City of Stairs
The Divine Cities series, Book 1
Robert Jackson Bennett
Broadway Books
Fiction, Fantasy
Themes: Alchemy and Magical Sciences, Diversity, Epics, Girl Power, Locations with Character, Religious Themes, Urban Tales, Weirdness
*****
Description
In ages past, the people of the Continent were blessed by six grand Divinities, whose miracles enabled great wonder and prosperity... and in whose names
they spread across the world, conquering and enslaving every nation they encountered as inherently lesser people (for they had no Divinity of their own, so
surely they were not truly as human as those of the Continent). All that ended when the Kaj of Saypur spearheaded a rebellion. He had, through some secret
alchemy lost to time, learned how to kill a Divinity, and he took his fight to the very heart of their land: Bulikov, so-called City of Miracles, the very
Seat of the World from which the six Divinities ruled. The moment the last Divinity fell, the very nature of the Continent changed. The climate collapsed,
the landscape changed, and half of Bulikov vanished, the rest left twisted and scarred, with buildings pushed inside buildings and staircases climbing and
descending to nowhere. Now, the Continent, former crown jewel of the world, is the land of the impoverished and desperate, no place moreso than Bulikov, and
Saypur rules, outlawing even the mention of the Divinities or the learning of Continental history by Continental people. But just because a thing has been
banned does not mean there are those who have not, through the generations, managed to remember... and their hatred only grows deeper with every passing
day.
The murder of a Saypuri scholar, sent to study Continental histories and religious texts, brings the long-brewing troubles in Bulikov to a head. When a
seemingly nondescript junior diplomat, Shara Thivani, arrives to investigate, it appears to be a simple case: the man's very presence, let alone his mission,
was an outrage to every Continental man, woman, and child forbidden from even speaking the names of their former gods, so clearly a local finally snapped. But
the more Shara digs, the more danger and deception she uncovers... and the less she comes to trust the histories she herself was taught, about the Kaj's
victory and even the deaths of the Divinities. Bulikov has long been a bomb with an unlit fuse, one that could blow the whole of the world apart, and Shara's
investigation has just struck a spark.
Review
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I picked it up; to be honest, had I not got it as part of a random book bundle a while back, I don't know that I
would've even thought to try it. But I was looking for something a little different, and the cover blurb promised that: a world where gods had been real but
had been killed, where the oppressed rose up to become oppressors, and where a city could be broken in such a way that staircases lingered to nowhere in
reality. So I figured I'd finally give it a try... and was quickly pulled into a unique, complex world built upon a clever conceit, populated by intriguing
(yet hardly flawless) characters, and propelled by a murder mystery that becomes a diplomatic crises that bleeds into the ways history and religion can be
warped to suit any purpose when told only by those with agendas... and how the past, no matter how hard one tries to bury it, always finds a way to reach up
and strangle the present, especially when one refuses to admit it is there at all.
Shara comes to Bulikov under less than honest pretenses; she is a junior diplomat of sorts, and an agent with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (whose chief
purpose seems to be keeping the Continent impoverished and needy lest they rise up to enslave the world again), but she was not dispatched in any official
capacity. Rather, she was a student of the slain scholar, with her own interest in - borderline obsession with - Continental history and the Divinities about
whom so little is officially known... and with one very personal complication in the city aside from a dead mentor, a prominent Continental city leader with
whom she had an ill-fated relationship many years ago. Accompanying her is Sigrud, a towering "secretary" from the wild Dreylands with his own history and
secrets... about the only person in Bulikov she can trust not to manipulate her for her connections or stab her in the back, or both. Together, Shara and
Sigrud find themselves plunged into a web of deceit and desperation and danger, and the very real possibility that the claims of all Divinities being dead
and gone forever might be exaggerated. The story takes several interesting turns, the investigation suffering some serious setbacks and Shara making a few
missteps that cost her dearly (professionally and personally), before building to a truly epic climax and a conclusion that managed to kick the story over
the top into the five-star range. Along the way, the tale deftly delves into themes of colonialism and empire, control of history and education as a means
of controlling or oppressing populaces, the drift between cultural memory and truth, the corruption of faith and purpose over time... none of it heavy-handed,
all of it interesting. I suppose I'll have to track down the next book in the series now, as this is a world I definitely want to revisit.