It was beautiful. Magical. Which meant it was almost certainly deadly.
The River of Silver
by Shannon Chakraborty
Genre: Fantasy
About: A collection of short stories that span events both before, during and after the Daevabad trilogy. Fans of the series can watch Dara play unwilling accomplice to Nahri's thieving days, glimpse the moment Rustam meets a certain shafit, and witness Hatset's entry into her marriage life as well as many more sweet and bittersweet moments.
The Good
Daevabad is such a deeply complex world but it's one I loved sinking back into. The politics, the magic, the heart-breaking betrayals... they're all here. Chakraborty's characters are as grey as ever. She can turn a coward or a murderer into someone I'm desperately rooting for, while at the same time cursing them for going past the point of redemption. I loved the insights into Manizheh's character and found Ali's chapters to be surprisingly fun (he fights a earth demon!) and sweet. There's nostalgia in all of the viewpoints and always something to interest the reader.
The Bad
This collection doesn't bring anything truly new to the world. It's simply a look back to a familiar setting with familiar characters. There are no twist revelations and, although there is a note at the start of each chapter to orientate the reader, it does rely on you remembering the trilogy fairly well. I finished the series last year so I didn't have much trouble, but this isn't a book to read if too much time has passed since you were last in Daevabad. And definitely you can't read it if you haven't read the series.
The Somewhat Iffy
Chakraborty's plots and characters have so many layers to them, and yet I think this book needed a chapter in Ghassan's POV. He is that one character where it feels as if he's the cause of everyone's suffering and he has so few redeeming features. It's isn't that his character isn't complex and of course the conflict in the series arises from more than simply Ghassan's actions. Yet seeing the direct misery he causes to virtually every chapter POV in this book, and it starts to feel more black and white than I think Chakraborty intends.
Overall
A gift of a book for fans of the series. Beautifully written with magic brimming the pages and moments I'll be sure to remember.
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