Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

70 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

mirrorstorm_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

I loved this series. Sad to see it end. Only criticism I have is how the bad guys (trying to stay spoiler free) ended up over the top maniacal evil villain by the end. Dara’s past and the question of if redemption is possible for someone plot was so well done in the series up to this point that I was shocked by the full on villain role they cast the ‘bad guys’. It still was an amazing end to a great series. Just was surprised by the decision. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, and War

Minor: Homophobia and Torture

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

lindsaylitlover's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Torture, War, and Injury/Injury detail

dilibertorebecca's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.75

I loved the arc of this final book in the larger daevabad narrative. I especially loved the descriptions of the

marid realm and the peris and all the other magical creatures

that had been legend in the two prior books. This part of the story is epic, there is so much movement and magic and there are times when I really thought how is she going to end this cleanly? My main critique is that Manizheh is a somewhat boring villain, vengeance for her tribe didn’t seem like enough of an alibi for

murdering a fifth of the city and using torture and murder and blood magic to hold onto power.

Otherwise, truly enjoyed being absorbed in this world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Slavery

bobbyeight's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

Nobody talk to me I am unwell

(But also thank you Shannon for writing these books. They mean the world to me.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and War

alixcalfa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, and War

wandering_not_lost's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

4 stars that I bump up to 4.5 for the ending,  which I felt wrapped this big, sprawling epic up satisfactorily.  This trilogy has always felt a bit overstuffed and politically complex, but I've always liked how the characters were charming in their own ways, so I kept rooting for them even as they repeatedly split off into different camps. It's hard to craft this kind of plot without turning someone into a villain, but the trilogy was good at giving the main characters each their own reasonable perspective. 

This last book continues the trend of secrets and history attempting to tear good people apart, but thankfully now the story actually let's them come back together as well.  There was a point around the middle where a plot twist just felt like one too many threads, but the author managed to wrap things up well, and mostly I'm sad the story is over. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture