Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

81 reviews

ko_rax's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

In The Empire of Gold, the conclusion of the Daevabad trilogy, the reader accompanies Nahri & Alizayd on their mission of saving Daevabad (and defeating Banu Manizheh) and Dara as the head of Manizheh's forces.

The book kept me from start to end and despite its length, I finished it with an ungraceful speed (a little more than two days..). I did not expect that I could learn even more about the characters - wonderful complexity, this novel is the most detailed of all three -, nor did I anticipate myself shedding a few tears for

Dara, despite all the atrocious things he has done

. Also,

Muntadhir, you deserve all the peace and love, what a strong man

  *cries*. 

Deducting a quarter star because personally, it felt a little rushed towards the end!

A story is truly well written if I still think about the characters and am even looking up fanart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Torture, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

mice_are_nice's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Slavery, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

saracat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Chakraborty continues to weave amazingly complex characters and stories in a way that feels so heart wrenchingly well. That characters and those around them go through so much. But is it any more than some have endured in our history? Or even still today? There is so much to learn from the examples of the characters in this story. Yes, they are fictional. And yes, maybe they are a bit optimistically naive. But I think our world could use more than a few more Bahri’s in the world. And more Dara’s and Ali’s once they have learned and grown by the end of the books. 
The roller coaster that readers are taken on in these books is so well worth it in seeing all the pieces fall together. And knowing the characters have given everything and continue to strive for better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry

bookswithcuppatea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A remarkable conclusion to this trilogy!

I was stunned by events more than once by this delightfully complex story. A lot of loose threads from the previous two books were picked up again and explored further and woven together into a fascinating tapestry.

The world building in this series is complex and rich, the most thorough I've read in a very long time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Minor: Slavery

andreabrownriley's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, and War

Moderate: Cursing

jiffygiraffe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and War

Minor: Child abuse and Child death

sas_lk's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

I'm fascinated by how Chakraborty is able to make you understand the characters so deeply, making you feel sorry and love for even the villains, because even though you might not agree, or their actions are not justifiable, you still understand where the pain comes from and why they believe what they are doing is right. 

This is a story about how love and belief can blind us, and even though this was obviously mostly a fictional world, I could relate it all too well to the reality of our world.

Very well done series and characters, it kept  me on my toes and I just kept praying everything would be okay when I couldn't think of a way out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child death

_forestofpages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The perfect ending to this incredible epic tale. I loved it all, literally everything. 

All the characters arcs complete and in such satisfying ways. And not to mention even the marid and shaffit got their dues. I was so surprised by Dara's ending and the alternate epilogue gave me such joy.

I love this trilogy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Slavery, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

dreadspawn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mmelibertine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail