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 throughout the book were beautiful and profound lines about the human experience; love, suffering, power, truth.
Bennett creates a very compelling and rich world, with a complex history and even more complex mythology behind it. Revelations of the background of this world and how it related to the current events is one of the things that kept me turning the pages, and one of the things I liked most about the book.
I loved the characters. I realized about halfway through the book that three of the main characters are women. Women who are active, who frequently interact with each other and make battle plans and talk about things that aren't men. Bechdel test: Check!
The main character, Shara, is a non-white character who is in her mid-thirties, a history nerd, and wears big thick glasses. At some point (almost at the end) we learn what she looks like, and that to some she isn't considered that pretty. However, her looks are never a defining characteristic for her, nor does it hinder her self-confidence or even really influence who she is. She is a secret agent, and basically the best their country has to offer. She's fiercely smart, independent, and resourceful, and conflicted about many of the supposed truths she is forced to confront over the course of the story. She gets through one crazy situation only to land in one decidedly worse, but still she keeps going.
We also have Sigurd, a hugely tall northern man who has a dark history and some crazy unique skills when it comes to killing people, currently employed as Shara's secretary/bodyguard. He and Shara have a strong friendship, forged from working together for over a decade, which is incredibly enjoyable to see. His personal journey is also one of the highlights of the book.
There is also Vinya, the Saypuri Minister of Foreign Affairs--and Shara's aunt--who has secrets of her own; and also Mulaghesh, the female Saypuri governor of Bulikov, who just wants to retire and is hilarious in her blasé and apathetic attitude.
I liked that there isn't a love story. There is love in the story, or at least a romantic relationship of sorts, and it plays a part in the events, but it isn't center stage, nor is it even really the main focus. Instead, it is used as a way to help us understand and know the characters on different levels, and to see how they end up the way they are. And [SPOILERS] the female main character doesn't end up with a significant other, a trope that often bugs me.
There were some intricate and weighty themes that this book explored. One of the main themes was power, viewed through a once supreme country suddenly losing everything and being invaded by the very people it oppressed. I felt that Bennett wrote the varied aspects of this situation well. There were also themes of history and truth, plus religion and the roles it can play and the forms it can take.
Overall, a very captivating book that checked all my boxes, with an intriguing setting, complex mythology, great characters with strong female leads, humorous and philosophical writing, and a fast-paced, incredible plot that builds and builds to an awesome conclusion.
Rating
I give this book 5 stars
Details
Genre: Fantasy
Sex: Yes, though never explicit
Violence: Very violent, very graphic.
Language: Lots of language, especially from Mulaghesh
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 throughout the book were beautiful and profound lines about the human experience; love, suffering, power, truth.
Bennett creates a very compelling and rich world, with a complex history and even more complex mythology behind it. Revelations of the background of this world and how it related to the current events is one of the things that kept me turning the pages, and one of the things I liked most about the book.
I loved the characters. I realized about halfway through the book that three of the main characters are women. Women who are active, who frequently interact with each other and make battle plans and talk about things that aren't men. Bechdel test: Check!
The main character, Shara, is a non-white character who is in her mid-thirties, a history nerd, and wears big thick glasses. At some point (almost at the end) we learn what she looks like, and that to some she isn't considered that pretty. However, her looks are never a defining characteristic for her, nor does it hinder her self-confidence or even really influence who she is. She is a secret agent, and basically the best their country has to offer. She's fiercely smart, independent, and resourceful, and conflicted about many of the supposed truths she is forced to confront over the course of the story. She gets through one crazy situation only to land in one decidedly worse, but still she keeps going.
We also have Sigurd, a hugely tall northern man who has a dark history and some crazy unique skills when it comes to killing people, currently employed as Shara's secretary/bodyguard. He and Shara have a strong friendship, forged from working together for over a decade, which is incredibly enjoyable to see. His personal journey is also one of the highlights of the book.
There is also Vinya, the Saypuri Minister of Foreign Affairs--and Shara's aunt--who has secrets of her own; and also Mulaghesh, the female Saypuri governor of Bulikov, who just wants to retire and is hilarious in her blasé and apathetic attitude.
I liked that there isn't a love story. There is love in the story, or at least a romantic relationship of sorts, and it plays a part in the events, but it isn't center stage, nor is it even really the main focus. Instead, it is used as a way to help us understand and know the characters on different levels, and to see how they end up the way they are. And [SPOILERS] the female main character doesn't end up with a significant other, a trope that often bugs me.
There were some intricate and weighty themes that this book explored. One of the main themes was power, viewed through a once supreme country suddenly losing everything and being invaded by the very people it oppressed. I felt that Bennett wrote the varied aspects of this situation well. There were also themes of history and truth, plus religion and the roles it can play and the forms it can take.
Overall, a very captivating book that checked all my boxes, with an intriguing setting, complex mythology, great characters with strong female leads, humorous and philosophical writing, and a fast-paced, incredible plot that builds and builds to an awesome conclusion.
Rating
I give this book 5 stars
Details
Genre: Fantasy
Sex: Yes, though never explicit
Violence: Very violent, very graphic.
Language: Lots of language, especially from Mulaghesh
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