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I loved this book. I just thought I'd love it more.
It was a fitting end to the trilogy - after exploring the topics of belief and guilt, the third book is all about power and the use of it to gain justice. And while the end of the book puts all the pieces in the right places to conclude it all in an extremely sutisfiying way, the road which takes us there is less smooth. Mainly because in no point of the trilogy until the last quarter of Com, Sigrud is depicted as someone who's motivated by revenge (before Shara's death. him going mad after Signe's death not included). For that reason, his spiritual journey in the end, while playing a role in moving the story, did not feel true.
Also, despite being an extremely fun to read in previous books, Sigrud just was not as good a main character as Shara and Mulaghesh. Most of what he's doing is action scenes and self pity, and after a while I just got enough of it. Ivaniya and Tati are also much less interesting than the companions in the previous books, including Sigrud himself.
Anyway, it's still a very good book. It has good proportions of action, philosophy, humor and human interactions, and thought it weaves the ends well together, I'm somewhat sad to part with the Divine Cities universe. It was a great journey.
It was a fitting end to the trilogy - after exploring the topics of belief and guilt, the third book is all about power and the use of it to gain justice. And while the end of the book puts all the pieces in the right places to conclude it all in an extremely sutisfiying way, the road which takes us there is less smooth. Mainly because in no point of the trilogy until the last quarter of Com, Sigrud is depicted as someone who's motivated by revenge (before Shara's death. him going mad after Signe's death not included). For that reason, his spiritual journey in the end, while playing a role in moving the story, did not feel true.
Also, despite being an extremely fun to read in previous books, Sigrud just was not as good a main character as Shara and Mulaghesh. Most of what he's doing is action scenes and self pity, and after a while I just got enough of it. Ivaniya and Tati are also much less interesting than the companions in the previous books, including Sigrud himself.
Anyway, it's still a very good book. It has good proportions of action, philosophy, humor and human interactions, and thought it weaves the ends well together, I'm somewhat sad to part with the Divine Cities universe. It was a great journey.
adventurous
reflective
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
How can I not describe this book as miraculous?
As a fairly experienced reader of the fantasy genre, I often feel like new books I pick up will offer me little more than a pleasant experience - themes and character archetypes do repeat, after all. And even after being proven crushingly wrong in this regard by the previous two books in The Divine Cities series (because they were incredibly good), I still went into this one with a vague expectation of mediocrity. And, boy, was I wrong!
City of Miracles felt like a colossal improvement over [book:City of Blades|23909755], and I already like Blades plenty. But much about Miracles was reminiscent of the [book:City of Stairs|20174424] - familiar characters, familiar settings. It felt better overall. I do feel like most of the ending was foreshadowed a little heavily (I guessed a lot, though not all, of how the book was going to end fairly early on, and I am bad at picking up foreshadowing), but I don't think it took much away from the experience. The last... oh, maybe quarter of the book were so packed with action and emotion, and they were so well written, I barely minded that much of what I suspected would happen did happen.
Trilogies are hard, I imagine. First books carry the responsibility of gripping the reader well enough to make them invest resources not only once, in reading the book, but the twice, in making sure they come back for the sequel. Middle books need to meet the high expectations the first book has set, and maybe even exceed them, as a lot of readers will tend to remember the first installment fondly. But final books... final books in trilogies have it hard. They need to not only stand well enough on their own, they need to provide closure to the entire trilogy. And City of Miracles does it beautifully.
As a fairly experienced reader of the fantasy genre, I often feel like new books I pick up will offer me little more than a pleasant experience - themes and character archetypes do repeat, after all. And even after being proven crushingly wrong in this regard by the previous two books in The Divine Cities series (because they were incredibly good), I still went into this one with a vague expectation of mediocrity. And, boy, was I wrong!
City of Miracles felt like a colossal improvement over [book:City of Blades|23909755], and I already like Blades plenty. But much about Miracles was reminiscent of the [book:City of Stairs|20174424] - familiar characters, familiar settings. It felt better overall. I do feel like most of the ending was foreshadowed a little heavily (I guessed a lot, though not all, of how the book was going to end fairly early on, and I am bad at picking up foreshadowing), but I don't think it took much away from the experience. The last... oh, maybe quarter of the book were so packed with action and emotion, and they were so well written, I barely minded that much of what I suspected would happen did happen.
Trilogies are hard, I imagine. First books carry the responsibility of gripping the reader well enough to make them invest resources not only once, in reading the book, but the twice, in making sure they come back for the sequel. Middle books need to meet the high expectations the first book has set, and maybe even exceed them, as a lot of readers will tend to remember the first installment fondly. But final books... final books in trilogies have it hard. They need to not only stand well enough on their own, they need to provide closure to the entire trilogy. And City of Miracles does it beautifully.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
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
Wow. This was such a solid end to a wonderful series. This was definitely the best book of the series in my opinion, but they were all great. The ending got me; tears were shed. I appreciated how the author took his time with the ending, it didn't feel rushed at all.
Crying as I write this. Beautiful end to the trilogy. Will miss these characters. Reader was amazing as before.
What a fantastic series. It had all of the pieces that make for a good book/book series in my eyes: thorough world-building, dynamic characters, gray areas between good and evil, and bittersweet moments. The Divine Cities is set in a world that I didn't want to leave and leaves a hole behind where I'd normally listen to it. Often after finishing series I'm excited to dive right into the next one. Yet, this is one of the few where I don't want to start another series because of reluctance to lose this world.
I would love to see a follow-up book or series about the fallout from the final events, so fingers crossed!
I would love to see a follow-up book or series about the fallout from the final events, so fingers crossed!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
An excellent ending to a fantastic trilogy. This is a book about Sigrud that is totally worthy of him.
You can read my more detailed review here: https://eichenblog.org/city-miracles-robert-jackson-bennett/
But really, you should probably just go read the book.
You can read my more detailed review here: https://eichenblog.org/city-miracles-robert-jackson-bennett/
But really, you should probably just go read the book.