Review: The Empire of Gold (Daevabad #3)

The Empire of Gold (Daevabad #3)
by SA Chakraborty

Published By: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: June 11, 2020
Date Read: August 29, 2020
Genre: YA – Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: Hardback
Pages: 766

From Goodreads:
Daevabad has fallen.

After a brutal conquest stripped the city of its magic, Nahid leader Banu Manizheh and her resurrected commander, Dara, must try to repair their fraying alliance and stabilize a fractious, warring people.

But the bloodletting and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara’s dark past. To vanquish them, he must face some ugly truths about his history and put himself at the mercy of those he once considered enemies.

Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad’s deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own. While Nahri finds peace in the old rhythms and familiar comforts of her human home, she is haunted by the knowledge that the loved ones she left behind and the people who considered her a savior are at the mercy of a new tyrant. Ali, too, cannot help but look back, and is determined to return to rescue his city and the family that remains. Seeking support in his mother’s homeland, he discovers that his connection to the marid goes far deeper than expected and threatens not only his relationship with Nahri, but his very faith.

As peace grows more elusive and old players return, Nahri, Ali, and Dara come to understand that in order to remake the world, they may need to fight those they once loved . . . and take a stand for those they once hurt.

The final chapter in the bestselling, critically acclaimed Daevabad Trilogy, in which a con-woman and an idealistic djinn prince join forces to save a magical kingdom from a devastating civil war.

“Not wanting to be destroyed by despair doesn’t make you a coward. It makes you a survivor.”

The Empire of Gold was without a doubt one of my most anticipated reads of 2020. I fell head over heels in love with the Daevabad world last year when I read The City of Brass and The Kingdom of Copper. I couldn’t wait to read the final book in the series and see how it all ends. Honestly, I don’t know if I just had too high expectations but I was left just feeling a little bit deflated. I just didn’t feel like this one lived up to being as good as the first two books in the series.

I feel like the pacing in this one was just off a little bit. It was frustrating for me because I absolutely loved the first two books and was so excited to find out what was going to happen to this world and these characters that I had fallen head over heels in love with. With the pacing being a bit all over the place I found myself getting bored in so many places. Then I’d get super excited that it was starting to pick up again and then it just slowed right down again. I often judge a book on how fast I read it. If I read a book super fast then that usually bumps my rating up… well this one took me an entire month to read, which is not like me whatsoever and that’s left me feeling just a little bit sad.

I’m actually sat writing this review a month after finishing it as I have been putting off writing this review while I sorted out my thoughts and feelings. I’m still left feeling really torn. On the one hand, I want to rate this super high as by the end I did end up really enjoying it and thinking it was a pretty good ending. On the other hand, I had such a sad experience reading it and I just don’t know how I feel about it as a whole. The ending was good, but there were certain things left open that I’m just not happy about. If you would like to know what that is, head over to Goodreads where I’ll include a spoiler tag… I’m all about no spoilers here.

The Empire of Gold was a little bit of a disappointment for me… and it ended up putting me in such a huge book slump. Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed through and tried reading this one at a different time but here we are. I pushed through… I ended up enjoying it but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed by this one. It’s a huge book and I don’t necessarily think it needed to be as long as it is. I do plan on re-reading this sometime in the future so maybe I’ll be able to update this then, but honestly I’m disappointed, and heartbroken as I have such a huge love for this series and it’s world. I will still be picking up books by this author in the future as her world building is fantastic but I was hoping for so much more from this book.

“If you rule by violence, you should expect to be removed by violence.”

Follow K-Books on WordPress.com