of his adventures with Zaynab and Aqisa hunting down the slave vessels. That would definitely be a fun read.

And of course, I'm thrilled with the resolutions for secondary characters. Nahri and Muntadhir get divorced (almost as soon as they can) and Muntadhir goes to live with Jamshid. Zaynab leaves to live her own life. Subha gets to work in the hospital alongside Nahri and Jamshid. Ali becomes a finance minister, which in hindsight is clearly what he always wanted to be. Nahri meets/reunites with her shafit grandfather and buys a house with him. And Daevabad moves away from the traditional method of rule to something closer to a democracy.

All in all, this was a great finish to a great series. I loved it.