Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Empire of Gold

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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bobbyeight's review against another edition

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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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alixcalfa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

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wandering_not_lost's review against another edition

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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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mweir16's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

Wowwwwweee. I loved how morally gray these characters are. There is so much depth and explanation to each characters motives. Nobody is inherently evil, just acting on their own strongly held beliefs. Horribly dark and hard to read at times, but I loved the redemption and hope available to all characters in this tale.

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scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

5.0

An absolutely amazing conclusion to the trilogy and my OTP got their HEA! The stakes were higher now than before but I loved the moments where they managed to just... calm down even if it felt like the calm before the storm. The pacing, the full on world-building, the development of characters I thought were not so great and didn't like from the beginning... it was all so exceptional and believable, even if for some, I went "damnit, Mrs. Chakraborty, why are you making me start to like this one??" I am going to miss this world so SO much.

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stuckinatimeloop's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-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

4.75

this trilogy is my best read of the year. It's been a while since I fell in love with a fantasy story this much. Everything is so well written. will forever recommend

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boba_n_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

HOLY CRAP. If I could rate this higher than 5 stars I would. This book was absolutely amazing and will be living rent-free in my mind for a long time.

I was worried this book would be too long, but when I got to the end, I didn’t want it to be over. There were plenty of tense and tearful moments, and I cherished every second of it.

My favorite thing about this entire trilogy is that no one was fully good or fully evil. Everyone has motivations for doing what they thought was right, and each and every one of them did something wrong at some point in time. I felt deeply for every character but especially for Dara, Nahri, and Ali since theirs are the perspectives we followed throughout the series.

This is definitely going down as one of my favorite books / trilogies of all time. If you love political intrigue, power dynamics, magic, and morally gray characters, give this trilogy a chance. I hope more people read it and that it goes down as a favorite for years and years to come.

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