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A review by eesh25
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
Did not finish book.
DNF! Stopped after 60%.
At first I gave it three stars because I couldn't ignore that a lot of effort was put into writing this book.
Even though I had every reason to hate it (like the fact that it was a pain in the ass to read, I didn't like the protagonist or any other character except Mulaghesh and I'm pretty sure it has gotten me into a reading slump), I didn't think it would be fair to rate it badly but then I decided that two stars is as fair as I can get for a book I couldn't even finish.
Now, the effort I was talking about.
The world created by the author is very complex. There is so much history and so much to know that you could write a whole book just explaining different aspects of it. A lot of planning was done, obviously.
But here's where things went wrong as well because the author did write a whole book explaining different aspects of the world.
I swear to God, this book is an endless history lesson. There is so much information dumping that there's hardly time for anything else. And while it's also interesting, it can get tiring too. And it makes the pace of the story slower than a snail's.
Not to mention, all the aspects are very derivitive. I had trouble finiding anything that wasn't reminescent of something else. A large part world built is, I'm sure, from the muslim religion and greek mythology. There are probably other religions and mythologies incorporated that I'm umfamiliar with as well. It even reminded me of Harry Potter. So yeah, it lacks originality.
About the protagonist.
Shara is a very undecided character. She doesn't have much of an opinion and so she doesn't fight for anything. She's like a soldier mindlessly following orders and not wondering whether she's on the right side. Except she's crap at that too. She's a historian with the wrong job (I'm not sure what her job is. It got lost in the history lessons) and she is completely and utterly useless. Hasn't done anything since the beginning of the book.
Finally, the voice of the protagonist doesn't sound 35. It sounds 25, at most.
And there are moments of random swearing that are very out of place. Maybe it was an effort to make the book more adult but it's just awkward. One minute they're talking like someone from the late 19th century and the next, someone's dropping f-bombs. Wierd.
Overall, I didn't like it and I don't recommed it. Read at your own risk. You might enjoy it if you're a history buff. I'm not.
At first I gave it three stars because I couldn't ignore that a lot of effort was put into writing this book.
Even though I had every reason to hate it (like the fact that it was a pain in the ass to read, I didn't like the protagonist or any other character except Mulaghesh and I'm pretty sure it has gotten me into a reading slump), I didn't think it would be fair to rate it badly but then I decided that two stars is as fair as I can get for a book I couldn't even finish.
Now, the effort I was talking about.
The world created by the author is very complex. There is so much history and so much to know that you could write a whole book just explaining different aspects of it. A lot of planning was done, obviously.
But here's where things went wrong as well because the author did write a whole book explaining different aspects of the world.
I swear to God, this book is an endless history lesson. There is so much information dumping that there's hardly time for anything else. And while it's also interesting, it can get tiring too. And it makes the pace of the story slower than a snail's.
Not to mention, all the aspects are very derivitive. I had trouble finiding anything that wasn't reminescent of something else. A large part world built is, I'm sure, from the muslim religion and greek mythology. There are probably other religions and mythologies incorporated that I'm umfamiliar with as well. It even reminded me of Harry Potter. So yeah, it lacks originality.
About the protagonist.
Shara is a very undecided character. She doesn't have much of an opinion and so she doesn't fight for anything. She's like a soldier mindlessly following orders and not wondering whether she's on the right side. Except she's crap at that too. She's a historian with the wrong job (I'm not sure what her job is. It got lost in the history lessons) and she is completely and utterly useless. Hasn't done anything since the beginning of the book.
Finally, the voice of the protagonist doesn't sound 35. It sounds 25, at most.
And there are moments of random swearing that are very out of place. Maybe it was an effort to make the book more adult but it's just awkward. One minute they're talking like someone from the late 19th century and the next, someone's dropping f-bombs. Wierd.
Overall, I didn't like it and I don't recommed it. Read at your own risk. You might enjoy it if you're a history buff. I'm not.