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A review by hibaxx
The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty
2.75
alizayd al qahtani......someone massage this man's shoulders for HARD CARRYING the entire series on his back.
well, i have a lot of complaints so let's just get right into it.
dara - just an absolutely awful character in every sense, and the fact that he got SO much page time is mind boggling to me. did we really need pages upon pages of him pathetically wallowing in his own self-pity?? when we could've had more interesting and dynamic POV chapters from characters like zaynab or aqisa instead? putting aside the fact that i think dara has a terrible personality and infuriating train of thought, i can't help feeling like the author did a huge disservice to his character (or the concept of his character) - refused to let him take any REAL accountability, refused to let him confront his genocidal past beyond his self-pity, refused to let him actually unpack his prejudices against the shafit, let him get away SCOT-FREE after committing mass murder. like what are we doing here??? there is a way to write a compelling tragic antagonist or anti-hero and this is not it.
(if you want to read about a former mass murderer who actually earns his redemption and is a genuinely likable character, read the spear cuts through water instead).
absolutely despised dara's character arc and how it wrapped up - the narrative seems to have an odd and entirely unearned compassion for him. his so-called redemption was a joke - the only reason he finally took a stand against manizheh was because of how her actions started affecting HIM and his tribe and the woman he loved - because dara has always been a self-absorbed, bigoted, hypocritical freak and that never once changed. he has been the exact same person since the beginning - zero character growth, zero learning. the fact that his arc ended with him wanting to make penance with literally everyone EXCEPT the shafit, the people he committed genocide against, was just the cherry on top.
speaking of the shafit, the politics - this series started off with complex political issues and strong themes about violent oppression and revolution and the empire of gold reduced it all to a simplistic 'daevas vs geziris' conflict. suddenly, the quest for liberation and justice is now vengeance and apparently justice for the shafit means to handwave away the reasons for their systemic oppression, ignore any root causes, refuse to let them have any form of retribution, and have that all be okay because hey we're a democracy now and everyone gets a voice! it's just so typical of adult fantasy authors to introduce themes of oppression and then go on to ignore the actual oppressed class for the rest of the series (the shafit sadly have a lot in common with the skaa from mistborn era 1).
alizayd was truly the saving grace of this novel and i absolutely hated how he was treated by the narrative and by the other characters - because why was everyone acting as if the one person who has to make apologies and amendments is ALI of all people??? in the same book where we have characters like dara and jamshid, belonging to a blood purist tribe and having horrible bigoted views and NEVER ONCE apologizing for their views. nahri having all this understanding for her brother's bigotry because that's all he's ever known really soured me on her character.
anyway, i loved ali and his unwavering faith, his relationship with his siblings, his strong sense of justice, his constant support of oppressed people - he's the one character with the spirit of a revolutionary and it's disappointing that the author pushed that aspect of the story aside to focus on manizheh's boring ass revenge instead.
i really wanted to like nahri more, and i do understand the author wanted her to be a complicated person with divided loyalties between her nahid daeva and shafit ancestries - but this series did not have the skills to pull that off. ultimately, nahri was far more committed to her nahid identity and the daeva tribe, mourning her ancestors and the injustices they faced while barely acknowledging the fact that they were violent oppressors, and the fact that the daevas continued to oppress the shafit till date. i get that she stood for equality for everyone and peace in daevabad but i wish she realized there could be no real liberation and no real peace without liberation and justice for the shafit, and the shafit alone.
overall, i did enjoy reading this series and i loved how the author built such a rich, lived-in world with elemental magic and otherworldly creatures - i'm just sad that this book couldn't live up to its full potential and lost its way (and that no one chopped dara's head off but oh well).
well, i have a lot of complaints so let's just get right into it.
dara - just an absolutely awful character in every sense, and the fact that he got SO much page time is mind boggling to me. did we really need pages upon pages of him pathetically wallowing in his own self-pity?? when we could've had more interesting and dynamic POV chapters from characters like zaynab or aqisa instead? putting aside the fact that i think dara has a terrible personality and infuriating train of thought, i can't help feeling like the author did a huge disservice to his character (or the concept of his character) - refused to let him take any REAL accountability, refused to let him confront his genocidal past beyond his self-pity, refused to let him actually unpack his prejudices against the shafit, let him get away SCOT-FREE after committing mass murder. like what are we doing here??? there is a way to write a compelling tragic antagonist or anti-hero and this is not it.
(if you want to read about a former mass murderer who actually earns his redemption and is a genuinely likable character, read the spear cuts through water instead).
absolutely despised dara's character arc and how it wrapped up - the narrative seems to have an odd and entirely unearned compassion for him. his so-called redemption was a joke - the only reason he finally took a stand against manizheh was because of how her actions started affecting HIM and his tribe and the woman he loved - because dara has always been a self-absorbed, bigoted, hypocritical freak and that never once changed. he has been the exact same person since the beginning - zero character growth, zero learning. the fact that his arc ended with him wanting to make penance with literally everyone EXCEPT the shafit, the people he committed genocide against, was just the cherry on top.
speaking of the shafit, the politics - this series started off with complex political issues and strong themes about violent oppression and revolution and the empire of gold reduced it all to a simplistic 'daevas vs geziris' conflict. suddenly, the quest for liberation and justice is now vengeance and apparently justice for the shafit means to handwave away the reasons for their systemic oppression, ignore any root causes, refuse to let them have any form of retribution, and have that all be okay because hey we're a democracy now and everyone gets a voice! it's just so typical of adult fantasy authors to introduce themes of oppression and then go on to ignore the actual oppressed class for the rest of the series (the shafit sadly have a lot in common with the skaa from mistborn era 1).
alizayd was truly the saving grace of this novel and i absolutely hated how he was treated by the narrative and by the other characters - because why was everyone acting as if the one person who has to make apologies and amendments is ALI of all people??? in the same book where we have characters like dara and jamshid, belonging to a blood purist tribe and having horrible bigoted views and NEVER ONCE apologizing for their views. nahri having all this understanding for her brother's bigotry because that's all he's ever known really soured me on her character.
anyway, i loved ali and his unwavering faith, his relationship with his siblings, his strong sense of justice, his constant support of oppressed people - he's the one character with the spirit of a revolutionary and it's disappointing that the author pushed that aspect of the story aside to focus on manizheh's boring ass revenge instead.
i really wanted to like nahri more, and i do understand the author wanted her to be a complicated person with divided loyalties between her nahid daeva and shafit ancestries - but this series did not have the skills to pull that off. ultimately, nahri was far more committed to her nahid identity and the daeva tribe, mourning her ancestors and the injustices they faced while barely acknowledging the fact that they were violent oppressors, and the fact that the daevas continued to oppress the shafit till date. i get that she stood for equality for everyone and peace in daevabad but i wish she realized there could be no real liberation and no real peace without liberation and justice for the shafit, and the shafit alone.
overall, i did enjoy reading this series and i loved how the author built such a rich, lived-in world with elemental magic and otherworldly creatures - i'm just sad that this book couldn't live up to its full potential and lost its way (and that no one chopped dara's head off but oh well).