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A review by catpingu
City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett
dark
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
4.5
This was a pretty awesome follow-up to the countries and characters introduced by the City of Stairs! I can count on Robert Jackson Bennett's books to have strong sequels, no dying of momentum here!
Five years after the Battle of Bulikov which saw Shara Komayd, Sigrud je Harkvaldsson, and Turyin Mulaghesh promoted to positions of power and leadership in government. Mulaghesh is forced out of retirement to investigate the disappearance of Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, one who was investigating the appearance of a mysterious ore appearing in the city(-state?) Voortyashtan. Mulaghesh is forced to face the ghosts of her past and an old friend, in the city dedicated to the old goddess of war, death, and the sea.
A big thing that Mulaghesh's story has going for her, is the seamless switch between the present events and backstory. The little excerpts of lore or introductions at the start of each chapter are more helpful than before, no longer having to world-build the Continent's religion. Now, the excerpts can fully focus on the information most helpful to understand the Voortyashtani, the characters, and the policies in place or of the past that are influencing the tensions in this backwater military outpost.
While I am always a fan of a good murder mystery, Mulaghesh is partly investigating a disappearance, and partly investigating mysterious executions of some isolated Vooryashtani natives. The mystery is trying to understand how these events are connected, and what Mulaghesh can do to stop bad things from happening. She does a lot of things in this book, but it's not distracting or hard to follow because again, the blend is pretty seamless.
Shara is Prime Minister, Sigrud is the co-chancellor of the United Dreyling States and spends most of his time putting down the pirate lords.Sigurd doesn't do a lot of dirty work here because 1) he's a very political figure now, and 2) Mulaghesh is plenty capable of handling this covert operation herself. My favorite part of Mulaghesh's environment is how she handles politicians and the daily complaints of the people:
<blockquote>
Balakilya screams triumphantly, “You see? Do you see? Why would Saypur bring the lieutenant of the god-killer if they did not fear the retribution from the Divine? Why would she be here if not to defend them against the vengeance of Voortya!”
<br>“I…think I’m going to back out on this one,” Mulaghesh says, standing. “I’m pretty sure my presence here isn’t helping much.”
<br>“Leave now,” says Signe, “and you’ll only inspire more questions.”
<br>“She leaves because it’s true!” shouts Balakilya, striding to stand in the central aisle. “She fears the truth, so she flees from it!”
<br>“See?” says Signe.
<br>“General Mulaghesh,” says Biswal, looking up, “perhaps if you could spare a few words for—”
<br>“She’s come to murder whatever’s left of our culture!” cries Balakilya.
<br>“She’s here to force us to bow to the whip of Saypur!” shouts another man.
<br>“Oh, for the love of…” Mulaghesh walks to the railing. “You want to know why I’m here? Here of all places on this damned world?”
<br>“Tell us!” shouts one of the men below. “Tell us!”
<br>“Fine!” snarls Mulaghesh. “I’m on vacation, you dumb sons of bitches!” A loud silence echoes over the Galleries. Mulaghesh turns and strides away. As she walks through the door she hears someone say, very quietly, “Did she say vacation?”
</blockquote> - Bennett, Robert Jackson. City of Blades (The Divine Cities) (p. 138). Random House Worlds. Kindle Edition.
Mulaghesh is a much more interesting character to follow than Shara! Mulaghesh has the gumption, the devil-may-care attitude, and the sass to handle everyone! Even *whispers* <I>the betrayers</I>:a politician who basically went crazy after being buried alive with her dead family's corpses for a few days, and claims to want to help the poor souls trapped in Voortya's afterlife by bringing about her armageddon; and Mulaghesh's own old commander who is crazy jealous of her success and fame, despite both of them sharing a part in history of the most controversial actions during the early days of Saypur's conquest on the Continent, and so he is willing to let armageddon happen just so he can fight and be famous. Mulaghesh has been recovering from the trauma of war all these years after the war, and it looks like finally she's going to be able to move on.
The creepiest aspect of this spook story?Swords holding souls strong enough to take over living people in order to force Voortya's existence to fulfill her promise to bring about armageddon. It is brave of the smart ones who discovered this secret to disavow the soldiers because Mulaghesh truly is like an incarnate of Voortya, but also, everyone's freaking dead. Signe (Sigrud's hot engineer daughter), our funny little valet Pitry (killed accidentally while dueling Mulaghesh), our two baddies the politician Rada and the jealous Biswal, and a couple of other side characters who played a role in helping Mulaghesh piece things together. Mulaghesh is such, such a bad-ass. I'd want to appoint her governor of the Continent if I could, because of this extensive experience with Divinity and not taking anyone's bullcrap or cover-ups.
