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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Child death
sad
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
City of Miracles is the end of the Divine Cities Series and, to me, it was an underwhelming ending at that. In this last installment we see familiar faces. Mulaghesh, my favorite character, made a few appearances. Shara featured a bit more but also as a side character. Ivanya was a character from City of Stairs that grew on this third book. She was Vohannes’ fiancée and after his death in the first book she inherited all his riches, but the trauma of everything that happened in the first book affected her, she became paranoid about security and about the Divine. As such she became obsessed with training and arming herself. I really liked her. From the characters introduced in this third book the most important were: Taty, Shara’s continental adoptive daughter, who plays an important part at the end; Nokov, who is an antagonist. He is the tortured child of two divinities who becomes obsessed with consuming other divine children to grow his power and remake the world. Sigrud is back and is the main character of this third book. I like Sigrud, but in this book he was a little too much. The author took every single opportunity he could possibly think of to remind the reader that the Dreyling was a “suffering lone wolf who only knows how to cause death”. This characterization was so heavy handed that from one point on I just started rolling my eyes every time Sigrud started brooding.
The atmosphere is the strongest aspect of City of Miracles: set in a world that feels both old and at the same time in fast evolution, but still haunted by the Gods of old and by the past gruesome wars they caused. The writing of Robert Jackson Bennett is good, as I said, he did a great job with the atmosphere and the lore of the world he created, but his writing does have some problems. The first I already mentioned, the heavy handed character work of Sigrud. The second problem is that he tends to overwrite. The reader can clearly see how hard Bennett is trying to be quotable. The author put so much effort into writing dialogues and inner monologues that sound poetic and deep that they just come across as a bit cringy. It’s like he was writing thinking to himself “oh, they’ll sure want to highlight this part”. These passages don’t flow; they just don’t feel organic. The synopses of the plot is: Shara Komayd, once Prime Minister of Saypur, has been assassinated. News travels fast and far, even to a remote logging town somewhere northwest of Bulikov, where the silent, shaven-headed Dreyling worker picks up the newspaper and walks out. He is shocked and grieved and furious; he's been waiting thirteen years for Shara, his closest friend, to reach out to him - to tell him to come home. He's always believed she was running a long operation, that there would be a role for him at the right time. Now he has nothing to live for - except to find the people who did it. Sigrud wasn't there for the death of his daughter Signe, and he wasn't there when his old comrade Shara was murdered. Now he will find answers, for her, and for himself. He's made a promise to protect Shara’s adoptive daughter Taty, but things get harder when it seems a divine being is after killing other children of divinities and Taty appears to be one of them.
The plot sounds interesting and the beginning of City of Miracles was very intriguing, but soon most of the plot twists become pretty obvious and you see them coming miles away, so by the end there are few surprises. The logic of this book is not its strongest aspect either. There is science and technology in this world, but whenever something hard to explain (and/or convenient) happens it is attributed to the “Divine”. This “Divine” or power of the Divinities doesn’t have clear rules so is used as explanation pretty arbitrarily. Even for a soft magic system some explanations can feel as a bit of a stretch. So, yes, the logic can be faulty. My enjoyment of this final installment was good, but the problems I pointed out really hinder the book as the grand conclusion of a trilogy, so it was a bit underwhelming since the two previous books were better (City of Stairs being the best of the trilogy). However, the very final chapter pulled at my heartstrings as Taty sat beside Sigrud’s dead body on the beach and mourned , this hit a little too close to home and I did cry. It was a powerful scene but that alone cannot elevate the whole book. Still it was a solid enough book and I give it 3.25 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Slavery, Blood
Minor: Sexual content
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
One of those where I rounded up once I started typing instead of down, and then also deleted all I'd written. All there really is to say is: structurally and emotionally, this brought the entire series together. I wept deeply. It's not a perfect book and it took me six weeks to get through, primarily because it's dense, but as a conclusion to a trilogy it just sets the bar. I'll be back here again, I'm sure.
In my review of City of Blades, I mentioned that I didn't see the passion fans have for Sigrud. I take it back.
He's... different, from any character I've read before. In the end of this book, you understand a bit more as to why that is. He doesn't have intense hopes, or fears, or aspirations. He has his mission and his current problems, and pretty much leaves it to that. And that's fascinating and refreshing to read. Speaking of that, I have to commend Bennett on again writing a novel I couldn't predict - this time I saw hints, but in no way foresaw where the plot was going.
This book is just as suspenseful as the first two, and by now I'm actually liking the author's use of the present tense to achieve that. It also manages to be bigger than either prequel in terms of the plot's problem. If the first book is a spy thriller-turned-horror-movie and the second a military film, this one is an action movie - at one point, there's a sticky grenade launched at an enemy's face.
And of course the ending. I won't spoil anything, but it is definitely an ending that fits the trilogy, and kudos to Bennett for that.
He's... different, from any character I've read before. In the end of this book, you understand a bit more as to why that is. He doesn't have intense hopes, or fears, or aspirations. He has his mission and his current problems, and pretty much leaves it to that. And that's fascinating and refreshing to read. Speaking of that, I have to commend Bennett on again writing a novel I couldn't predict - this time I saw hints, but in no way foresaw where the plot was going.
This book is just as suspenseful as the first two, and by now I'm actually liking the author's use of the present tense to achieve that. It also manages to be bigger than either prequel in terms of the plot's problem. If the first book is a spy thriller-turned-horror-movie and the second a military film, this one is an action movie - at one point, there's a sticky grenade launched at an enemy's face.
And of course the ending. I won't spoil anything, but it is definitely an ending that fits the trilogy, and kudos to Bennett for that.
Goodreads says I reviewed the Kindle edition of this book, but I cannot find that review.
I bet the review was brilliant, but I don't remember what insightful things I said.
Maybe that I hope Mr. Bennett finds a reason to go back to this world even though he seems to have wrapped up the story.
I bet the review was brilliant, but I don't remember what insightful things I said.
Maybe that I hope Mr. Bennett finds a reason to go back to this world even though he seems to have wrapped up the story.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes