I loved Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri, and it deserves a full loving review, but I was in a bit of a slump when I read it and I kept putting off the write up, so just gonna try to rip off the bandage now.

Come for the rich magic atmosphere, stay for the sweet focus on consent in a very complicated relationship.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Soneela Nankani, who also does City of Brass, and I found the narration very atmospheric and gripping. I ended up a little confused, partly because of it being the same narrator, partly because the distinction between daiva and daeva is not obvious in audio, but they are different cultures and different creatures. Also the narratio was so strong, that I can still hear her voice as I’m reading Realm of Ash, the sequel, about two months after finishing Empire of Sand.

I really liked the worldbuilding. The daiva are sort of spirits, that come in shapes from small birds to vast powerful monsters. The magic is worked by dancing, which felt very visual.

Mehr, the main character, is half Amrethi, a people looked down upon and persecuted, and half Ambhan, but not great at acting like a good Ambhan woman. This complicates things for her when the Ambhan Emperor and the Maja increase their efforts against the Amrethi, and she gets forced into taking some powerful vows.

I really liked Mehr, she’s very driven, and the sweet big man who’s name I’ve forgotten. Though I gotta say I liked the names a lot, they were strange to me but each distinct, so that I never had any trouble keeping track of people. Like real names of real people who use them to call each other, not made up titles or letter salad that some authors use. I got issues with names.

One of my friends mentioned it being a lot more romance heavy than expected, and I’ve even seen it called fantasy romance (I dunno enough about the sub-genre to say whether it is or isn’t). I didn’t really get that same feeling because Mehr always seemed more focussed on the main goal, always staying true to herself, and the romance build up was slow, but not in the will-they-won’t-they way that generally bothers me.

I loved the writing, the language was so careful and rich. I’ve seen other people mention issues with the pacing, I didn’t see them myself, maybe because I was so in love with the world and the characters.