An upsetting feature of this time's story is its rejection of romanticism! I can see the argument for it because romanticism = love = adoration = could be blind fanaticism, but our own little Romeo and Juliet story! Dead like that!At least they died on the same day. I seriously, seriously hate how hard that one private shot first and apologized later when they saw Signe surrendering and not realizing it, killed her dead. This is a serious, serious diplomatic incident and I hope he gets demoted or goes to therapy (because it was his trauma of Biswal's ill-fated attacks against the hillside natives that caused this overreactive panic response). I think it's kinda stupid that Saypur is planning on hunting down Sigrud to punish him for ripping apart five soldiers with his bare hands; Saypur is turning out to be domineering and as xenophobic as the Continent used to be, and we're not here for it. This was an international incident, and their response (before he ripped apart the soldiers) was to capture and punish a foreign dignitary?! Of course he ripped them apart! That's wrongful death plus wrongful imprisonment, and murder of his child! Those bigots on the council don't seem to relate.
How on earth is this trilogy going to end, because it feels like everything is just getting started.
Five years after the Battle of Bulikov which saw Shara Komayd, Sigrud je Harkvaldsson, and Turyin Mulaghesh promoted to positions of power and leadership in government. Mulaghesh is forced out of retirement to investigate the disappearance of Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, one who was investigating the appearance of a mysterious ore appearing in the city(-state?) Voortyashtan. Mulaghesh is forced to face the ghosts of her past and an old friend, in the city dedicated to the old goddess of war, death, and the sea.
A big thing that Mulaghesh's story has going for her, is the seamless switch between the present events and backstory. The little excerpts of lore or introductions at the start of each chapter are more helpful than before, no longer having to world-build the Continent's religion. Now, the excerpts can fully focus on the information most helpful to understand the Voortyashtani, the characters, and the policies in place or of the past that are influencing the tensions in this backwater military outpost.
While I am always a fan of a good murder mystery, Mulaghesh is partly investigating a disappearance, and partly investigating mysterious executions of some isolated Vooryashtani natives. The mystery is trying to understand how these events are connected, and what Mulaghesh can do to stop bad things from happening. She does a lot of things in this book, but it's not distracting or hard to follow because again, the blend is pretty seamless.
Shara is Prime Minister, Sigrud is the co-chancellor of the United Dreyling States and spends most of his time putting down the pirate lords.
<blockquote>
Balakilya screams triumphantly, “You see? Do you see? Why would Saypur bring the lieutenant of the god-killer if they did not fear the retribution from the Divine? Why would she be here if not to defend them against the vengeance of Voortya!”
<br>“I…think I’m going to back out on this one,” Mulaghesh says, standing. “I’m pretty sure my presence here isn’t helping much.”
<br>“Leave now,” says Signe, “and you’ll only inspire more questions.”
<br>“She leaves because it’s true!” shouts Balakilya, striding to stand in the central aisle. “She fears the truth, so she flees from it!”
<br>“See?” says Signe.
<br>“General Mulaghesh,” says Biswal, looking up, “perhaps if you could spare a few words for—”
<br>“She’s come to murder whatever’s left of our culture!” cries Balakilya.
<br>“She’s here to force us to bow to the whip of Saypur!” shouts another man.
<br>“Oh, for the love of…” Mulaghesh walks to the railing. “You want to know why I’m here? Here of all places on this damned world?”
<br>“Tell us!” shouts one of the men below. “Tell us!”
<br>“Fine!” snarls Mulaghesh. “I’m on vacation, you dumb sons of bitches!” A loud silence echoes over the Galleries. Mulaghesh turns and strides away. As she walks through the door she hears someone say, very quietly, “Did she say vacation?”
</blockquote> - Bennett, Robert Jackson. City of Blades (The Divine Cities) (p. 138). Random House Worlds. Kindle Edition.
Mulaghesh is a much more interesting character to follow than Shara! Mulaghesh has the gumption, the devil-may-care attitude, and the sass to handle everyone! Even *whispers* <I>the betrayers</I>:
The creepiest aspect of this spook story?
An upsetting feature of this time's story is its rejection of romanticism! I can see the argument for it because romanticism = love = adoration = could be blind fanaticism, but our own little Romeo and Juliet story! Dead like that!
How on earth is this trilogy going to end, because it feels like everything is just getting started.