Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

43 reviews

_forestofpages's review against another edition

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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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dreadspawn's review against another edition

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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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book_gremlin42's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful tense medium-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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alixcalfa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0


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dietlindrozekin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

Cawpile-method
  • Characters: 6/10: De band die ik in het vorige boek met de karakters had, of de verwondering voor de karakters, had ik in dit derde deel van de Daêvabad-trilogie minder. Vaker dan eens stoorde ik me zelfs aan de personages omdat ze er te lang over deden om dingen te beseffen.
  • Atmosfeer: 8/10: De wereld waarin het verhaal zich afspeelt blijft super.
  • Writing: 7/10: An sich is alles goed geschreven, maar ik merkte wel dat ik af en toe de beschrijvingen van alles oversloeg en me concentreerde op de dialogen om het vooruit te laten gaan.
  • Plot: 9/10: De schrijfster is echt een meesteres in het uitwerken van verhaallijnen! Love her for that.
  • Intrigue: 8/10: Ik had een tijdje nodig om in het verhaal te komen (de eerste 200 pagina's, bijna had ik het boek weggelegd), tot opeens de geschiedenis van de stad en van Nahri in puzzelstukjes werd blootgegeven en toen werd het interessant. Hoe fascineer je een historica? Begin met de geschiedenis! Eenmaal ik die rode draadlijn terugvond in het boek was ik vanzelf ook meer en meer geïnteresseerd in het verhaal en de huidige tijdlijn.
  •  Logic: 8/10: Je moet er wel je hoofd er een beetje bijhouden om de complotten en geschiedenis te verwerken.
  • Enjoyment: 6,5/10: Ik had echt lang nodig om in het verhaal te komen, ik heb echt passages overslaan omdat het mij te lang duurde maar uiteindelijk heb ik er wel nog van genoten omdat het wel een goed boek is.  

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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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thenextbookdilemma's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

Y’all, nothing I can write can do these books justice, just please go read them!

This series is one of my favorites EVER. I feel it embedded in my heart and I mourn having finished it, I grieve the end of these characters’ stories.

This is a luscious, tangled epic fantasy inspired by the Muslim faith, ancient myths and magical djinn spirits. It will so thouroughly sweep you away through ancient Cairo to magical cities, into the clouds on flying carpets and winged beasts and into ocean depths with scaled monsters and sunken ships. It will fill you with wonder and it will squeeze your heart (and your stomach) at every point.

Nahri. A thief, a liar, a consummate survivor, she always smiles at her mark. Nahri is my favorite kind of protagonist—an acerbic, take no $hit, beat you at your own game, I don’t need a protector, kind of gal. She is a mongoose in a den of cobras (if you haven’t seen these videos, youtube them), constantly underestimated, constantly surprising people. Nahri’s story is tragic and powerful and about making a home in a place determined to crush you, and then defending that home with everything you have.

Ali. A self-righteous zealot, a misguided and privileged idealist. Ali struggles to reconcile his faith with the politics of his royal family. While initially one of my least favorite characters, I so completely enjoyed his character arc and self discovery. Ali spends this series finding out who is is, and choosing who he wants to be.

Dara. Dara’s story broke me again and again. I raged against his circumstances, past and present and yearned for a future he could deserve. Dara forces you to ask yourself many questions and reminds you that we are products of the environment we are shaped in.

This book pushes you to question what can be forgiven. What does redemption look like? Will vengeance only ever beget more vengeance? Do our differences really separate us? I love these characters so much, deep dark flaws and all, and I thank Chakraborty for taking me on this magical and devastating journey.

May the fires burn brightly for you.

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espressoreader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

This series is beautifully done. It covers uncomfortable topics such as racial diversity religious diversity, class diversity, and even sexual diversity without appearing to beat the socially woke drum.  For this reason, this book actually makes a person consider these difficulties that other’s face without turning them off by making them feel drowned in a political concept, rather than in a story with dialogue. None of the characters in this book are perfect. All of them have their own individual preferences, and even prejudices regardless of how high up they are how low down they are all of them demonstrate a level of prejudice. However, this book allows you to look beyond their flaws and watch them grow above them Prince, Ali is considered to be a religious extremist. Though many, of his perceptions are not ones that I would share he holds them, and grows to respect people with whom he does not agree.  I think Prince Ali is perhaps one of the most well written characters, and one that I identify with the best. He maintains his religion, understand the precepts that say some thing is wrong, and still treats those people with respect and recognizes  their dignity.  

Beyond this political intrigue, there is also a beautiful story line with friendship, betrayal, reconciliation and ultimately understanding. The story shows the impact of generational abuse post traumatic stress, and gaslighting. It shows the impact of unhealthy relationships at all levels, and it shows very competent people suffering from and overcoming the physical and emotional abuse.

It does all of these things, without appearing to be activist propaganda. It relates real  emotion experiences and actions rather than just glossing over everything as he’s racist and he’s too religious. I find that this book was extremely respectful of all ideologies, and showed the strengths and weaknesses inherent with those ideologies, and the flawed ways they were represented by their followers. This was overall a great trilogy, and I would love to see more from this author.

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massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

A wonderfully satisfying end to this amazing series. I had a very strong idea of how the main conflict would resolve and I was so wrong. (In case anyone's curious:
my prediction was that Dara would realize what the peri's knife was for, realized Manizheh's life was tied to his own and find a way to commit suicide with the knife, redeeming himself in the process.
I don't know why I was so convinced, it just felt like it would tie up the loose ends.) But I loved the real ending more!
I will read anything S.A. Chakraborty writes. 

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brynalexa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is somehow MORE of a wild ride than the second in the trilogy. I was worried, hopeful, invested, and a little furious the whole time. This would be an easy five stars except there’s a style change related to timing, perspective,  and a suddenly unreliable narrator that was very off putting so late in the series. There could have been a much smoother way of shocking the reader which the author had done plenty of times. 

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