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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
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
Thanks goes to Netgalley for the advance copy!
A great addition to The Divine Cities series. Strong plotting, world-building, and character development. Docking a star for:
a) obvious conclusions that characters take an unrealistically long time to cotton to
A great addition to The Divine Cities series. Strong plotting, world-building, and character development. Docking a star for:
a) obvious conclusions that characters take an unrealistically long time to cotton to
Spoiler
b) what seems to be a glaring mistake in the author's own lore. If Taty is one of the Divine orphans who never age and just keep getting adopted over and overThen one day people started getting suspicious. They started wondering, when was this child going to grow up? When was this child going to become an adult? Why does this child stay adolescent? Why was this child still here? And when people started asking these questions and getting suspicious, then Jukov's miracle took care of you.then how did Sigrud see her as a young child in [b:City of Blades|23909755|City of Blades (The Divine Cities, #2)|Robert Jackson Bennett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426255519s/23909755.jpg|43516764]?
Shara freezes and turns around just as a small, round face pokes through the curtains of the bed. It’s the face of a young Continental girl, perhaps no older than five, and she blinks sleepily at Shara and rubs her eyes.
this was the best fantasy series I had somehow never heard of. completely original world building and full of heart.
Sigrud tries to avenge the murder of Shara while a son of a Divinity tries to find all the other sons and daughters to make him more powerful.
*sobbing*
RTC, after I've eating a full brownie and a gallon of ice-cream.
RTC, after I've eating a full brownie and a gallon of ice-cream.
While I didn't love this as much as I loved the first one, I still had a great time reading it, especially as the action builds towards the end. In this volume, Sigurd becomes the primary POV character, and the journey he has taken, the planning that Bennett must have been putting into this character from the very beginning, transform Sigurd from one-dimensional overpowered bruiser to a multi-farted plot point and perhaps our only hope in the face of this new threat.
Shara, too, while less present in this book, is a shadow whose influence stretches wide over the story as we see the impact her life had on her country, her friends, and the family she chose for herself. if nothing else, this series is one of the few books written by men that I know of which include incredibly complicated and unique female characters.
More so than City of Swords, the Divine elements of this book are back in focus. This is the aspect that most sucked me into this series, and Bennett's creativity and exploration of this world where hey, miracles happen, make it well worth any mythology nerd's time. If you enjoyed the other two books, you will be right at those here.
Shara, too, while less present in this book, is a shadow whose influence stretches wide over the story as we see the impact her life had on her country, her friends, and the family she chose for herself. if nothing else, this series is one of the few books written by men that I know of which include incredibly complicated and unique female characters.
More so than City of Swords, the Divine elements of this book are back in focus. This is the aspect that most sucked me into this series, and Bennett's creativity and exploration of this world where hey, miracles happen, make it well worth any mythology nerd's time. If you enjoyed the other two books, you will be right at those here.
RJB man, this book made me SO SAD. City of Miracles was a very strong installment in the Divine Cities series and I was so happy to finally have a book largely about Sigrud. I wasn’t really expecting what I got from this book and in no way do I mean that negatively. I didn’t have anything specific in mind… but what I read was surprisingly introspective.
Sigrud je Harkvaldsson has been through much in his life. From a painful stint in the worst of prisons to the loss of his daughter and everything in between, Sigrud had begun to feel that he deserves the punishment he has endured and that he would remain in exile the remainder of his life. When news that Ashara Komayd, his former partner and friend, has been assassinated, Sigrud chooses to leave his exile and avenge her death. This is a simple enough task, but it is of course complicated by the fact that a new god seems to be rising in Bulikov and threatens the existence of the only two people Sigrud cares about in this world- Tatyana Komayd and Ivanya, her adopted aunt.
City of Miracles had a good storyline and I thought it was a much more personal story than perhaps the first two simply because there seemed to more of a focus on Sigrud, Tatyana, and Ivanya. There were some emotionally charged scenes and RJB had my eyes welling up with tears on a few occasions throughout. The plot and the new divine villain were done well as expected, though it felt somewhat more shallow than the plot of City of Stairs and City of Blades.
Overall, I thought City of Miracles was a fine installment and think it makes for a nice conclusion to the series (I haven’t been able to find definitive answer on whether this is the final book, but it felt like a conclusion). I would also like to mention that I read this in print/ebook format whereas I had the audio format of the first two books. For me, it worked just as well in print as in audio except now I have a better grasp of how all the names and locations are spelled! I’m pretty pleased with how things turned out and I wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone who hasn’t had the good fortune to pick it up yet!
Sigrud je Harkvaldsson has been through much in his life. From a painful stint in the worst of prisons to the loss of his daughter and everything in between, Sigrud had begun to feel that he deserves the punishment he has endured and that he would remain in exile the remainder of his life. When news that Ashara Komayd, his former partner and friend, has been assassinated, Sigrud chooses to leave his exile and avenge her death. This is a simple enough task, but it is of course complicated by the fact that a new god seems to be rising in Bulikov and threatens the existence of the only two people Sigrud cares about in this world- Tatyana Komayd and Ivanya, her adopted aunt.
City of Miracles had a good storyline and I thought it was a much more personal story than perhaps the first two simply because there seemed to more of a focus on Sigrud, Tatyana, and Ivanya. There were some emotionally charged scenes and RJB had my eyes welling up with tears on a few occasions throughout. The plot and the new divine villain were done well as expected, though it felt somewhat more shallow than the plot of City of Stairs and City of Blades.
Overall, I thought City of Miracles was a fine installment and think it makes for a nice conclusion to the series (I haven’t been able to find definitive answer on whether this is the final book, but it felt like a conclusion). I would also like to mention that I read this in print/ebook format whereas I had the audio format of the first two books. For me, it worked just as well in print as in audio except now I have a better grasp of how all the names and locations are spelled! I’m pretty pleased with how things turned out and I wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone who hasn’t had the good fortune to pick it up yet!
My favourite of the trilogy. Although I never really quite connected with the characters, the ending was perfect on so many levels.
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