I received a copy of this book as part of the 2018 Hugo Awards voter's packet and therefore won't be reviewing it on NetGalley.

I can hardly say anything about this book that hasn't already been said, so I will keep my review short. 'City of Stairs' is a book that I started reading with a mind that it might not reach the high expectations I was having of it based on the reviews on the internet. But I am delighted to say that it reached far beyond. This is an extraordinary tale of fantasy slash murder mystery with quite a memorable and powerful cast of characters and such fascinating world building as I have ever experienced.

I have read a lot of books, I started reading before I went to school officially, and now I am almost 30 years old. So you can have a guess about the amount I have read. Frankly, now-a-days I hardly find books that could keep my attention for long. But this one kept my attention throughout its whole length. Even through pages of just character banter or the protagonist enjoying tea and thinking things through were written so elegantly that I could hardly put it down. Another tasteful bit was the introductory text before each chapter giving further insight into Bennett's wonderful world.

The characters were the main strength, with having definite attributes and unique personalities to make them seem so real as possible. From Shara and Sigrud to even minor characters like Pitry were given the authors utmost care as to make them enjoyable to read about. Dialogue between the characters were done quite brilliantly as well, making strong use of the author's skill to build the overall plot elements. The mystery regarding the death of Professor Pangyui was a key element that was dealt with the finesse of a well done mystery novel, keeping the reader guessing as to not only the identity but also the motives behind the murder.

And then there was the world building. Layers upon layers were poured slowly divulging bits upon bits of information regarding the unique world. Bennett uses the real world as a template while incorporating fantastical elements to explore the struggle between divine entities and science in his imaginary fantasy setting. He portrays the real world racism, religious and other cultural inequity that has been the cause of so much violence in our world and blends these with his imagination to create a world whose history and people are stuff that we as readers have to feel about. There are allegory and imagery scattered all throughout with action sequences that make you want more.

All the time that I was writing about this book I was thinking of finding some flaws, something to criticize about, but I couldn't. The characters, the mystery, the history, the world, even the action (especially on the last few pages) were written about with such devotion, love and care as to make the whole experience quite flawless.

So I give this 5 out of 5 stars.

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The city of Bulikov is one hell of a place to explore. It took me a few chapters to get really intrigued and to find my way into what this story was trying to be, but once the ground rules were established, this book is a thrill ride filled with fun, great complex relationships, kick-ass characters, and awesome twists. The most baffling aspect of Bulikov and the Continent on which it stands is that there used to be gods – six of them, in fact – who had made all sorts of miraculous things happen, set up rules for their followers to live by, and kept the Continent going economically. Except then the Kaj came and straight up killed the gods, thus turning the suppressed island of Saypur into the new power wielders. The Continent lost all its gods, its magic (and with that, parts of buildings or even entire cities), and its right to even mention the existence of Divinities. Things aren’t pretty in Bulikov when protagonist Shara Thivani arrives in order to solve a murder case.

What starts out as a more or less straight forward murder mystery, with questioning and investigations and all that jazz, soon turns into something much bigger (and may I say cooler!) than that. To be completely honest, at first I wasn’t all that interested in solving the murder case but there was so much other stuff to explore and learn about that I also wasn’t ever bored. I wanted to know more about the gods and the city of Bulikov, about how Shara had met her bodyguard/assistant/friend Sigrud (Sigrud is fantastic!) and why the hell one would forbid a nation to even acknowledge its past.
There are a lot of questions of culture and oppression and about the role of religion for both a country and the individual who follows it.

The one thing that sealed the deal for me, however, was when we are introduced to a character named Vohannes Votrov, a childhood friend of Shara’s. I can’t fully explain to you why I’m such a sucker for those two except maybe that I like nerds and people who are clever and these two outsmarted everyone else during their school days and continued to be highly intelligent people navigating the intricate world of politics. There’s a lot more to them individually as well as them as a pair but I don’t want to spoil things for those of you who have yet to read this book. Let’s just say this was the part that got me hooked on the characters even more than the world building.

As the plot progresses and Shara figures out more and more secrets – some to do directly with the murder of historian Pangyui, some tangentially related but no less shocking – Bennett ramps up the action. The final third of this book was pretty much non-stop crowning moments of awesome, alternating between the characters. Sigrud steals the show on several occasions and I can’t put into words how much that one-eyed giant of a man grew on me. Shara may be small and unassuming but, damn, does she have an A+ brain that gets people out of tricky situations more than once. Even governor Mulaghesh, who doesn’t feature quite as prominently, shows how brilliant she is when the time calls for it. This is one of those books where you don’t even notice how much you care about the characters until later when they are in serious danger. I even caught myself cheering out loud when Sigrud did something particularly cool.

