By Yuli Atta
Actual rating 4.40 because while I found the ending satisfying, I would've loved to see a few things done slightly differently but I will talk about that in a minute.
Oh my god, where do I even start?
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the eARC of this book. It made me very happy and means a lot to me.
I have to admit, I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did because I had a kind of a rough ride with the first book and I listened to the second book at x2.3. I feel like that's when I actually got invested in the story because I remember missing the characters after finishing The Kingdom of Copper. When I got the email that my wish was granted I was so, so excited!
I'm honestly not sure how to review this book mostly because when I like something I don't usually have much to say.
All books so far have been pretty slow in the beginning and then halfway through they'd pick up and suddenly, it would be a wild ride and I wouldn't know who to be worried about first. It was a bit different with this one because while it was still very slow in the beginning, something was always happening that would keep me excited to continue reading which hasn't actually happened in a long time and I'm so glad for it.
We have the same 3 POVs from the second book and get to see a lot of all of the characters. Personally, I enjoyed Nahri and Ali's chapters way more than Dara's which was also the case in The Kingdom of Copper. However, while his chapters were just plain boring in the second one, in The Empire of Gold they were actually grimdark. Dara wasn't as much of a character than a narrator who would show the slow descent of Manhizeh into madness and I hated and loved every second of it. I hated it because I hated how crazy she was, I hated the way she behaved and I hated the way Dara behaved. And I loved it, I loved it because Dara's slave mentality is well-written and executed and Manhizeh's craziness makes sense. I understand why both of them acted the way they did and it was very well-written and not especially easy to read. Subjectively, I didn't like it, objectively, it was amazing.
I wasn't satisfied with the way Dara's Character arc ended. I feel like he <spoiler> should've died instead of leaving Daevabad to hunt down enslaved djin because it kind of redeems him and I didn't want him to be redeemed. </spoiler> He did show some development at the end which I liked. I'm still not his biggest fan tho.
Now, let's go to the actual characters that I like.
Nahri and Ali developed so much as people, I totally love their growth. Every scene when they were together was a favourite and I love the way they worked together. Their time in Egypt was actually one of my favourite to read about and that's where they truly bonded again. I simply ship them so so hard and <spoiler> I wish my ship had sailed in a more explicit way but the ace in me is also satisfied with the way it was wrapped up.</spoiler>
OMG, I don't even know what to talk about! There's so much that needs to be covered and I seem to have forgotten how to word. Why?
I just enjoyed everything about Ali and Nahri and chapters 8 and 48 are my favourite! That's all I'm gonna say about that.
All of the stuff in Shefala was also very interesting and I loved the way Nahri and Jamshid bonded, I also loved how accepting he was. I loved his character, at first, I wasn't very sure about him because he was acting rashly but in this book, he grew as well.
All of that marid stuff was very interesting and I actually loved what happened with them.
The peri stuff and the ring was a bit confusing and unclear and I may even go as far as to say that it was a bit convenient but I'm not complaining because I liked the ending well enough.
Now, all of the stuff that happened at the end was INTENSE. I loved every second of it but I won't go into details because this review will never end.
I wasn't surprised by a lot of the revelations because I've been talking with a friend during and after I finished the second book and we, mostly her, shared theories and all that jazz so we (meaning her) called most of them. However, I did not see what Nahri did with that dagger coming. (This sounds both cryptic and dodgy but I didn't want to tag it as a spoiler.)
And here comes the main reason this isn't 5 stars, Dara. I didn't like the end of his character arc. <spoiler> I expected him to die but instead, he is alive. I get it. He chose to live in order to repent and hunt down the enslaved djin and fight ifrit and since he doesn't have the mark he can never return to Daevabad and see Nahri again and that's his sort of bittersweet ending. I just wish he had just died tbh but at the same time, I understand why he had this sort of ending. He was neither redeemed, nor not redeemed. I just think that considering the stakes, the consequences should've been bigger and more people should've realistically died. </spoiler>
I think that the story wrapped up nicely and I already talked about pretty much everything I wanted to say so yeah.
There is a lot going on in this book and I didn't even cover half of it. Muntadhir was amazing and not so amazing and the rest of the characters were also doing their thing and as you can see, I am spent.
It was definitely worth sticking to the end and I really enjoyed it.
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