City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett Synopsis Bulikov was once the city at the center of the most powerful nation on earth, a nation given power by their gods. But then those Divines were killed, and now the tables have turned. The once great Continent has fallen to poverty and disease, its very reality broken, while the once oppressed Saypuri rule over them. Shara Thivani comes to the city as an unimposing junior diplomat, but secretly she's a covert agent sent to investigate the murder of an esteemed colleague. As she digs through the unrest that boils under the surface of the city, she discovers tangled webs of rebellious plots, and indications that the gods may not all be as dead as they had thought. Review What a book! Bennett's easy prose drew me right into the story. His characters were very relaxed and human, the dialogue subtly humorous. The pacing was very well done, keeping me engaged even while the characters are doing mundane things. Interspersed