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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
A gorgeous and emotional conclusion to the adventures of Ashara and Sigrud.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Robert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities comes to a satisfying conclusion in City of Miracles. Each of these books, featuring a different lead character, has told the story of what happens when a world faces a radical change in its power structure. Gods used to rule this world directly, until a subjugated people learned to kill them. Humans stepped into the power vacuum, but in City of Miracles, we learn that a little bit of the divine survived. And that little bit of the divine is hungry for revenge...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
The Divine Cities series has been one of the most well written fantasy series I’ve ever read. Yet I have mixed emotions about this final book in the trilogy. You can read either the City of Stairs or City of Blades independently, but I think you need to have read both of them before going into City of Miracles.
City of Miracles opens with the assassination of Shara Komayd, hero of the battle of Bulikov and former prime minister. Sigrud has spent the last thirteen years waiting for Shara to summon him out of exile and give him a purpose again. When he hears of her death, he decides his purpose must be to avenge her. But he soon finds that Shara wasn’t taking it easy in her retirement – she was deeply involved in a battle of shadowy forces, and Sigrud has charged head first into a situation where he has no idea what is going on.
I wasn’t thrilled when I read the blurb for City of Miracles. For one, I really liked Shara and didn’t want her to be dead. For another, it looked like City of Miracles was using a gendered story trope I hated. A woman is fridged so that a man is given a vengeance plot, usually with the implication that he was the one wronged. I hate this story so much. Thankfully, that isn’t exactly what City of Miracles is doing.
City of Miracles subverts this story type in a number of ways. I won’t get into the largest of them because of spoilers, but I can talk about a few of the smaller subversions. First of all in the standard story line, the dead woman is always a wife, girlfriend, lover or sometimes mother, sister, or daughter. Possibly because these are the only significant roles women are allowed to have in men’s life – such stories rarely acknowledge that men and women can be significant to each other in other ways, especially as friends. But the relationship between Sigrud and Shara was always platonic, and it was not seen as less important because of that.
Secondly, Shara is more important to City of Miracles than just a death to kick start the plot. The story is defined by her actions. She was always the mastermind, the one with the plan. And City of Miracles is fueled by the plans she put in place.
Also, Shara is not the only significant female character in City of Miracles. Aside from Sigrud himself, the main villain, and the assassin, all other significant characters are women. All of Sigrud’s main allies are female! In particular, Taty, Shara’s daughter, plays a pivotal role. Mulaghesh also makes a brief reappearance, which is great because she’s one of my favorites.
As always with this series, the world building was great. Bennett embeds his settings with such vitality that they practically leap off of the page. I loved seeing how this world has changed in the twenty years since the first book. This series does not fall into the trap of having its fantasy world remain stagnant.
City of Miracles will also please those who like some action in their fantasy fiction. The story’s practically cinematic, with a fast pace and some great action scenes. In particular, I adored that scene with the tram car. If you read the book, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
This series in general has just been so well written. Bennett has such beautiful, immersive prose. There are a few quirks that annoy me – for instance, he uses some of the same, pretty uncommon words with noticeable frequency. Specifically, I kept noticing “queer” to mean “strange” showing up again and again. I remember this from City of Blades as well.
At this point you’re probably wondering why I only gave this book three and a half stars. I was wary due to the initial premise, but this book would easily have been awarded four stars if it wasn’t for a certain story choice that really upset me. When I read City of Stairs, I was bothered by the the treatment of the only gay character. While there were numerous troubling things about his portrayal, it was definitely a queer tragedy. In City of Blades, Bennett avoided including queer characters altogether. I was assuming the same would be true for City of Miracles. I was wrong. One of the prominent female characters is given a girlfriend. And they don’t both make it out alive.
I was in the climax of the book, near the end, but I had to step away from it for a while. I’m not sure how exactly to describe my emotions, but a large part of it is anger. Writing this, I’m angry all over again and trying to resist the urge to use a whole lot of profanities in my review. I am just so effing done with Bury Your Gays. I am so pissed that this series can’t conceive of happy endings for queer people. And now I’ve been burned twice by this book series. If Bennett ever chooses to write more in this world, I honestly don’t know if I’ll choose to read it. I have loved this series, but it clearly doesn’t give a fig about people like me.
So yeah. Mixed emotions may be an understatement. Read at your own risk.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I recieved an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
City of Miracles opens with the assassination of Shara Komayd, hero of the battle of Bulikov and former prime minister. Sigrud has spent the last thirteen years waiting for Shara to summon him out of exile and give him a purpose again. When he hears of her death, he decides his purpose must be to avenge her. But he soon finds that Shara wasn’t taking it easy in her retirement – she was deeply involved in a battle of shadowy forces, and Sigrud has charged head first into a situation where he has no idea what is going on.
I wasn’t thrilled when I read the blurb for City of Miracles. For one, I really liked Shara and didn’t want her to be dead. For another, it looked like City of Miracles was using a gendered story trope I hated. A woman is fridged so that a man is given a vengeance plot, usually with the implication that he was the one wronged. I hate this story so much. Thankfully, that isn’t exactly what City of Miracles is doing.
“Are you her self-anointed avenging angel? How very masculine of you.”
