Review: The River of Silver

 


I had forgotten how much I loved this series. It absolutely nailed the balance of elaborate worldbuilding and careful, nuanced, beautiful character development in a way that told a broad, sweeping story but still felt incredibly personal. It is everything I look for in a series, and this collection of short stories reminded me of that. It was so wonderful to reconnect with these characters, especially the side characters who didn’t get as much attention in the main trilogy.

And these stories aren’t just fluff, either – they genuinely added to my perception of the characters and context of the overall story. Especially in the stories focused on Muntadhir and Jamshid – it was really valuable to see how their relationship started and evolved, and to get a clearer picture of why Muntadhir behaved the way that he did. The trilogy was very focused on intergenerational trauma and violence, and these stories also did an incredible job of adding to that narrative.

Obviously in a short story collection there are going to be some stories each reader connects with more than others, and I personally liked the three final stories most – they added just a bit more depth to each character’s arc, and the final one in particular actually made me tear up. I loved the earlier stories just a little bit less, although I blame that on the fact that I haven’t read the series for a couple of years and couldn’t entirely remember all the relevant context to give them meaning. Regardless, this collection is definitely a beautiful, meaningful addition to the Daevabad universe.

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