At the end, we get a few more twists and a surprisingly satisfying conclusion. If – for some unfathomable reason – you’d wish to stop reading the series after this book, you absolutely could. The ending is well-rounded, you could leave this world where it is and not feel like you’re missing out on something important. But why the hell would you not want to return to this magical, mysterious place? I, for one, can’t wait to see how the world advances and what Robert Jackson Bennett has in store for Shara and the others.

MY RATING: 8/10 – Excellent!

This is one of my all-time favorite books. The storytelling is just phenomenal. I became so immersed in this book that it was hard to stop thinking of it, long after I was done reading. I couldn't wait for the next book, and the third, and loved those just as much. This is a trilogy I recommend over and over, and give as gifts, and keep print editions of though I've reduced my print book collection down to a single bookshelf.

It took me a a few pages to understand what kind of a world this book was set in. Once that happened, it was really hard to put this book down. I loved the world building, the characters, the premise, and all! After finishing this book I dove straight into the City of Blades. Thank you!

City of Stairs is the first of Robert Jackson Bennett's "The Divine Cities" trilogy, a trilogy of stand-alone fantasy novels (although they build upon each other) about a world in which the enslaved colony land (essentially a fantasy version of India) of a continent ruled by 6 gods (or rather here, "Divines") struck back, and eliminated those gods to establish a fragile but new global hegemony, with the enslaved now ruling the former conquerors. The trilogy was nominated for the Best Series Hugo and was included in full in the Hugo Packet...and it's well worth the nomination.

This first novel introduces us to this world, which bears shades of NK Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy and Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence but is very different from either (the series lacks Inheritance's focus on love and the Craft Sequence's analogies for economics/law), as well as series heroine Ashara "Shara" Komayd. And man is she a fantastic heroine - incredibly clever and driven, curious yet feeling duty bound - she's one of the best guile heroes I've encountered in my reading and she makes this book really really good.
----------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------

For Centuries, the Continent was ruled by the 6 Gods, the Prime Divinities, whose miracles made them a seemingly unstoppable force in the world, and with that power the Continent conquered and enslaved the land of Saypur. The Divinities each had their own City and part of the Continent, but there was one city shared by each Divinity: Bulikov, which was constructed with the miracles of each Divinity.

And then, decades ago, a man from Saypur known as the Kaj found a weapon that could kill the Gods, and under his leadership, Saypur conquered the Continent and destroyed the Gods. But with the Gods' deaths, their miracles disappeared with them, leaving Bulikov's infrastructure in tatters, and the City of the Gods became simply the City of Stairs, with a number of staircases now leading up to nowhere.

Now, the Saypur Empire rules Bulikov and insists that its people forget about their former Gods, and that no words/hints of the Divinities be spoken or invoked....except by a Saypur researcher into the histories of the Divinities. But when that researcher - hated by the entire populace - winds up murdered, everything changes.

To investigate the death of the researcher, Ashara "Shara" Komayd comes to Bulikov under an assumed name. Shara is not only an intelligence agent, but she's the Kaj's great-granddaughter, who is now the foremost expert of the Divine with that researcher dead. But in her research she begins to discover that what the World knows about the destruction of the gods may not be totally accurate...and that the Divine may not truly be gone from Bulikov....

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The Best thing about City of Stairs, and there's a lot of good things in this book, is its protagonist, Shara Komayd. Shara is a most unusual heroine - not least of which because of her appearance (the author has a picture of what she looks like on his blog, here). On one hand, at her foremost, is her desire to finally go back to her homeland, from which she was essentially exiled for causing a major political dust-up when she was 19. On the other hand, she's not just a spy, but she's driven immensely by both her insatiable curiosity and her need to do better for the entire world, not just her homeland. Though others would never believe it, she cares, and that makes her absolutely driven to achieve her goals by seemingly (But not actually) any means necessary. The result is a guile hero who puts together answers from even the most minuscule clues in a way that doesn't seem improbable (or break the narrative) but inevitable, and who is incredibly fun to root for. And despite being a guile hero, she is absolutely not afraid to stir shit up, and goes around doing just that as often as possible. She's simply....awesome.



