The Empire of Gold: 3 (Daevabad Trilogy)

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A richly imagined, stunningly immersive book that takes you into a world of darkly alluring djinn, terrifying monsters and beguiling magic.

People were not considered truly educated until they had done significant traveling, seen a bit of the world. The loss of the Seal of Suleiman was not part of their plans, but I don’t think that would have changed everything, because while there were fear and dissent over the loss of magic, it wasn’t the only source of conflict – and in fact could have made things worse. But how perfect it is in 2020 to have a lead character in a fantasy series whose primary ambition in life is to be a doctor. What a memorable tale of the stars, harrowing exploration and adventure, romance, friendship, and breathtaking mystery.I don’t feel those 350 pages did anything for the story other than develop a romantic relationship between Nahri and Ali. Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad’s deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own.

No spoilers here, so I can’t go into detail, but if you’ve read this book you know several characters have done tings they’re not proud of, some of them worse than others. While this may be a world peopled with djinn, talking birds with swords, and an alligator god with an attachment to Ali, it’s also a world much like our own, where the back stories of entire peoples escalate from prejudice, to injustice, to violence, to a cycle that ever repeats the hatred. You know that childish excitement you feel when you’re reading a really good book that you are super invested in? These three characters — Nahri, Alizayd, and Dara — all have compelling motivations and personalities. 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.

If there are is any criticism to be made, it’s that some of the rules of the world feel a little contrived to fit the plot beats. The final volume presents characters you already love mixed with a bunch of exciting fresh faces, sustains a wicked pace of action throughout, and gives you plenty of reasons to stay up very late reading. And at the surface, the political intrigue, war, inter-family rivalries, and scheming all make each chapter fascinating. Plenty of fantasy books have great characters, but I think what makes this series stand out is that all three of these are so interesting for the entire course of three pretty long books.

I mean, there are legitimate reasons, but it never really felt like there was a weight really baring down on them. Also during those 2 hours of nonstop crying, I started a Pinterest board of Daevabad art and more recently an aesthetic for the book and series! You’re just that immersed in the magic of the story unfolding before you on the page and it feels that effortless. I do wish I’d picked up The City of Brass when it first came out, but I’m just glad that I gave it a chance and fell in love with it. As to how the book hid from the reader how Manizheh would be defeated: I hated that with a burning passion 😡😤 I already ranted about this in my own review, but YOU DON’T DO “PlOT TWISTS” THIS WAY!I missed the politics and the characters all being together instead of spread widely across the land. The only people that have magic now is Dara and beings such as the ifrit, marid and peri can wield the magic of the land. And, I’ll say this now, if you haven’t read this series and ESPECIALLY if you haven’t read The Empire of Gold yet, TURN BACK. After their father dies, Tae-joo, along with his mother, raises his little sister Hee-joo on his own, and fights tooth and nail to rise to the top relying on his cunning wits.

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. Opening line: Behind the battlements of the palace that had always been hers, Banu Manizheh e-Nahid gazed at her family’s city. Throughout the novel, we see the ways in which the past, both recent and distant, is something of a prison for the characters. Maybe not perfect, but a fantastic, triumphant end to a series that captured my heart and imagination. Interspersed with the journeying is aching, heavy sadness as Dara, a hero so fallen he is himself a monster, narrates his own past of manipulation and abuse at the hands of the Nahids and works to puzzle out his own salvation (if any is to be had).

But Nahri has grown into being Banu Nahida, and she knows that neither she nor Ali will be happy in Egypt. I really enjoyed this trilogy despite this last book, first of all because I now know about Jamshid and I’m very sad I can’t read about him again. I love the juxtaposition between the everyday world sitting alongside the magical and mythical Daevabad. Nahri’s parentage has been a long running thread throughout the series, and it was resolved in a really satisfying way here.