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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
City of Miracles wraps up the Divine Cities trilogy with a bang, a satisfying conclusion to a 5-star fantasy series. This is a deeply complicated and convoluted world, with each novel focusing on a single main character, each of which is a very strong character in their own right. There's an awful lot to take in here, and the entire series is quite an investment, but it is so very much worth it. Robert Jackson Bennett is a strong writer, both in terms of structure and emotion, stretching out and building the tension while putting his characters (and readers) through a most excruciating emotional journey. Highly recommend the entire series!
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am going to keep this review short because otherwise I just know that I will devolve into an insane amount of spoilers. So let me quickly say that I found this book to be amazing. Sigrud had to have his day. It's really only fitting. And have it he did. The story was fantastic and while it ended horribly, it ended in the only way that it could. It was poetic; perfect.
I do want to say one other thing. The prevailing mystery in the book, that plot thread that leads up to that final twist, was, for me, foreshadowed perfectly. This is simply sublime when it happens. I figured out the twist literally at the start of the page on which it was revealed, probably a scant paragraph or two before it happened in the text. I have read actual mysteries that didn't pull this off as effectively as Mr. Bennett did. This is precisely how it should happen. I'm not left waiting and wondering when the reveal that I figured out on page 13 is going to show up nor am I left scratching my head at how this could possibly be the answer when it didn't seem to exist before that point. The red herrings, the subtle clues, the whole setup was perfectly conceived and executed. Moments of brilliance like this affect you emotionally as well as physically, and it is in no small part why I read books.
I noted on Twitter that I didn't want this to end. And I was right. I actually went through a brief period of mourning. The end was beautiful but still an end. So I suppose I will have to seek out other offerings from Mr. Bennett and await for more in the future. I leave off saying that I can't recommend this series or this book enough and that The Divine Cities is officially my favorite series that I have read to date. Bravo.
I do want to say one other thing. The prevailing mystery in the book, that plot thread that leads up to that final twist, was, for me, foreshadowed perfectly. This is simply sublime when it happens. I figured out the twist literally at the start of the page on which it was revealed, probably a scant paragraph or two before it happened in the text. I have read actual mysteries that didn't pull this off as effectively as Mr. Bennett did. This is precisely how it should happen. I'm not left waiting and wondering when the reveal that I figured out on page 13 is going to show up nor am I left scratching my head at how this could possibly be the answer when it didn't seem to exist before that point. The red herrings, the subtle clues, the whole setup was perfectly conceived and executed. Moments of brilliance like this affect you emotionally as well as physically, and it is in no small part why I read books.
I noted on Twitter that I didn't want this to end. And I was right. I actually went through a brief period of mourning. The end was beautiful but still an end. So I suppose I will have to seek out other offerings from Mr. Bennett and await for more in the future. I leave off saying that I can't recommend this series or this book enough and that The Divine Cities is officially my favorite series that I have read to date. Bravo.
What a wonderful, fantastical, gut-wrenching, and gripping end to the series. I sobbed for more of the back half than I thought possible. Lovely series.
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I struggled with this book for the first 2/3rds. The ending came together and was a fantastic bookend for both this entry and the series. Sigrud just was not as compelling a protagonist for most of the book as the previous books’ protagonists.
Oh... I'm emotional.
Sigrud has been possibly my favourite character this whole time, though possibly tied with Shara. This book answers so many questions about him and gives him (and the trilogy) the most bittersweet, gorgeous ending. It also takes the worldbuilding to new heights - somehow, considering how gobsmacking it's already been - and includes some truly epic sequences and poignant scenes.
Bennett is a writer of great talent and range, and I will be keeping an eye on his work!
Sigrud has been possibly my favourite character this whole time, though possibly tied with Shara. This book answers so many questions about him and gives him (and the trilogy) the most bittersweet, gorgeous ending. It also takes the worldbuilding to new heights - somehow, considering how gobsmacking it's already been - and includes some truly epic sequences and poignant scenes.
Bennett is a writer of great talent and range, and I will be keeping an eye on his work!
Also read this awhile ago and I must confess I was not nearly as taken with it as I was with the first two. Sad panda.
Like Hogfather, I read this book in fits and starts due to the unfortunate fact that when reading books at work, I am at work. That definitely affected my enjoyment of the story. With a story as complex as this one, it definitely affected my understanding, as well.
City of Miracles follows Sigrud, a whole new protagonist. I wasn’t concerned about this protagonist switch because unlike Mulaghesh from book two, I already knew and liked Sigrud as a pretty major player in the previous books. I was concerned that I would be upset at Shara’s death, because I liked her so much in the first book. But she hasn’t been the protagonist for a while now and she’d changed in the couple decades since book one. I found it didn’t feel as tragic as I’d expected.
This book is much lighter on the details of the world. Some of that is likely because of my stop-and-go reading style, which probably led to me missing some of the finer details. And some of it is because Sigrud is much less politically involved and much less curious about the intricate details of the divinities. In book one, Shara was a full-on nerd and that allowed a lot of foundation work for establishing a rich and complex world. Mulaghesh in book two was significantly less nerdy, but she knew a fair bit and was not averse to finding out more. Sigrud, though, didn’t care about the finer points of the divine or even the current situation. He’s a man of violence and just needed to know enough to figure out who he needed to injure. The foundations from the previous book were there, but it was sparse on the new details. It made the world feel a little less rich and full than in previous books.
What City of Miracles is, though, is the most thematic of the series. It explores societal progress and how it feels to those who knew how it used to be, cycles of violence and how traumatized children grow up to inflict trauma on others, and the cyclical nature of life and history. Especially with Sigrud, whose whole existence at this point is being able to withstand and dish out extreme amounts of pain and violence, his journey towards recognizing that suffering can’t and won’t redeem him mirrors the story as a whole.
Like the other two books in the series, the story is complex and multi-faceted. In the previous books, it was fitting, as such a rich and detailed world deserved a layered and complex story. In this one, with the world feeling less rich, it seemed unnecessarily complicated and even annoyingly so at times. It focuses much more on the action, which fits with Sigrud’s character, and the thematic elements than the details of the world and the reality-distorting cosmic horror of the divinities, making the complexities of the plot feel unnecessary and overdone at times. It felt longer than it needed to be, even though I can’t identify anything that really needed cutting out. But of course, this could all be because I read it in pieces instead of completely through like usual.
Despite my struggles with it and regardless of whether they were due to the book itself or my reading experience, City of Miracles kept me interested all the way through. Though it felt less robust in the world-building department, it definitely felt full and rich in emotion. It led to a bittersweet but fitting and satisfying conclusion. And though at the end I felt like I just wanted a little something more from it, it was a very solid conclusion to the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Murder
Trauma, trauma flashbacks (mentions), romantic partner death
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes