I was pleasantly surprised to find out that S.A Chakraborty was going to be releasing a Daevabad anthology and The River of Silver doesn’t disappoint. At the time of writing this, The River of Silver is only available as an audiobook (I believe e-book and print versions are being released later this year), which worked out nicely for me! Since I started a subscription with Scribd, I’ve been looking for new audiobooks to listen to, so I thought I’d give this one a go.
Synopsis:
A prospective new queen joins a court whose lethal history may overwhelm her own political savvy…
An imprisoned royal from a fallen dynasty and a woman wrenched from her home cross paths in an enchanted garden…
A pair of scouts stumble upon a secret in a cursed winter wood that will turn over their world…
Listen to their stories and more in a collection of tales that returns to Daevabad and gives voice to new characters and old. From Manizheh’s first steps toward rebellion to new adventures being embarked upon after The Empire of Gold ends, The River of Silver is the perfect complement to Chakraborty’s incredible trilogy.
Content warnings:
I couldn’t find any on the author’s website, but there is a scene in which a character harms themselves (I will update this if / when I can find a more comprehensive list)
My thoughts:
I really enjoyed the original trilogy when I read it back in 2020 and The River of Silver was is a wonderful, complementary addition to the series. I hadn’t quite realised how much I had missed the world of Daevabad until I started listening to this.
Before I dive into this properly, I just want to mention the audiobook narrator – Soneela Nankani – did a spectacular job narrating this and I now want to listen to the entire trilogy on audio…
On to the stories themselves! There is a nice mix of brand new stories and an alternate epilogue for the The Empire of Gold. Each one is introduced by the narrator and you’re told where it falls within the original trilogy’s chronology. This was a little detail that I really appreciate and liked – I am the kind of person that likes seeing where things fit and putting it all into context!
One thing I really enjoyed about the The River of Silver was the fact that there were chapters from other characters outside the main P.O.V characters in the trilogy. Dara, Nahri and Ali all feature in The River of Silver, but so do Zaynab, Muntadhir and Jamshid (among others!). It was really interesting to see characters that were either briefly mentioned or who were important, but didn’t get a P.O.V chapter. I loved how S.A Chakraborty gave these characters a voice (however briefly) and a chance to get to know them better.
Okay, I’m potentially going to veer into spoiler territory here, so feel free to skip the following paragraph if you’re planning on listening to this and want to keep it spoiler free!
I also loved how there were chapters that detailed some very important first meetings – Hatset meeting Ghasssan, Muntadhir meeting Jamshid, Rustam meeting the woman I think is Nahri’s mother. It gave some context to events that happened during the trilogy, but were not necessarily expanded on. There were also one or two lighter moments as well, which was lovely to see (given what these characters go through during the trilogy, it was nice to see them happy for a spell!).
Unsurprisingly, The River of Silver is another 5-star read for me. I can’t quite explain it, but I loved how these stories all added to the world of Daevabad, adding some depth here and some context there. It was also really interesting to see certain characters in a different light, before everything changed. The River of Silver is perfect for fans who have missed Daevabad and want to revisit the world as well as being a wonderful addition to the series.
apagefull.wordpress.com 