City of Stairs

Written by Robert Jackson Bennett

Narrated by Alma Cuervo

An atmospheric and intrigue-filled novel of dead gods, buried histories, and a mysterious, protean city--from one of America's most acclaimed young fantasy writers. The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions-until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself-first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it-stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov's oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country's most accomplished spies, dispatched to catch a murderer. But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem-and that Bulikov's cruel reign may not yet be over.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781470380311

Robert Jackson Bennett

Robert Jackson Bennett is the author of Foundryside and the Divine Cities trilogy, which was a 2018 Hugo Awards finalist in the Best Series category. The first book in the series, City of Stairs, was also a finalist for the World Fantasy and Locus Awards, and the second, City of Blades, was a finalist for the World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy Awards. His previous novels, which include American Elsewhere and Mr. Shivers, have received the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Philip K. Dick Citation of Excellence. He lives in Austin with his family.

Reviews for City of Stairs

[stefanie bush · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This has to be the worst narrator. I have listened to many audio books and this person has to be the worst. Really terrible. This story would be so much better with a different narrator. I’d like to listen to the other two books in this series but I don’t think I can.

[ashleytylerjohn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a high 4-stars for me (like 4.3), due to its inventiveness, characters, pace, plotting, and some very good writing. (I got it from the library, and immediately whooshed out and bought it and the next one in paperback).

I don't think the back cover blurb does it justice--it doesn't convey how zesty this book is. It's filled with zest! It's not a dull dry action piece, it's more like A Suitable Boy meets The Lies of Locke Lamora with a bit of Thraxas thrown in. Smart, engaging, different.

[csmith0406-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this, interesting commentary on religion, but didn't take itself too seriously. Characters were really engaging and some spots of humor.

[ronercat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs I found a fantasy book unlike any other that I had read. Instead of taking place in a world that felt like Europe in the Middle Ages it takes a different approach and throws you in a world that feels more like Russia than anything else. I am no historian, but that is what it felt like to me and I am sticking to it. A big part of the premise of the book is trying to show you how our view of history can color all of our actions. It also discusses the effect history has on the perception of people. When we are introduced to this world we find out that the "divinities" (the local gods) have been killed off. The country that is currently in power had in the past been subjugated by the lands with divinities for their lack of a deity. Eventually a man discovered a method to kill the divinities and went to war and won. Now that they were in power they were doing their best to suppress all mentions of the divinities and to get rid of all the history that related to their power or the miracles they produced. This leads me to the magic system in the book. Not only was the setting unique, the magic system was also unlike any other that I had read. While the divinities were alive they created many miracles. Some of them could be as simple as a stone cup that left in the sun would fill with goat's milk every morning. They could imbue an item with power or teach others certain steps to take to have a miracle take shape for them. For example if they drew on a mirror or window with a certain symbol they could create a visual connection with another room to have a conversation with the person there. When the divinities died most of these stopped working, but not all of them. All items and books that discussed these things were destroyed or locked away for fear that they would be dangerous, in that they would cause the newly godless people to remember what they had lost and cause them to riot.This book is very well written. It has interesting characters, spies, political intrigue, religious fanaticism and plenty more. I will admit that the first 30-50 pages were decent, but I wasn't hooked until a little bit past that. Once I was hooked however, I couldn't put the book down. I am very interested to see what Bennett will offer us in the future and I hope that this world gets visited at least once more. Rating 4.5 Stars

[staticblaq-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Robert Jackson Bennett is proving himself quite the genre hopping Renaissance man. I've read three of his books now and all three have been quite different in setting and time, though all heavily infused with speculative elements. Stylistically, I find he slips in between rich exotic world building of China Mieville and the political/fantasy bent of Brandon Sanderson. My favourite thing about Bennett thus far, is his willingness to write a damn good one-off novel in a world heavily burdened by tiresome multi-volume stories.

It took a fair bit for me to get into this story, and it did languish on the sidelines for a few weeks before I retunred to it and fully sunk my teeth into the story. When the story does hit it's stride though, I found it was *very* hard to put down. I find something refreshing in Bennett's writing, though I can't quite put my finger on what it is yet.

One last thing - Bennett likes his monsters big!

[alissa1-7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very very absorbing and intriguing. I still have to sort my thoughts out about this book because of the depth and complexity of the themes woven around a fluid action-filled mystery story, and its finale. City of Stairs made me feel and think. I'd love to read more set in this masterfully-created world.

[sherribelcher-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am absolutely thrilled with the quality of the books I've picked up so far this year!Adding to the fresh takes on fantasy that have come our way is City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. The book opens with the murder of historian, Efram Pangyui. Efram was sent to the city of Bulikov by the ruling government of Saypur. He was researching the history of the Divinities, the fallen gods of the Continent before the Saypuri ruled. The Divinities performed miracles of technological advancement, which made them powerful. But when the old Divinities ruled, Saypur was the one city that had no Divinity, and they were treated as slaves to the Continent. In the Great War, a Saypuri man, the Kaj, used a mysterious weapon to kill the six Divinities. With the death of each Divinity, the magic they instilled in their cities fell apart and the cities were left in ruins. What secret weapon did the Kaj use to kill the Divinities? That’s what Efram was really sent to find out. Shara Thivani arrives in Bulikov to bring Efram’s body home. She is officially a low-level diplomat for Saypur, but unofficially Shara is a spy for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is well-versed in Continental history and she also happens to be the great-granddaughter of the Kaj. Efram was a friend and mentor and she is anxious to figure out why he was murdered. With Saypur now being the ruling government, the people of the Continent are no longer allowed to refer to their great history or to the Divinities, so it will take some investigating for Shara to find out what it was that Efram uncovered. She is helped along in her investigation by her “secretary’ Sigrud. Sigrud je Harkvaldsson is a huge, quiet and resourceful friend to Shara. He really operates more as Shara’s sidekick/bodyguard. As they delve further into the mysteries of Bulikov, both Sigrud and Shara witness some unexplainable happenings. Shara begins to suspect that magic is still alive in the city of Bulikov. Did the one of the Divinities make it out of the Great War alive?City of Stairs is a rich, layered world full of mystery and adventure, vivid action sequences and magic of course! I loved it! Sigrud is my favorite character and in my opinion, there is so much of his story left to be told. The author has done an excellent job fleshing out both the world and the characters. I have a feeling that this complex world that Robert Jackson Bennett has created will hold many great surprises for us in the future and I for one, am looking forward to it!

[fhudnell-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When I requested the uncorrected, digital proof of this book, I didn't know what to expect since there was no description of the plot (or even a real cover) and I was unfamiliar with the author. I took a chance since I thought it would be interesting to be completely surprised by a book. If you read this review, sorry, you don't get to be surprised. You can, however, skip directly to buying this book.This turned out to be an outstanding fantasy novel with a clever plot and wonderful characters. Fantasy is not my usual genre, but I really enjoyed City of Stairs. The story takes place in the ravaged city of Bulikov on the Continent. The Continent was formerly controlled by six Divinities who were all killed in the war between Saypur (a former colony of the Continent) and the Continent. Saypur has banned all mention of the Divinities. Dr. Pangyui, an historian from Saypur, is sent to Bulivov to study the history of the Continent and the Divinities. After Dr. Pangyui is found murdered, Shara Thivani, a young female investigator, and her secretary/enforcer, Sigrud are sent by the Saypur Ministry of Foreign Affairs to investigate his murder.Bulikov is an interesting world, similar to our own but full of staircases leading to nowhere and magical objects created by the Divinities. Most, but not all, lost their magical properties when the Divinities died. Shara and Sigrud encounter soldiers who turn into flocks of birds, walls that can become transparent, people who disappear, windows that can act as communication devices and monsters that return from the dead. There are also political plots, discredited myths and terrific action sequences.Shara is a strong, honorable, intelligent and resourceful protagonist, but I really loved Sigrud, who simply cannot be nonplussed. He deserves his own book. There could easily be a sequel to City of Stairs, and I would be very happy to read it.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[gretchening · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have a hard time rating this book because I have two warring feelings about it, and both are strong. On the one hand, this is one of the very best books I have read this year. In terms of character (Shara is possibly my fave protagonist of the year), world building, plot tension, atmosphere, pace, big ideas, this book nails all of them. It is truly a great book.

On the other hand, it had an unexpected occurrence of one of the tropes I find the most unacceptable: the Dead Queers Trope. I had been SO enjoying the complicated depiction of Vohannes, a man who has loved women and men fully and, quite literally, unrepentantly, his whole life.

Then to have Vo be only sympathetic major character to die in the whole book? AND be the only major queer? And quite directly as a result of his queerness? That is upsetting! Unnecessary!

Sigh. This was so close to being one of my favorite books. But then the ending punched me in the face in the way that makes me tired.

[carolesrandomlife · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book overall. I decided to read this book because I have seen so many glowing reviews for it. Since everyone seemed to think that this is a great book and I like great books, I grabbed a copy and jumped in. I will say that it took me a while to really get into this book. I think that I just really needed to get a good feel for the world and the characters before everything clicked for me. By the end of the book, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.The world that this book was set in was so well done. Bulikov is a city that was once ruled by divine powers until they were all killed. It is now illegal to even talk about these Gods anymore. They are not allowed to study or know their culture's history. The city is ruled by the Saypur and there is a lot of ill feelings towards the ruling class and their rules.Shara was such an interesting character. She is smart and not afraid to take action. She tries to follow the orders of her superiors but will go against them if she believes it is necessary. As much as I liked Shara, I loved Sigrud even more. He was my favorite character in this book. He seemed to do the impossible with ease and it was just a lot of fun to watch. Mulaghesh was great. She was tough and very competent. Mulaghesh and Shara worked well as a team and I really liked how they were able to depend on each other. Vo kept me guessing. I liked him even when I wasn't sure if I should. This book was filled with wonderful characters whose personalities really shined.I would recommend this book to fantasy fans. It is a smartly written story that really keeps you guessing. There was enough action to really keep the story moving. The world building was fantastic and highly imaginative. I plan to continue with this series very soon.

[mishker-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A land divided by it's history, Bulikov was once a beautiful city whose people were ruled by six Divinities capable of the miraculous, while the people of nearby Saypur have toiled away without the benefit of anyone Divine and their miracles. The Kaj of Saypur has long since killed the Divinities of Bulikov and has outlawed the people of Bulikov from even mentioning the names of their former Divinities. When a historian is killed in Bulikov after researching the Divinities, Shara Komayd is dispatched to investigate. Shara is a high level spy and a relative of the Kaj, but has taken the identity of a low-level Cultural Ambassador. Shara and her Dreyling assistant, Sigrud quickly realize that there is more to the historian's death than they realized and that they Divinities that were supposed to be dead, may not be.This was an absolutely fascinating read and I'm still having some trouble getting all of my thoughts together about it. This is an epic fantasy with a wonderful mystery, great characters and a wonderful setting. It did take me a little while to get into the plot, but once Shara's character hit the scene and began investigating, I was fully committed. First of all, the world-building and culture building was fabulous. I felt like I could picture everything in the city of Bulikov as well as understand the Divinities and the magic they used. Shara was an excellent female lead, she is smart, but very real. I also fell in love with Sigrud, who at first seems like he is just the muscle behind Shara, but ends up saving everyone more than once and then is given a tender backstory and personality. The mystery aspect of the story, why historian Efrem Pangyui was killed, may have been one small part, but it was also used as a jumping point for a much more complex examination of the politics and hidden secrets of Bulikov that results in an epic battle. Overall, City of Stairs is a well written epic fantasy that I was able to fully immerse myself into.This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

New and amazing world with interesting characters tackling intriguing challenges. This reads very well and balances the fantastic with the bureaucratic. The end was a bit over neat and cute for me - I thing the work would have balanced better with a more ambiguous end, but that is a personal niggle. It's a bummer that the gay guy is the only central character to die.

[cinachilders · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book started off kind of slow, but soon after it began to pick up and became really interesting. I didn’t know what to expect from City of Stairs as I read through pretty much the entire thing. Nothing was predictable, absolutely nothing. There were times, although, where I was confused about the setting and whatnot. I liked the story and I was surprised because at first I was believing I wasn’t going to, due to the slowness of the book in the beginning. I liked how almost all the characters were portrayed. My favorite character was not the main character at all (hardly ever is). I felt indifferent about Shara to be honest. It was Sigrud. He was a total badass. Absolutely loved him. Sigh. As for the ending, I’m wondering, is there going to be a sequel? Because I hate when books just end without fixing all the problems presented in the story.All in all, I think City of Stairs is interestingly written and original. I would rate it about four out of five stars. Should you read it?Yes, if for nothing else. Read it for Sigrud.

[john.cooper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I sought out this book because its author was recommended by the author of the best novel I've read in several years (Francis Spufford, whose book Golden Hill is set in 1741 New York). While City of Stairs kept me intrigued and (usually) eager to finish, the sketchy characterization and disappointing descent into standard genre tropes was disheartening. These tropes include the giant monster set loose on the helpless city, the plucky heroine bound in the lair of the dramatically evil mustache-twirling captor, and the unconvincing collapse and confession of the secret villain when uncovered. In the real world, things are never so black and white, never so predictable. A book can be a good book although simplistic in this way, but when the book features unusual color and complexity as its selling points, it's unfortunate to see it fall back on frankly adolescent themes and resolutions.On the positive side, the setting of the book is vividly described and the strands of the plot are pleasantly complicated. The protagonist is appealing and intelligent, an idealist but not a Pollyanna. And the unique concept of a world formerly shaped by strange gods, now dead, who had complex cults and real physical presence and whose effects are still being felt, generates all sorts of implications and consequences that continually enrich the storyline. (Too bad the religions depicted in the book generally reflect an atheist's incomplete and contemptuous understanding of belief. And what is it with the cultures in fantasy novels being mirrors of real-world peoples? The Saypuris are basically natives of India; the Continentals Russians; the Dreylings Scandinavians. So much effort has been expended to create an imagined world. Why not go all the way?)In the end City of Stairs is a decent adventure story and not what it aspires to be. By creating a world where metaphysical beings have physical powers, and one in which the forgotten past has a terrible influence on the present, it tries to comment on issues of religion and history, but falls short. Character is sacrificed to concept—there is one central government official, one military commander, one action hero, and one historian, all of whom basically act as the plot's chess pieces--and plot axes are too often cheaply cinematic instead of novelistic and nuanced. I hope the author has done better in the sequels.

[dlmorrese · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The setting —a continent conquered and freed from its enigmatic and changeable gods— is original and interesting. The plot centers around a diplomat and historian investigating the mythologies of these divinities, stories the locals are forbidden to utter. There is mystery, murder, and some romance...all elements for a great story. I found it quite readable. I wasn't overly taken with the characters, though. They weren't especially clever or admirable. I couldn't summon much concern for them. I also didn't much care for the prose. I felt it lacked craftsmanship and artistic flair, which the present tense accounting of the story only made more evident. This is all a matter of subjective personal taste, of course.

[gridcube-504137 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This... was not a bad book. It was entertaining and fun, it was readable and recommendable, a book to read to pass time.

It wasnt an excellent book, it was highly predictable, if you where paying attention, something you could easily do because the book traps you inside the story and you do pay attention to all little details, but took away the surprise when you get to the point where the "mysteries" resolve. The book also had a problem where it was too cinematic, and by this i mean, you feel like you are watching the story, from away the story, its not up until the very last passage of the very last chapter that I really feel an emotional connection to the characters, and by that the book gets a high boost, because it leaves you with a fond hug, like an old friend you part away, I liked that a lot.

