Note: This is an honest spoiler-free review for ARC provided by Netgalley & Harper Voyager. The Empire of Gold will be released on June 30th 2020 and is available for pre-order here. The review does have spoilers for The City of Brass and The Empire of Copper, so don’t read ahead if you plan to get to those books. Instead read this to know why these books are so awesome.
The Empire of Gold is the final installment of the Daevabad Trilogy, a middle-eastern fantasy fiction series set in the late 1700s. In the first two books, Nahri, a con artist from Egypt, discovers her magical roots by accidentally summoning a jinn, Daeva. She is swept (literally on a flying carpet) to the magical world of Daevabad. But this is no fairy tale version of Aladdin. Daevabad is a land of bloodied history steeped in tribal bloodshed and politics with magic thrown into make things interesting. The first two books were a pure delight to read and here’s why.
Recap from Book 1 an 2
When we left Nahri, Ali and Dara at the end of the Kingdom of Copper, Daevabad was in deep jeopardy. Manizheh, Nahri’s mother, had conquered the city by committing genocide, aided and abetted by Dava, Kaveh and Nisreen.
Nahri and Ali escaped Manizheh’s clutches by jumping into the lake surround Daevabad, taking Suleiman’s ring with them only to find themselves transported to Egypt. And with them leaving, magic disappears from the hands of the djinns.
The Adventure Begins
And it’s at this cliffhanger that Empire of Gold begins. Nahri wakes up in a small abandoned village on the shore of Nile, with a dying Ali besides her. This is the start of their long journey back to Daevabad; a quest of sorts fighting ifrits, river monsters, pirates and family feuds. Meanwhile, in Daevabad, Manizheh’s coup has not exactly been a success. Alienation from her own tribe pushes her to even crazier acts of cruelty to which Dara is a reluctant witness.
Empire of Gold is the darkest of the three novels with gruesome battles, cruel deaths and loads of family drama. The narration follows the format of the first two books, with chapters alternating POVs between Nahri, Ali and Dara.
Nahri and Ali’s journey provides the much-needed light. I believe that this trilogy has been essentially a coming of age story for these two flawed heroes who want to change the world. The minute Ali and Nahri met in The City of Brass (in a very Pride & Prejudice fashion), you knew theirs would be a friendship of the ages. After having lived through several years of misunderstanding, these two finally find common ground and goals. Thanks to Ali, Nahri finds courage to fight again and rebuild her life. And in return Nahri teaches Ali to temper his ideals so they can bring real change. They support each other in the bleakest of hours.
Ali is my favorite of the three protagonists as he has always been very clear for what he stood for. Nahri spent the first two novels trying to survive, and Dara is a man of a different age with outdated ideals. It’s Ali who is the first to introduce us to the injustices of the magical world. It’s mostly through his lens do we see what Daevabad is struggling with. In this third book, we explore his connection with the marid and his struggle to come to terms with what he finds. Ali’s final stand against his father at the end of The Kingdom of Copper, ages him beyond his years. The Ali that we meet is more cautious, clever and more reluctant to share his feelings. He is ready to be the hero that Daevabad deserves.
In my opinion, Nahri’s character arc has suffered from a lack of agency. Yes, she made choices, but a lot of elements were out of her control. In the final book, she truly takes charge. She strongly leans into her Nahid heritage and refuses to be a political pawn anymore. Her journey from Cairo to Daevabad makes for a very emotional reading–to see her back in a home that she always missed, her acceptance of her future in Daevabad and the cost that comes with it.
And then there is Dara’s — the brooding, confused anti-hero who is a major fan favorite. I remember the exact scene in The City of Brass when I stopped caring for his character–the one when he hurts his hand on a glass table so he can see Nahri. I just don’t have any empathy for this kind of masochism. And it was all downhill from there.
While I understand his love for Nahri, what baffles me is her continued affection for him. Despite knowing why he is called the Scourge of Qui-zi, his part in the Geziri genocide, his racism and his antiquated world view. Yes, you can pity him and feel for him, but what is this connection that festers over years?
Without spoiling it for anyone, Chakraborty does an excellent job of filling in Dara’s backstory and evoking a lot of empathy for him. Yes, there is a redemption arc, but there is a lot of soul searching that gets him there, and he doesn’t come across as a very bright djinn.
The Empire of Gold builds on the strengths of the previous novels . There is more world building as we explore the coast of the Nile and the new magical land of Ta Ntry. We find ourselves in the world of sea creatures with a fascinating river lord added to an already interesting cast of characters. And of course the endless stream of powerful, wily and dangerous magical creatures like the peris, ifrits and shedus.
However, the heart of these novels is not in the magic but in the mortals who populate these worlds. How their ambitions, love, greed, loyalties and loneliness traps them in cycles of revenge and bad alliances. The warring tribes of Daevabad are a parable for the stories of conquest that we see in our own world. It’s a commentary on the cost of oppression and the price of justice, and the difficulty of driving real change.
It took me three days to get through 800 pages of this wonderful finale to the series, mostly because I kept going back and rereading chapters. An almost perfect ending to an excellent series and a most satisfying read.
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