City of Miracles subverts this story type in a number of ways. I won’t get into the largest of them because of spoilers, but I can talk about a few of the smaller subversions. First of all in the standard story line, the dead woman is always a wife, girlfriend, lover or sometimes mother, sister, or daughter. Possibly because these are the only significant roles women are allowed to have in men’s life – such stories rarely acknowledge that men and women can be significant to each other in other ways, especially as friends. But the relationship between Sigrud and Shara was always platonic, and it was not seen as less important because of that.
Secondly, Shara is more important to City of Miracles than just a death to kick start the plot. The story is defined by her actions. She was always the mastermind, the one with the plan. And City of Miracles is fueled by the plans she put in place.
Also, Shara is not the only significant female character in City of Miracles. Aside from Sigrud himself, the main villain, and the assassin, all other significant characters are women. All of Sigrud’s main allies are female! In particular, Taty, Shara’s daughter, plays a pivotal role. Mulaghesh also makes a brief reappearance, which is great because she’s one of my favorites.
“You want her here even more than I do, maybe,” says Taty. “To tell you what to do again. To figure it all out. That’s why you waited on her for thirteen years, isn’t it? So she could tell you want to do next, how to make things go back to normal. To help you get home.”
As always with this series, the world building was great. Bennett embeds his settings with such vitality that they practically leap off of the page. I loved seeing how this world has changed in the twenty years since the first book. This series does not fall into the trap of having its fantasy world remain stagnant.
City of Miracles will also please those who like some action in their fantasy fiction. The story’s practically cinematic, with a fast pace and some great action scenes. In particular, I adored that scene with the tram car. If you read the book, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
This series in general has just been so well written. Bennett has such beautiful, immersive prose. There are a few quirks that annoy me – for instance, he uses some of the same, pretty uncommon words with noticeable frequency. Specifically, I kept noticing “queer” to mean “strange” showing up again and again. I remember this from City of Blades as well.
At this point you’re probably wondering why I only gave this book three and a half stars. I was wary due to the initial premise, but this book would easily have been awarded four stars if it wasn’t for a certain story choice that really upset me. When I read City of Stairs, I was bothered by the the treatment of the only gay character. While there were numerous troubling things about his portrayal, it was definitely a queer tragedy. In City of Blades, Bennett avoided including queer characters altogether. I was assuming the same would be true for City of Miracles. I was wrong. One of the prominent female characters is given a girlfriend. And they don’t both make it out alive.
I was in the climax of the book, near the end, but I had to step away from it for a while. I’m not sure how exactly to describe my emotions, but a large part of it is anger. Writing this, I’m angry all over again and trying to resist the urge to use a whole lot of profanities in my review. I am just so effing done with Bury Your Gays. I am so pissed that this series can’t conceive of happy endings for queer people. And now I’ve been burned twice by this book series. If Bennett ever chooses to write more in this world, I honestly don’t know if I’ll choose to read it. I have loved this series, but it clearly doesn’t give a fig about people like me.
So yeah. Mixed emotions may be an understatement. Read at your own risk.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
I recieved an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another flash of years has gone by, and we find that Shara Komayad, now an old woman, was targeted for assassination - successfully. Sigurd comes out of hiding to avenge her death and protect her adopted daughter from the forces targeting orphan children who are more than they appear.
Bennett's 'Divine Cities' have been a pleasure to read and this final installment pulls together everything. Future readers who read them all together will have the benefit of seeing just how deftly Bennett foreshadowed the workings of the divine and the various machinations of Saypur. 'City of Miracles' changes everything. Overall, the gap of years between each book was a little hard to follow, again, especially with the real time gap between each book, but it makes the dramatic changes to the Continent and the rest of this world more believable.
Sigurd was never my favorite character, the tough, silent, scarred guardian man thing has never appealed to me, but I appreciate that some more explanations are given here as to why he was so unstoppable and proficient at being a killing machine. Even more so than in 'City of Blades', his character becomes more relatable and more vulnerable as the plot ticks on. This is the character I wanted from the first, well done.
I don't want to give away too much about the plot, just know that if you've already come this far with the trilogy you really must finish it. Bennett has done an excellent job exploring the unique world and theology he created and wrapped it up perfectly.
Divine Cities
Previous: 'City of Blades'
Bennett's 'Divine Cities' have been a pleasure to read and this final installment pulls together everything. Future readers who read them all together will have the benefit of seeing just how deftly Bennett foreshadowed the workings of the divine and the various machinations of Saypur. 'City of Miracles' changes everything. Overall, the gap of years between each book was a little hard to follow, again, especially with the real time gap between each book, but it makes the dramatic changes to the Continent and the rest of this world more believable.
Sigurd was never my favorite character, the tough, silent, scarred guardian man thing has never appealed to me, but I appreciate that some more explanations are given here as to why he was so unstoppable and proficient at being a killing machine. Even more so than in 'City of Blades', his character becomes more relatable and more vulnerable as the plot ticks on. This is the character I wanted from the first, well done.
I don't want to give away too much about the plot, just know that if you've already come this far with the trilogy you really must finish it. Bennett has done an excellent job exploring the unique world and theology he created and wrapped it up perfectly.
Divine Cities
Previous: 'City of Blades'
Rich and complex. Yes I cried lol. A little slow in the middle but overall brilliant and moving. Seriously blown away by this whole series.