HarperVoyager The Empire of Gold

This is a wonderfully amazing book, a brilliant 3rd book and so hard to put down! This magical world is full of wonder, anger, joy, sorrow politics and love. This is one of the best books I have read for a while and now I have finished I hunger for this world, the fabulous characters the beautiful descriptions and explanations, it was heavenly, not to be missed

Ok, after the ride that was The Kingdom of Copper and where it ended in the second book, I picked this one up immediately and basically rode the wave till the book ended. It was a pretty satisfying end for the trilogy, I love the way it ended if I am being honest even if this is not a five star read, again. Oh, well.Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager, I have had the pleasure of reading this ahead of its release (kinda). Frankly, I would have cried had I not had the third book in hand when I finished the second one. It’s that kind of cliffhanger. Anyway! Onto the last book in the series!If I am being honest, no matter how good the first two books in the series were, I was a bit afraid of this one and as I read on, I was becoming more worried as chapter after chapter unveiled things I did not think of imagining. I was really worried about 60% in as to what was actually going to happen. I was just worried that after such a good run so far, it would end on not so good note.It starts where the second book left off, Daevabad is out of Ghassan’s control, Manizeh has the control now and with Dara by her side. The result of this is Nahri and Ali escaping the city and in effect robbing Daevabad and its counterparts losing all magic entirely. Turns out, Suleiman’s Seal is not supposed to leave Daevabad’s borders. They are trying to find a solution that does not end in more bloodshed and more political disasters. Meanwhile, Dara has to live with the fact that despite him wishing for otherwise, he is, once again, responsible for another massacre. As the story moves, we see Dara realising that while he might have thought that it was his duty to follow the Nahids, it’s not perhaps the best life choice he had made in a while. Manizeh is ruthless and unnecessarily cruel and it’s affecting Dara’s beliefs and faith.As for Nahri and Ali, their relationship took a different turn than I was ready for. Ali’s crush was not a secret but it had grown into something more and what’s more, Nahri had finally started to see him as something else other than her friend-turned-enemy-turned-ally and I would rather it stayed platonic, but I can kinda see how it was going to happen anyway? It’s not my favourite part of the book and it kinda overshadows their actual friendship that was slowly growing. I wish it was explored more. On the other hand, I absolutely loved Dara’s arc on this one, I finally got a story where the girl doesn’t end up with a thousand year old guy simply because he was hot. Mind you, there’s far more to Dara than this but you know what? I don’t think Nahri and Dara could have lasted in the long run, they had differing opinions on how things should be/should have been. That’s what happens when there’s a literal thousand years of age difference.Speaking of relationships, I wish Muntadhir and Jamshid got a better more clear ending than the one we got, while I understand that they were clearly secondary characters and got a better ending than I could have hoped for, my greedy heart still wants more. As far as Al-Qahtani siblings are concerned, oh, goodness, what a brilliant trio they make! I loved their growth as a whole and just…so many feels!Now, let’s talk about character growth because there’s some that I had issues with. Dara was not one of them! He had such growth in this one, his chapters were so filled with tension and conflicting thoughts and feelings and I loved them. I might not have liked the fact that it took him a long time to realise that just because the Nahids demanded it, it did not mean it was the right thing to do. However when taken into consideration the sheer number of years he had spent thinking just that, I can see how some hard truths took time to be comfortable with. In Ali’s case, not talking about romance, it was him realising that his family and his heritage is more than his own perceptions of it. I especially loved the way we got to see Marid magic and how very vast the world really was compared to just the politics of Daevas. Nahri’s is perhaps the only growth that isn’t super drastic or momentous. We already knew her feelings about the Daevas and the djinns and the shafits and that was nothing new. However her birth origins were! They came out of nowhere after it being established throughout the trilogy.Okay, we are nearing the end of the review. It’s long, I know. So, I love that this book also followed the slow beginning, letting us settle in the mood and then it just lifts and lifts and then the action goes BAM! Then you are really in it for the ride, and what a ride this one was! From about seventy percent till the end, so much happened! I can’t begin to tell you how much actually happened. It’s just one long explosion. Yeah, let’s call it that. I loved the way this story ended, I loved that there was room for growth, for future for the characters of the series but also for the world of the Daevas. I absolutely loved Dara’s concluding story arc, it couldn’t have been more perfect, it is something I really, really appreciate. Thank you for this, S. A. Chakraborty! Nahri’s story also ended on a note that I am not terribly sad about, it’s the best ending she could have had and that stands for Ali too!It is not smooth sailing and it is, at times, a bit slow and meandering (don’t worry tho! I like my books like that! Especially fantasy ones) but overall, I really loved this trilogy with all my heart. Flaws and all. Flaws are just that touch of imperfection this series needed, I think. It’s just great and I am already thinking of ways to read it again. How much time should pass before a re-read, do you think?

In terms of the physical book - when I ordered this one, it wasn't the same format at the version of Kingdom of Copper that I ordered. It has pretty standard thickness for pages, which the other had thinner pages, and this made this book BIG. It's about twice as thick as my copy of Kingdom of Copper, even though it's around than 200 pages longer. This one also has the cover that's missing 5cm off it, if that's something that bugs you, but it is also the version with the book club questions and an alternative epilogue at the end.That was long, but damn was that worth.It follows the same book structure as the first two, with the first half being more low key than the second. Although I really should just say less high key, if that's a thing.This book had a number of setting changes, but it balanced them well and didn't feel like any of them were too long. This book also did the thing where they time skip some forward, as it did in the other two, but this time is was primarily used to hide a plot point, which almost always made itself known in the same chapter, which I found a lot better than the time skips in Kingdom of Copper. The character development was beautiful all the way through, the story was exciting and the descriptions of everything made it easy to visualize what every place looked and felt like.I love this series so much. I wouldn't be upset if we got more to it in literally any capacity, but it was a very good wrap up for the series as it is now. The ending did however leave room for more, so one can hope!

Overall, I really liked how this finished up. The last hundred pages or so were really the highlight of the book for me - ramping up action to what I felt was a really well played out, and well earned, resolution to the story. I was a bit worried it was going down the path of the heroes doing stupid things to put themselves at the mercy of the bad guys, but a few neat twists made this not the case at all. I won't say any more for those who haven't read it yet. I did think the first two thirds of the book meandered a little, and the book probably didn't need to be as long as it was... overall I think Kingdom of Copper was my favourite of the trilogy, but Empire of Gold really did land with a great endingDara - he finally got there in terms of pulling himself off the terrible path he was on, but I'm not sure what was different here to the various warnings that had been put in his path in previous books. He was a difficult character for me to really engage with throughout the series, but I did like how his story ended - it felt very satisfactoryAli - I continued to really enjoy Ali in this book. While never changing his fundamental beliefs and values, he learned how to balance those with the world and people around him. A really richly drawn characted who evolved in interesting ways throughout the series. Loved Alizayd.Nahri - she was just as awesome in this as previous books. She's the heart and soul of the story for me. So tough and clever, but also human. Her ending was perfect, and big props to Chakraborty for such a brilliant character

Amazing ending to the trilogy! Long but so so so good! One star less because some of the chapters are labeled incorrectly. I preordered it though so in later editions it will be fixed I’m sure. You should read this series if you like fantasy and middle eastern culture. Loved it!