Well done- the author stuck the landing on this one! Nahri, Ali and Dara all have their arcs completed in a satisfactory way (at least to me).

I don't want to do much with spoilers, so I'll speak generally. We get to see the capital of Ayaanle, we get to have magic flying boat rides and go under the ocean to negotiate with the biggest sea demon ever, the peris (air elemental beings) stick their beaky noses in again, Nahri gets to ride a Shedu (and I want one bad!) all is explained with regard to the mysterious origins of our characters.

All the characters act like themselves- true to what they would do instead of doing things for plot purposes. The author has developed each character so that you can understand why they act as they do, and each had great sacrifices to make. The setting of this world is one of the richest I've ever had the enjoyment of losing myself in. The plot had interesting intrigue and characters that you knew would have tragic ends, but the one upsmanship of "I'll threaten you", "no, I'll threaten you more" was toned down. I was happy to get swept along in this epic tale. I feel like the author might have left the door open just a crack for more books? That would be AMAZING, but I am happy with how this series has been concluded.

Oh, Dara, I can't quit you. I do love a tragic bad boy. I would always make the wrong choice in a love triangle.

This sequel is AMAZING!!!!!! I didn't put this book down at all. I read it for a few days straight. The story...AMAZING. The characters... AMAZING. I fell in love with it. S.A. Chakraborty created another piece of fantastic art.

Breathtaking. Mind-boggling. Heartbreaking.
This is easily the best book I've read in years. Chakraborty writes like a a magician skilled at enrapturing your mind and soul and this book - as the kids say it - had me properly shook. If you thought the first two books were good, this one is gold. Pure, unadulterated, shining, shimmering gold. You'll think about it for days and weeks and months and years to come and this is going to set an entirely new standard for pretty much anything else you read from now on. Everything else will disappoint you. All you'll be able to do is read and re-read and re-read the trilogy until the end of time. It will be glorious. I am ready for this!

I really enjoyed this final book in the series! It is so in depth and the world building is amazing. I did not enjoy how it wrapped up at the end with her love interest, but I can see why the author ended it the way they did. Super happy that I ended up picking this series up this year and I would 100% recommend it to anyone!

Why, oh why did I want to read this book early? Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED it so much, but not being able to talk about it is physically hurting me. I have literally texted friends begging them to let me divulge spoilers (Joleen, you da real MVP). Now, I’m going to write a spoiler free review…it may be short as I try to avoid the hell out of oversharing. I placed a warning in my header, but I want to reiterate – do not read this review if you haven’t already finished The City of Brass and The Kingdom of Copper!

S.A. Chakraborty has destroyed me. Over the course of 400+ pages, she ripped my heart out of my chest, stomped on it, and then somehow managed to carefully put it back together. The poor battered thing has some bandaids on it, but its thankfully still beating. The romance was absolute perfection. Over the course of this series, I have shipped Nahri with Dara, and then Ali, and then Dara again, and then…well you get the point. When I started Empire of Gold I genuinely had no idea how Chakraborty could possibly write an ending that would ensure that all characters involved got what they deserved. Somehow, she managed it. In the end, I genuinely believe that Nahri ended up with the person best suited to her.

The best part about this series though wasn’t the romance. It was the character development. I can’t stress enough how much these characters have grown over the course of the trilogy. Ali, Nahri and Dara all went through so much and came through it all completely changed for the better. Hell, even Muntadhir grew in ways I didn’t see possible. Somehow Chakraborty managed to change and grow not only the main characters, but also a huge group of supporting cast that I found myself deeply caring about by the end.

Empire of Gold wasn’t an easy end, and I cried more than I have in a long time, but it finished in a way that left me satisfied. All loose ends were wrapped up, every character’s ending was deserved and well thought out, and the series wrapped up on a hopeful note. I can’t wait to read what S.A. Chakraborty writes next and genuinely hope that she revisits what has become one of my all time favorite fictional worlds.

I loved the first two books in the series so when I saw this title on NetGalley I was excited, but also nervous about how S.A. Chakraborty would end the trilogy. She did not disappoint.

The book starts where the plot left off in book 2, and alternates between Dara, Nahri, and Ali's POV. Even though we got to know the characters through the first two books, it was great that even in this last book the characters were still developing and not stagnant. I feel like each of the main characters and even some of the side characters went through a lot of growth in this book, in fact, which made them feel more life-like.

Chakraborty did an amazing job of pulling together all the strings from the first two books to create a stunning conclusion with twists I didn't see coming. While this book is action-packed, Chakraborty was able to find ways to slow the pacing so that the reader doesn't get overwhelmed. I definitely recommend this book, and I can't wait to see what Chakraborty writes next! 5 stars.

