The Empire of Gold: 3 (Daevabad Trilogy)

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The only people that have magic now is Dara and beings such as the ifrit, marid and peri can wield the magic of the land. Ali also demonstrates a strength that I don’t think his father had, the strength to sacrifice for his people. However, he had had multiple opportunities to stand up to her when he was the more powerful one and he didn’t. But the death of his people and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara's dark past.

There’s a lot of similarities between them in this respect, they both straddle two distinct worlds (Ali with the Marid and the Djinn, Nahri with her human and Daeva heritage) so it was interesting to see them embracing the sides of their heritage that they’ve not necessarily ignored but been unable to explore fully up till this point. I finished The Empire of Gold, the 3rd and final book, in The Daevabad Trilogy… and I might be broken.So, they decide to head back to Daevabad but along the way they encounter a very powerful and ancient Marid. Nahri and Ali find themselves in Cairo where they spend quite a bit of time before they decide to get back into the whole saving the djinn business again. Manizheh does remain, mostly, the one dimensional monster, but Dara and the Qahtanis grow into something more, and the complexity of civilization and history, studded as it is with exploitation, abuse, and half-truths, carries through as the characters confront their most emotional, base selves and come out the other end, for better or worse. The titles sound cool and allow the author to strike the right balance between cryptic and engaging. Nahri plays a secondary character as Dara and Ali grow further into themselves and Jamshid joins the narrative to a fuller degree.

Empire of Gold is the pitch perfect conclusion to the expansive fantasy trilogy that has captured my heart and mind over the past few years. The Daevabad trilogy offers an intelligent take on family, religion, duty, and morality, is informed by an expert’s take on folklore and Middle Eastern history, and takes on fantasy tropes. This helps you root for them, not that you will need much help, to find their way through the moral mazes that appear, overcome considerable obstacles, and try their damndest to make right what has been made wrong. This is, admittedly, a good conclusion to the series, but I’m delighted to know that such a vibrant world, peopled by such complex figures, is going to live on, wrapping us up in its turmoil and beautiful, deadly magic. Defying any weather pattern Nahri knew, somehow the eastern half of the island was draped in snow while the sun scorched the western half so fiercely small fires smoldered in the scrubby hills.And the ending is full of hope for Daevabad and its people, hope that the wars of the past can be reconciled, that the cycle of vengeance can be ended. I’m of course talking about the moment where she poisoned Jamshid in a way that robbed him of the use of his legs 😡 That was beyond cruel! Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad's deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own.

When all the characters come together at the end for what’s really the Final Showdown, I wasn’t expecting it to play out the way it did. If you’ve read it, or read it in the future, please feel free to shout at me about this fantastic book. Both of them are struggling but they mind to find help in an old ally and in fact there is almost a rosy future for them should they choose to take that path.She remained true to herself, and who she has become over the course of the books, and the ending had me smiling and sad all at once. In a world where such complications brew the ending is sure to be bittersweet, heartbreaking, and bloody.

PICTURE THIS: Dara dropping off slave vessels to the cave, Nahri showing up at the same time to check if some have been left - either alone or with her children (or maybe it’s just her children, oh my gah) (I also don’t even know if this is possible with the veil up, ha). The places in which I felt like screaming: when Dara tells Nahri he’s leaving and will never be able to step foot inside Daevabad again while acknowledging the fact that she will never be able to step foot outside of Daevabad ever again and anytime Nahri flirts with or kisses Ali.But Nahri is Shafit, which means half human and therefore she is discriminated against often by the pureblood magical people. But Nahri has grown into being Banu Nahida, and she knows that neither she nor Ali will be happy in Egypt. Let me tell you that – while everyone probably has a different opinion on how that love triangle should have been resolved or whether it needed to be there ein the first place – I was more than happy with the ending. I did not expect Jamshid to become one of my favorite characters, but the relationship growth of his with Nahri that increased with each book was absolutely incredible.