The book itself is about dead gods and political intrigue, but mostly about self discovery and building one own.

I very much expect to read the next installment on this series.

[joeydag · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A quite complicated world created here with some interesting perspectives. Consider a world with 6 divinities, each of whom may be be killed, divinities that are modified by their worshipers' beliefs, divinities that can mate with humans, divinities with magical powers that have created a great number of "miracles", that were collected into a warehouse, when the divinities were killed and the continent where they dwelled was conquered. That continent was disrupted in an event called "The Blink" The conquering people outlaw any mention of the divinities and now it is quite a few decades later and the resentment of the continentals is rising to a flash point.

Lots of magic, complicating romance, the major protagonists are female. Check it out.

[chris_el-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was really torn between one and two stars. This book suffered from the tyranny of high hopes, when the reality fails to meet those high hopes invariably you feel worse about it than if you had no expectations to begin with. Everything Brent Weeks has recommended I've tried has been very engaging until this. It was well put together from a technical writing standpoint. But I never really liked the main character. In my mind she is Mindy Kaling from the Office but now in a fantasy novel with a fantasy background. There are two significant supporting characters. I liked one (Sigrud) and pitied the second (V). If Sigrud is the main character of a book two I might be willing to read it. Not sure if there will be a book two as almost all the plot threads were tied up at the end of this book.

[tikimoof · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hah, now I know why people were comparing this to the Craft Sequence. Both are post-theistic worlds!

This was really cool. A bit of a slow chug to get established and introduce the concept, but by 50% I was both hooked and had largely correct theories on most of the mysteries. So it makes you feel smart, just like the characters (even if the hints are perhaps a bit more heavy-handed than a traditional mystery).

Whatever, I liked it, it was great fun.

[jessicareadsthings · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well, that was quite a journey.

[antao-3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When is it necessary to kill a character to get a point across? I’m thinking about Vo here. By the time we get to the point when things get moving, I’ve already seen how damaging his religious upbringing had been to him. I've already seen how it had wreaked him and how this agony had shaped him into the character’s he'd become. I got that; bumping him off does nothing to further highlight the deed, nor to bring forth the message I got from killing him off. His death is just lazy writing. In fact, his death serves no narrative purpose and hence, it saps the very directive it was supposedly delivering. People don't just suffer in a void. Not all pain leads to tragic and abject death. Such “glamorisation” of suffering is a method to avoid endorsing and responding to that suffering. When everyone dies, it's sad, but we aren't called upon to answer for how we or our society has contributed to their suffering. We ache and move on. Nothing we do can change the fact that they are dead, and we have no impetus to change our ways because that impetus has ceased breathing. But when there's a living person staring you in the face, you are forced to acknowledge and come to terms with the reality of that person and how their suffering takes place in your world. This state-of-affairs is not so much with the Urban SF writers themselves as it is the culture of apparent "laziness" that they seem to have inspired (e.g., Grimdark comes to mind with so many bad imitators out there). All good writers tent to spawn lazy imitators. They also can have beneficial influence on serious, hardworking younger (or unborn) writers. Bad writers tend to only spawn other bad writers. It was ever thus. Perhaps that's what young writers are trying to achieve. They want to write in a way that matters. They confuse style with content and relevance. It takes years and years and years to be able to put a decent sentence down, but often they just look at you like you're a complete c**t, mostly those people who talk about writing! One thing I would add, is that a writer needs to be able to write in the third as well as first person. It is very easy for writers to hide incompetence in the first. Not so much in the third. In the third everything comes to light.What this novel reminds me of is that moment in 1976/77 when established rock musicians realised that punk was here to stay - what, no more 15-minute guitar solos based on Bach fugues? Where is their sense of tradition and craft? Where indeed? Picasso, Braque, etc. did the same in the visual arts with cubism shooting mimetic art out of the water - yes, nowadays people draw and paint even though they have no years of experience drawing from plaster copies and the life model. Admittedly a knowledge of what has gone before SF-wise can be advantageous, but we don't have to construct beautifully crafted sentences to write clearly of our experiences and lives, or engage with a reader. Personally I prefer passion, commitment, and humour to craft and tradition, but I am merely a consumer and not a clever author.There's also that tale about Picasso (it could have been van Gogh - but it still makes my point) that once paid for a meal with a drawing. After said meal he took the landlord aside and drew for him a bird in about four or five swift strokes. The landlord was aghast: "call that a painting! It's just mere brush strokes!" Picasso took the landlord back to his atelier and showed him hundreds upon hundreds of drawings of the same bird, the same brush strokes, the same swift, perfect execution. What may look like it breaks the rules with passion and flair and humour was created after painstakingly learning its craft.You can learn your craft and still be new and fresh. The space that SF literature occupied has changed, there are other games in town (movies, TV Shows, etc.). Should a SF writer ignore the past? My position is simply that our language is ours to do whatever we want with, but it does matter what anyone has done with it beforehand. I can't imagine a rejection letter from a publisher : “Dear Mr. Antão, you obviously haven't read Shakespeare...” And me thinking, oh shit, I knew there was something I missed!It's not elitism; it's just an intrinsic belief that writing is a craft that must be learnt. I find very irksome the countless writers I read who eschew the building blocks of language and still think they can play with form and structure.And though I'm somewhat illiterate, I'd like to presume that Bennett is as good a SF writer as we humans have produced so far.SF = Speculative Fiction.