A wonderful wrap up for this enchanting series! There was no shortage of action and intrigue and the romance kept you on edge for the entire book. It is a beautifully written world that was so easy to get lost in!

An excellent finale to a phenomenal trilogy. Nahri and Ali return to a shattered Daevabad while Dara struggles with who he is and his loyalty to Manizheh.

Review based on an uncorrected proof from the publisher, thanks HarperCollins and NetGalley!

This series has taken its spot in that rarefied air of my favorite books of all time. The stories that feel like they inhabit a bit of my brain all the time, where the characters feel like friends, and the books feel like they were written just for me to secretly enjoy. I really wasn't emotionally ready for this series to be over.

Without getting into any detail to avoid spoilers prior to publication, here are some thoughts:
After a number of disappointing endings to favorite series or books in the past year, this final book in the Daevabad trilogy was a relief from that. Many endings I've read in the last number of months felt as if the authors were writing for what they knew their readers wanted for the characters, not what would have made the best story. And I feel that S.A. Chakraborty walked that line expertly in this final installation - of writing both what readers deserve in a moving and well-designed story with what the readers really want to see happen with each of the characters. The other thing I love about this final installation, the character progression. The characters growth in each book was masterfully done - I feel as if I grew up with Nahri and Ali, which made me even more emotionally invested in the story.

This is a series I genuinely recommend to everyone I know. It has something for everyone whether folks like historical fiction, fantasy, romance, political thrillers, royal intrigue, or any other genre or theme. This series successfully pulls on all of those to build an incredible journey for readers. The world building is thoughtful and immersive, the characters feel fully realized and complex, not wooden or one-note, and there is so much depth to the story should you wish to dig into the commentary on politics, religion, history, etc. I truly think everyone should give this series a try!

<i>*This book was given to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review*</i>

This is one of those series I didn't want to see the end of. I loved this Muslim fantasy so much, I really think it raised the bar for me. How can I move on from here?! The lush setting, the complex magic system, the stories within the story, all of the amazing characters, the sacrifices, love, and friendships. I could go on and on. Serious book hangover on this one. Well done.

I'm always a little anxious going into the final book of a series, but The Empire of Gold was a fantastic conclusion to the Daevabad Trilogy and gave me everything I wanted in a finale.

I have so many feelings.

3.5 rounded to 4 stars.

Though Empire of Gold, is too weighed down by its extensive mythology like earlier volumes and only resolves with several deus ex machina, it weaves enough elements from the prior books (along with a number of big reveals) to be a reasonably satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.

The book picks up immediately where Kingdom of Copper leaves off, so I recommend rereading KoC if it's been awhile or at least leafing through the glossary in the back (which I only found after finishing the book).

Daevabad is in chaos following the attack from Manizheh's forces. Nahri and Ali find themselves stranded in Egypt. This results in a bifurcation of the plot with POVs from Dara in Daevabad and Nahri and Ali, who are traveling together. The non-Western setting is what initially drew me to the book (and in my opinion is the star of the show), and it's still present here, especially with the sumptuous descriptions of buildings, clothing, and food.

To me, the main struggle in this book is about identity-- primarily Ali coming to terms with his mysterious connection to the marid (and more subtly, learning how to work with and understand others, continued from the last book) and Dara's internal war with his conscience and the words of his Banu Nahida. After finishing the last novel, without spoilers, I think it's clear that Dara and Ali are set up to be counterpoints to each other. They're both confused men with troubled pasts (albeit VERY different scales of trouble) who grew up in extremely hierarchical settings where they were expected to obey. They both struggle with who they want to be and the roles others put them in. They both take long journeys with Nahri, and they both fall in love with her.

Some other themes from the earlier books also are emphasized:
Violence begets violence
Two wrongs don't make a right
No plan survives contact with the enemy, and your enemy is likely to be just as motivated and clever as you are
Despite personal risk and futility, we must stand up for what we believe is right

I really struggled to keep up with various groups and political entities in the first novel, and it gets even worse in #3-- there aren't more players, but there's no refresher exposition and the glossary in the back is of limited use since it doesn't focus on just the key important characters. I really wanted a short summary at the beginning!

I found myself rereading City of Brass and Kingdom of Copper as soon as I finished Empire of Gold because I felt like I wasn't doing justice to the book as a reader with so little remembered context. The refresher certainly helped-- I was able to let the unimportant names flow past me like the world-building asides they really were. Rereading the books also made me absolutely fall in love with the setting again.