Incidentally, the second best thing about this book is Shara's sidekick, Sigurd, a man who looks like a giant (for a human) brute whose reaction to threats is simply to shrug them off and crush them with his bare hands...or any weapon he can get a hold of, and yet who is also fairly intelligent. Only one such as he could handle being around Shara for so long, and they make an amazing teams, with Sigurd almost stealing every scene he's a part of. The third major character, Governor Turyin Mulaghesh is probably the most standard character of the trio - she's a witty sarcastic authority figure who doesn't take shit and just wants to get things done, which makes her another excellent complement (she'll return as the protagonist of the next book).

The worldbuilding is also extremely good - like I said before it has seeming similarities to other books, but is its own thing as well. The idea of a colonized land taking over the colonizers and trying to enforce their own sociological power upon them is intriguing and the resistance that encounters is well done here, not to mention the godly aspects involved here.

The book begins each chapter with a passage from either the dead researcher or other historical/mythical text, which further adds to the worldbuilding....except a careful reader will get hints of what exactly is coming from those excerpts, which aren't simply worldbuilding but more exposition of things to come that are not yet revealed. I have mixed feelings about that - the book is suspenseful and excellent enough that the hints being rather obvious don't hurt it so much, but it's kind of silly if you see it coming.

Regardless, this is an excellent book and a great start to a series, which I will greatly recommend to anyone wanting a fun fantasy mystery/adventure with some absolutely amazing characters. Or nearly anyone.

8.5/10

I received an ARC of this book some 4 years ago and have only just got round to reading it. Shame on me as it turns out this was a really interesting read and a lot of fun. The setting and names may have been initially daunting but when I got past that worry and let things roll this grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go.

Things start out as a murder investigation which allow for some impressive world building and character introductions as you don’t even feel like you’ve had all this info dumped on you, it must just pass through you via osmosis or something. Before you know it you feel like you’re fully on board with the setting and whose who but things are constantly been added to that knowledge and the world feels alive. Suddenly the murder is on the back burner as there are bigger things cooking and it felt like new levels of excitement we’re waiting just round the corner.

I was worried about the ending as I wasn’t sure how this was going to resolve, could it be sorted in this book or lead into the next book. Fortunately, things were sorted out in this book but equally left enough open for me to want to read more. Perfect balance.

I initially rated this 4 stars but on writing this I’ve upped it to 5 as I’m struggling to find many flaws and thinking about how I enjoyed it why shouldn’t I bump it up. This impressed me and I enjoyed it. I wish I’d not waited this long to pick it up! I know I’ll be picking the next one up soon.

Things that do not sell me on a fantasy novel: "The gods are really interesting." Things that do sell me on a fantasy novel: "They have telegraphs and the geopolitical implications of saltpeter distribution are a plot point." (I'm enjoying the gods, too, in practice, but apparently I don't trust second-hand reports. Apologies to everyone who tried to tell me I should read these ages ago!)

City of Stairs is basically a whodunit in a city that got destroyed when the gods died. The major problem I had reading this book was the long chapters. Some of the chapter drag too long in my opinion. I did love the opening passages about the world through.

4.5 Stars.
This one is great right out of the box. We are introduced to a world where the 'Continent' now struggles under the oppressive boot of Saypur, whose denizens were once their slaves. Because hundreds of years ago, a hero the Kaj, killed the living gods 'Divinities' who once provided the means of Saypur's enslavement.

In the once mighty ruling Continental city of Bulikov, a Saypuri historian is murdered. Sent to investigate is Shara Thivani, seemingly a minor bureaucrat, but with a big secret. Sher and her hulking 'secretary' Sigrud become emmeshed in the murky politics of Bulikopv, where the forces for progress contend with conservative Restitutionists, whose dream is to bring back the rule of those dead Divinities. And as events unfold, Shar gets the sinking suspicion thgat some of those dead gods might not be quite as dead as generally believed.

Robert Jackson Bennett paints a brilliant picture of this magical world, from the grimy dank ruin of Bulikov to the horrific accounts of the practices of some of the erstwhile Divinities and the fascinating gobbets of historical background which are uncovered in the course of the murder investigation. And in the end it is all tied up in a wonderfully satisfying and plausible conclusion.

There is much to love here. I'm a sucker for a bit of deicide at any time, but the reflections on the nature of oppression, particularly when the roles become reversed are a salutory lesson for our times. And there are two more volumes to come. Bring them on.

