Divine Cities trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett

[lightreads]

City of Stairs, City of Blades, City of Miracles

4/5. Trilogy spanning twenty years of spies and intrigue and divine plotting in the century after an enslaved nation rose up and killed the gods of their enslavers, tumbling an entire civilization into ruins as the miracles on which it ran disappeared.

I tell you what is miraculous: these are fantasy novels written by a man, and I really enjoyed them. They are complex and creative, with a rich constructed history. And equal streaks of adventuring (funicular battle! Spy nonsense!) and deep melancholy over wrongs done and wars lost and won. Thematically, they are asking questions about the value of suffering, and answering very decisively that there is none, thank you very much.

Also, there are women in these books. Just being there and doing things and, for the most part, driving these books forward. I do get now why some people ding them for a particular treatment of queerness but eh, it didn't ruin these for me.

Comments

[thefourthvine]

I had the same reaction to Foundryside, the first book of his next series. I was like, wait, am I ... enjoying this? Did she just look in a mirror and not check out her boobs, let alone heft them? WHAT OCCURS?

[lightreads]

Yes, and the women in this get old? And yet are still respected and powerful and have lots of agency? Oh, and one of them is also physically disabled and it's a thing in that it is inconvenient for her, but otherwise not really a thing? What?

[templemarker]

these are fantasy novels written by a man, and I really enjoyed them.

This made me laugh with a lot of wry, because wow, so true for me too.

I've glanced at these in Powells occasionally, but never felt compelled to pick it up given the other options out there. I'll add the first one to my to-read.