Book Review
Dec. 23rd, 2025 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Empire of Gold
by S.A. Chakraborty
This is the final book in the Daevabad trilogy and brings things to a satisfying, if bittersweet, conclusion. Nahri and Ali plot to return to Daevabad to set things right, even as Nahri's mother Manizheh resorts to ever more brutal and horrific means of securing her hold on the city. Nahri and Ali have to forge new alliances, re-forge old ones, and figure out how to bring their people past generations-long cycles of violence and resentment.
I really liked this book and the way it wraps all the plot and themes. While they do triumph, Nahri, Ali, and their friends must make real sacrifices and hard choices about the costs they pay. I thought Chakraborty brought a good complexity and depth to all those choices, and that makes the mostly happy feel truly earned. I also like that she brought real humanity to everyone, even the villains. It's clear that Manizheh and her associates are doing evil, but their motivations come from justified anger and real trauma. Through these portrayals, Chakraborty explores the damage that cycles of violence and vengeance do to people individually and collectively. Most of all, I liked the emotional complexity of Nahri's relationships, especially with Ali and Dara.
by S.A. Chakraborty
This is the final book in the Daevabad trilogy and brings things to a satisfying, if bittersweet, conclusion. Nahri and Ali plot to return to Daevabad to set things right, even as Nahri's mother Manizheh resorts to ever more brutal and horrific means of securing her hold on the city. Nahri and Ali have to forge new alliances, re-forge old ones, and figure out how to bring their people past generations-long cycles of violence and resentment.
I really liked this book and the way it wraps all the plot and themes. While they do triumph, Nahri, Ali, and their friends must make real sacrifices and hard choices about the costs they pay. I thought Chakraborty brought a good complexity and depth to all those choices, and that makes the mostly happy feel truly earned. I also like that she brought real humanity to everyone, even the villains. It's clear that Manizheh and her associates are doing evil, but their motivations come from justified anger and real trauma. Through these portrayals, Chakraborty explores the damage that cycles of violence and vengeance do to people individually and collectively. Most of all, I liked the emotional complexity of Nahri's relationships, especially with Ali and Dara.