This was a book I'd seen a lot of buzz about at the time I read it, and I enjoyed it very much with one caveat, of which more later...

Anyway, back to the book - the world in which City of Stairs is set is one where a significant part of the world (the Continent) was once ruled by six Divinities and miracles were commonplace. Subsequently, the smaller country of Saypur had been over-run, seen as inferior because it had no Divinity of its own, and exploited in a variety of ways. All of this had come to a shocking halt a couple of generations before City of Stairs is set, as one Saypuri had discovered that the Divinities could be killed and had led a successful revolution, overthrowing the Continent's domination and effectively replacing it with his own.

On the Continent now, it's illegal to even speak of the Divinities and all knowledge of them has been shut away, accessible only to those authorised by Saypur, the latest of whom has been brutally murdered in Bulikov, the Continent's capital city. Cue the entrance of our protagonist, an agent for the Saypuri government who also happens to be the great-granddaughter of the man responsible for the current situation. As for the eponymous stairs of the book's title, she (Shara) is trying to find a murderer in a city which was massively affected by the death of the Divinities, causing parts of the city to disappear and leaving stairs and alleys that lead to nowhere.

Clearly a huge amount of thought has gone into the world-building for City of Stairs and it shows. If it hadn't been for a couple of things, it probably would have got a 5-star rating from me, as it's definitely worth reading: firstly, the heavy-handed foreshadowing (seriously, there are at least half a dozen places where I could see what was going to happen because of the way something was commented on or mentioned) and secondly, the bad thing that happens to one of the major characters. Of course, the fact I care enough about that character's fate to be annoyed, alongside that it's a trope I'm particularly unfond of, is probably a sign of the overall quality of the book. So, despite this, I recommend it to anyone who likes well-written fantasy and am looking forward to the follow-up (City of Blades).

City of Stairs is an odd book that I love. I still don't know how to classify it, but I loved turning every page. Bulikov is an intriguing city, and I pictured it similar to late 1800s/early 1900s Earth but with dead gods. The murder mystery wasn't as captivating as learning about Shara. She's a spy who uses forbidden miracles in her work. The mystery of who she is and what her real mission is drove me through the book. Her kickass bodyguard/sidekick Sigrud adds an edge to the story. Spy and barbarian trying to solve a murder.

It was a fun book that ensured I would preorder the rest in the series. Highly recommended.

This is the setting where we first encounter one of the most intriguing protagonists I’ve encountered in a while: Shara Thivani. Supposedly a low-level consular official, she is actually a secret intelligence operative attempting to discover the truth about the death of her former teacher and mentor.

In turns arrogant and humble, harsh and kind, foolish and exceedingly clever, Shara is a contradictorily appealing character. In conjunction with her unlikely allies – the huge, indestructible warrior Sigrud, and the astute but taciturn Governor Turyin Mulaghesh, she stubbornly unravels the mysteries and the conspiracies to uncover a world-changing revelation.

Mystery, spies, magic, and an elaborate, fascinating world: I found it an irresistible combination – one that kept me up at night when I should have been getting sleep for work the next day.

City of Stairs is on my 2015 Hugo Nomination list for Best Novel.

I was drawn to City of Stairs by its premise and I definitely greatly enjoyed how Bennett built his world slowly but steadily. However, it was an immense work and I wasn't as gripped by it as I would have liked. As a consequence I was unable to finish it. I therefore won't be reviewing it on my blog or on Goodreads since I didn't read the complete novel and my comments might be unfounded. Thank you for the chance to read this book!

The world of City of Stairs has a pretty cool premise: A nation enslaved by another revolts, kills the Gods of their rulers, and then takes power for itself...but there's more to the story and we are just on the verge of discovering what really happened. I loved that the nations weren't based on medieval western Europe; the main characters come from countries based on south Asia, Russia, and Scandinavia (as far as I could tell, anyways). I also thought it was very cool how the cultures of both countries were well-developed and influenced how the characters from different places viewed the world so differently. The world-building in this book is top notch.

That said, I didn't love this book because it just felt very slow and plodding. I was bored throughout the middle. It just felt like the book was longer than it needed to be. There were political machinations and progress made on the murder mystery throughout the book, but what I really wanted to know was what happened in the cataclysm so long ago and what the ramifications were for "now". I got the answers I wanted eventually, complete with epic battle sequences, but it just took so long to get there that I nearly didn't finish.

I did enjoy this book, but I probably will not be continuing with the series.