A review by seanml
The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The Daevabad trilogy is filled with ideas and characters I enjoy. Its shortcomings come from the fact that these individual draws may be far and few inbetween. The first book in the series starts you off with many factions and ideas in the first half, while the second half becomes more focuseda nd insular. Then there's book two - the best one - where Chakraborty spends much of its length building up to a certain moment that the reader knows is approaching. Luckily, the payoff is worth it, but that means much of that entry is spent on arriving at a predetermined destination. So then you get to Book 3, where the problems of Book 2 must be resolved. Easy enough, except so many little things have been left hanging from Book 1 that now THIS entry has to spend so much of its time explaining lore, bringing back old characters, and filling in any big question marks that have been left idle. What this means is that there is a LOT going on (The big climax takes up less than 100 pages), and because everything has to work out and be answered, I found there were a few too many contrivances for the sake of the plot. 7/10.