Hello and welcome to my segment on Kriti’s blog– Ariel’s Arcs! Today I have the honor to talk about one of my favorite trilogies I’ve ever read– The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty. I received the arc of the third and final book, The Empire of Gold. For those who haven’t read the trilogy at all, I’m going to provide a nice overview of the trilogy in hopes that you might be interested in it. For those who have finished both City of Brass and Kingdom of Copper and are eagerly awaiting the conclusion that lies within Empire of Gold, I’ll provide a general response of Empire of Gold specifically. Both sections will be as spoiler-free as possible!
On The Daevabad Trilogy
First things first– the trilogy as a whole. In City of Brass, the reader follows Nahri as she is swept into a land of magical beings and centuries-old conflicts. If it feels like a lot at once when reading it, that’s because it is. The world is so rich and there is a lot of setting up to do. However, it is a beautiful world and I was personally so immersed that I did not mind the time spent in worldbuilding. For the remainder of the trilogy, now that the world has been set up, the reader can then follow each of the characters and find that their depth, motivations, and their internal conflicts are even more nuanced and complex than before. It’s not very often that I read a book that captures the nuances of wide-spread and long-term conflict, and I found my analytical self appreciating how layered and complex the characters were in their orientation to the conflicts at hand. As the trilogy progressed, my attachment and investment in this world only increased, and by the time I reached the ending, I was extremely sad that my adventures within Daevabad were over.
On Empire of Gold
As for Empire of Gold specifically, I could not have asked for a better conclusion to a story. The cast was well balanced and I was able to see further depth in side characters as they completed their own character arcs. I was so attached to everyone and very concerned after the ending of Kingdom of Copper, so I felt connected and engaged with the characters from the start. The way that the author writes is accessible and beautifully descriptive, and I was able to track easily with the writing. I was completely satisfied in a bittersweet way with the ending, and this was a book that stayed on my mind for weeks after finishing it. For this book specifically, there are some content notes to be aware of: abuse, described torture, mass murder/genocide, violence/gore, medical gore, suicidal ideation/self harm, and enslavement.
Conclusion
This trilogy would be perfect for those who love Arabic and North African-inspired fantasies such as the Ember Quartet (Sabaa Tahir), the Sands of Arawiya Series (Hafsah Faizal), or the Dreamblood Duology (N. K. Jemisin).
Thank you so much to HarperCollins and Netgalley for providing me this arc in exchange for an honest review!
Final Rating:
** Be sure to preorder or check out The Empire of Gold when it is published on June 30th, 2020! **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Cover image: Photo by Keith Hardy on Unsplash
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