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Abyss, on 24 July 2020 - 03:07 PM, said:
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Resumed EMPIRE OF GOLD yesterday...
Yknow that feeling when even tho you're familiar with an author and are 100% certain the crash is coming, they do it in a way that knocks you sideways... and then they do it again, and again.
Well, that. Chakarabortay has this lovely talent for steadily engaging the reader in the characters and then abruptly catapulting us kicking and screaming back into the bigger fantasy story to blow our minds.
Resumed EMPIRE OF GOLD yesterday...
Yknow that feeling when even tho you're familiar with an author and are 100% certain the crash is coming, they do it in a way that knocks you sideways... and then they do it again, and again.
Well, that. Chakarabortay has this lovely talent for steadily engaging the reader in the characters and then abruptly catapulting us kicking and screaming back into the bigger fantasy story to blow our minds.
Just Finished EMPIRE OF GOLD, and thus, Shannen Chakarabortay's DAEVABAD trilo.
The whole trilogy was really, REALLY, good. Satisfying conclusion to each book and the whole story, great cast, main and supporting, in real jepoardy, so much cool magic and epic fantasy goodness.
A few things really sold me on this series... the Egyptian / Arabic based mythology and setting is beautifully done and nicely original. The author never retreats to 'standard' Euro/NorAm tropes... sure, there are common elements, but it never feels like a North American author writing what she thinks is Arabic lore... Chakarabortay is Muslim (i think), and did her homework, and she knows her setting. Her mystic beasties are nicely not human. Her 'humans', are Djinn, not Elves, her humans might as well be the Elves (possibly Dwarves), there are no dragons but a whole pile of other interesting powerful beasties... i loved her Marid, inhuman water spirits prone to dropping entire lakes on people who piss them off. The story generally follows three key POVs... Nahri, an Egyptian thief with a connection to the Djinn world, Dara, a millenia old Djinn warrior who really should be dead, and Ali, a Djinn prince and warrior who is entirely too noble and naive for the mess he's about to get involved in. These characters change a LOT through the story and it's easy to become engaged in their povs and they weave in and out of each other's stories. The supporting cast is superb, a whole host of characters who jump out and have their own moments as the story moves along.
Chakarabortay tends to have at most 2-3 main action sequences per book, the rest largely focusing on character conflict. This isnot generally a style that works for me, but her pacing is so good that i hardly noticed how much time passed before the flaming agic swords or massive explosions happened. She's also realy REALLY good at lulling the reader into a sense of security and then pulling the rug out from under the characters and reader both.
I enjoyed the hell out of this. The author's next work is supposed to be some for of fantasy pirate story... elements of that show up in this series and are enough to sell me on whatever she does next.
Next up... HARROW THE NINTH... i think... audible is doing silly-buggers...
ETA ah, there we go.. YAY ROLL LESBIAN NECROMANCER SWORDFIGHTERS IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