The experience of rereading also gave me fresh insight on Dara as a character. Most of the fan fiction on AO3 is devoted to him and Nahri, which baffled me. When I originally read CoB, Dara seemed like a deconstruction of your typical alpha male romance hero. Not only is he bad at communicating, he's REAL bad at it. He's beautiful, but also a jerk who's rather racist. He doesn't just have a past, he's responsible for slaughtering thousands of innocents. In short, ideal male lead on the surface, but highly troubling at every level.

As I reread the trilogy, I realized how much we see Dara struggling to do the right thing but always making a critical mistake somewhere-- believing what his masters tell him, not turning his counsel into action, not taking critical players into confidence, trusting a suspicious ally, and so on. Most of these issues and most of the positive things he does are based on the same thing: loyalty before all. It means he obeys his masters even when he vehemently disagrees, but it also means he'll rush into danger to save one of his soldiers. He truly wants to fix the world but keeps doing the same thing. The definition for insanity is of course doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It makes it painful to watch, and I don't think we get the satisfaction of seeing Dara learn from his mistakes until very late. It makes him a tragic, frustrating figure-- we get to see him struggle internally, but his attempts to prevent further wrongdoing are never enough.

To contrast, our very first interactions with Ali in book 1 show he's already willing to compromise his loyalty to do what's right. While he refines this and mellows a bit during the books to be less of an ass, I don't think we see nearly as much internal character growth. The text really works hard to endear him to readers, and some elements were frankly charming (like in Kingdom of Copper where he includes a beautiful Egyptian-themed office for Nahri in the hospital). I'm not opposed to a main character having a flat character arc, but it's unsatisfying when compared to Dara.

So, in conclusion, I don't know. I love the setting. I really enjoyed a lot of the characters. I'm still frustrated, in large measure because there's so much good stuff here. Perhaps too much good stuff. But I have immense gratitude to the author for introducing us to this world, giving us an ending, and setting me off on an honestly rather pleasurable analysis paralysis.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for a review copy of this book, the end of this terrific trilogy! I was already certain to buy it, but I"m so glad I got to find out what happened!!! And there was a lot! This really ended with a bang as so much happened I could hardly catch my breath. I think this is a fantasy series that is going to have to go down in the future as one that must be read to understand the evolution of the genre. Great stuff. Kudos to the author, this was fantastic and immensely entertaining reading.

There are not enough stars on the rating scale to give this grand finale to the Daevabad Trilogy.

I'll be short and to the point: this book was phenomenal. I started this series with little expectations, and I devoured books one and two in about two days. I knew that this series had the ability to become one of my favorite series of all time. And S. A. Chakraborty did not disappoint.

This story was bittersweet, sometimes hard to read. It was raw, it examined people's darkest desires--the lengths they would go to to protect those they love and gain control. It was heartbreaking, wholesome, and beautiful. Nahri has been my favorite character since book one, and I think Ali has taken her spot with Nahri being a very, very close second.

The amount of character development given to every single character, not just the main three, was staggering. All of the pieces so carefully strewn throughout the other two stories finally come together in this, building up everyone into their epitome, either as good or bad. The backstory and explanations we readers have been expecting was flawlessly delivered and added so much to the already-excellent story. Especially when it came to discovering Nahri's past and secrets regarding her birth. Her last chapter, the one right before the epilogue, had me tearing up because it meant so much for her character to finally get the answers she had been wanting.

I cannot recommend this series enough, and I am beyond excited for my next reread.

I LOVED this book, absolutely and completely. When reading the first two books, I fell in love with the characters; Nahri, Ali and Dara were the greatest love triangle, but were also supported by other amazing characters like Jamshid, Muntadhir and Fiza, and . When I saw the third book come across my net galley feed, I was worried. Most times, authors who do a trilogy seem to lose themselves and their characters at the end. Chakraborty does not. She builds them up even more so than she did in the first two books. I had no idea how it was going to end, but I'm so glad she completed it the way she did. I can officially say that the Daevabad Trilogy will forever be one of my favorite sets of books. If you need any sort of magical transportation into another land so similar but so different from our own, than I highly recommend you seek out this trilogy. You will not be disappointed.

A satisfying and electric finish to a series that captivated me from the very first pages. Enough has been said about S. A. Chakraborty's ability to bring a rich, fantastical world to life with beautiful details and fascinating and complex characters, but that won't stop me from saying it all over again. A truly tremendous reading experience, a satisfying ending, and a world that readers will want to get lost in makes this book and series a must read for fantasy fans.