[andorion-259107 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Rating should be a 4.5 really. But i did manage to deduce two major plot points before they were explained. Otherwise an excellent book and I am really looking forward to sequels.

[teknognome · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book reminded me of Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence, particularly Ruin of Angels. It's a world of dead gods, colonialism and conquest, and cities caught between past and future. Those parts of the story are good and compelling.Unfortunately the world doesn't have the nuance and depth that I found in the Craft Sequence. The cultures/locations are too directly modeled after real world ones. The portrayal of religion, especially Kolkan, feels like heavy-handed messaging about conservative religions. The characters vary considerably in detail/nuance, with some feeling like they're little more than tropes filling a role.The story wraps up well for the first book in series, but unfortunately that combined with the other flaws doesn't leave me wanting to read the next one.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Yeah, this was pretty great. I loved the worldbuilding, the characters, and pretty much had a great time reading it. Can't wait for the next book.

[Oso Isko · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm happy I finally got around to reading this book. It's another great example of pushing Fantasy out of It's usual medieval confines, and exploring how modernity and industrialization can impact a world where divinities openly walked (or once did). I really like the characters and setting. It's not as far reaching into the higher concepts that Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence and Gareth Hanrahan's Black Iron Legacy go toward, but Divine Cities is richer in its mysticism and how this impacts an industrialized world than Fonda Lee's Green Bone Sage. I hope more authors continue in this new path of the genre.

[areadingmachine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

City of Stairs

"The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions – until its divine protectors were killed. Now, Bulikov’s history has been censored and erased, its citizens subjugated. But the surreal landscape of the city itself, forever altered by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it, stands as a haunting reminder or its former supremacy.
Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov’s oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country’s most accomplished spies, dispatched – along with her terrifying ‘secretary,’ Sigrud – to solve a murder.
But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem, and that Bulikov’s cruel reign may not be over.
A tale of vast conspiracies, dead gods, and buried histories, City of Stairs, is at once a gripping spy novel and a stunningly original work of fantasy."

What a world Bennett has managed to create! So richly filled with absorbing moments, movements and images. It truly is as much of a character in the book as anyone walking on two legs and I am so glad I made it through the first 50 pages. Initially I found myself stuck wondering what the hype was about but the time taken to set up the world this book takes place in, is vital.

