Review: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Published September 9. 2014
Broadway Books

Synopsis: Years ago, the city of Bulikov wielded the powers of the Gods to conquer the world. But after its divine protectors were mysteriously killed, the conqueror has become the conquered; the city's proud history has been erased and censored, progress has left it behind, and it is just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power. Into this musty, backward city steps Shara Divani. Officially, the quiet mousy woman is just another lowly diplomat sent by Bulikov's oppressors. Unofficially, Shara is one of her country's most accomplished spymasters-dispatched to investigate the brutal murder of a seemingly harmless historian. As Shara pursues the mystery through the ever-shifting physical and political geography of the city, she begins to suspect that the beings who once protected Bulikov may not be as dead as they seem-and that her own abilities might be touched by the divine as well.

Review: This book was totally outside of my comfort zone. Epic fantasy is not a genre that I pick up very often. In fact, I don't know if I have ever picked it up. When looking on Blogging for Books, this cover was beautiful and the synopsis seemed intriguing so I decided to give it a go.

Right off the bat, there are a bunch of names in this book that I cannot pronounce. This also makes it difficult to keep all the characters straight. What made it even more difficult in this instance was the fact that half the 'characters' in this book were long ago Gods that all had different powers. Woah was I lost for a bit. But the more I read, the easier it was to remember who was who. 

The main characters, especially Shara and Sigrud, were very strong characters. Sigrud was probably my favorite of them all; in my head I pictured him as a heroic Hagrid. They had solid dialogue, and really had different personalities and language to keep the plot going. 

Now, I had never read anything by Robert Jackson Bennett. But man, can he write!! The creation of this world (as well as a few parallel ones), the cast of characters, the mystery, the magic...it takes a strong author to create a scene quite like the one in this novel.  The descriptions were vivid, the characters strong, the situations imaginative and fluid. The last half of this story grabbed me and held on tight, I read the last 200 pages in one sitting!

A great fantasy novel that may just prompt me to pick up more fantasy in the future!

*I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.