I frequently feel sad when I finally finish a series, especially if it was a pretty good series. The Empire of Gold is the third book in the Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty and wraps up the story of Ali, Nahri, and Dara. It opens directly after the attack on Daevabad when Ghassan died and Manizheh took over with Dara’s help. Ali and Nahri have somehow landed rather far away from Daevabad on the Nile River near Cairo in Egypt. Now they have to figure out what they are going to do next as they work on recovering their strength after the attack. Do they want to go back and try to figure out a way to help Daevabad and end the enmity and hate between their tribes or do they want to stay either in Egypt or somewhere else. At the same time Dara has to face the aftermath of the attack in Daevabad itself as the city struggles to recover and many of its citizens fight back against Manizheh’s rule and takeover. As he continues supporting Manizheh Dara also has to face his own past and the fact that Manizheh has become something just as unrelenting and potentially cruel as Ghassan.
This book felt kind of like a whirlwind or maybe a storm in how fast things changed and developed over the course of the book. It feels like one thing is barely resolved before something else is thrown at them and honestly I am not sure how well the characters handled that at times. I know I would have struggled and sometimes I did just reading it. It felt like it was really fast and there was little time for me to adjust. That being said the interesting and fascinating backstories that are revealed over the course of the book for multiple characters definitely added some extra layers of complexity to the story. The story was already complex but it added a lot of extra players to the scene. In addition to that there was also a lot of added complexity to the characters as the three main characters really came into their own, so to speak, in this book as they each faced choices that would define who they were becoming and who they wanted to be. Dara had to face his own past and his future as he was confronted by the reality of working for Manizheh and the continued violence in Daevabad under her reign. Nahri had to face her past when she was confronted with the decision to stay in semi-peaceful Cairo or go back to Daevabad and help her people, in the process admitting that Cairo is no longer her home but Daevabad is. Ali was faced with choices stemming from his family’s past on both sides as he strives to reconcile all of it with who wants to be and with what he wants for his people. It adds so many extra layers to our familiar characters and I was rather enthralled with how they developed. In adding all of this complexity it also sets a rather glorious stage for the final outcome as they all struggle to determine the fate of Daevabad and ultimately of all Djinn. A great addition to an already great series and one that I am happy to give 4.5 out of 5 stars.
This is a great fantasy novel that is primarily aimed at an adult audience. If you are the type of reader who enjoys a great fantasy saga with some awesome characters then I would recommend you consider trying this series. Make sure to read the previous books as you will be pretty lost without the necessary background knowledge they provide. If you don’t enjoy fantasy then this series would probably not hold much appeal for you, despite it being pretty good overall. The series may be aimed at an adult audience but I saw little content that would make it unsuitable for a young adult or teen audience. It does contain some violence and references racism and class systems but that is really about it. As long as they are prepared to handle that I see no issues with slightly younger readers trying the series. I would not recommend it for readers younger than mid to late teens though. It is a good series though and I hope you consider trying it out. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.