It is a great secret agent tale with some fantastic fight scenes and the character of Sigrud is hard not to immediately love. There has been so many positive reviews for this I am happy to add mine to the pile but don’t feel the need to reveal to much as Bennett does such a good job of that himself. This is my first read from the Author and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future. A very intelligent fantasy with loads of guts.

This book was sent to me by Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

[renbedell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting, modernized fantasy world that has been shaped by both the presence and the destruction of the gods. The story felt to me like a murder mystery with fantasy elements where the 'detective' finds out that there is much more than just a murder going on. The world gave an interesting and bleak take on religion and how that impacts individuals and society. The story follows one character mostly, but her and the supporting cast are great and hold the story together nicely. The prose is pretty good, but in no way took away from the story. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to continuing with the series.

[Joe Matazzoni · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The narrator is really not good. The book has some interesting ideas, so a lot of the block points are pretty easy to guess

[altheaann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bennett's not an author who's been on my radar - and that's going to have to change.

'City of Stairs' is a top-notch fantasy spy thriller.

It begins with a murder mystery... noted scholar Ephrem Pangyui has been killed in the city of Bulikov. Soon, Shara arrives on the scene to investigate.

Her job is complicated, however, by the fact that just about everyone in Bulikov is a suspect.

For hundreds of years, the Continental empire, of which Bulikov was the capital, ruled the Saypuri with a strong hand. Bulikov, bolstered by its six deities and their very real miracles, was an unstoppable power. Until, around a generation ago, a Saypuri leader discovered a way to murder the gods.

Quickly, the power structure toppled. The destruction of the gods and their miracles caused physical destruction and magical 'glitches' the likes of which Saypuri could not have predicted - but which they rapidly took advantage of. Now, Bulikov is a conquered city, squirming under the foot of powerful Saypur. Any reference at all to the religions and gods of the past is forbidden. All remaining magical artifacts and historical writings have been warehoused, and are forbidden to natives of Bulikov.

Naturally, resentment rides high. Pangyui, the murder victim, was a Saypuri, allowed to research and investigate a history now legally denied to its rightful inheritors.

However, Shara is determined to find the killer - because Pangyui was someone she personally knew and liked. Luckily for her, she's not merely the lowly 'Cultural Ambassador' that her credentials claim - she's well-connected to the rulers of Saypur. She's also got her sidekick, Sigrud, a juggernaut of a man, with obvious talents as well as hidden depths.
Working against her, however, is the uncomfortable fact that it looks like the powerful city leader that she'll need to ingratiate to help her navigate the murky tunnels of Bulikov's politics just happens to be her college boyfriend - and she ended that relationship on a rather unpleasant note.

Of course, as Shara digs into the circumstances of the crime, what she uncovers is far larger than a single murder. The plot progresses at a fast pace; it's tense and action-packed.

The world-building is great - the politics are complex and nicely-believable (yep, corruption, short-sightedness and self-interest everywhere). Half-ruined Bulikov is aesthetically wonderful: grimy, weird, destroyed, but still alive and trying to recover from its setbacks. The cultures are well-drawn, and the characters shown are believable products of their cultures. Nearly everyone here is both flawed and sympathetic [well, to an extent], and even the more reprehensible individuals are comprehensible in their motivations. it does a great job of portraying real people caught in a problematic political situation.

There are parallels with our world - this 'feels' like an alternate 18th century (photography has just been invented). The Continentals have a definite Eastern European feel. Saypur is, perhaps, South Asian. Sigrud, unsurprisingly, is from a seafaring Scandinavian-type place. However, there are enough surprising details to give the books a markedly fresh and original flavor which transcends genre.

Highly recommended.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy and the opportunity to read this book.

[zoes_human · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Magnificent epic fantasy meets an espionage thriller in this brilliant novel. Exciting and fast-paced action is interwoven with masterful worldbuilding to create an unforgettable land peopled by an archetypal cast that swerves around the banality typical of their tropes with nuanced character development. Fun and intriguing yet also thought-provoking.