City of Stairs (The Divine Cities #1), by Robert Jackson Bennett
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
“City of Stairs” came highly recommended by many friends and I was so looking forward to a murder mystery, an espionage story, a post-war drama, a piece of fantasy, and alternative history. Yes, maybe the sheer breadth of this should have forewarned me but what can I say…
The story was… mediocre: A lot of divinity-this, divinity-that, people who want to bring back the “golden days”, profiteers, evil brothers, evil aunts, and other relatives. In short: lots of bullshit.
Also, the characters: Shara, the granddaughter of the Kaj, the saviour of his people, and the killer of gods, faultless master spy, genius, is our heroine and she’s… boring. Absolutely, breathtakingly boring. She keeps being lucky and only in the end do we see her dealing with her evil scheming aunty. In between, she mostly lurches from one disaster to the next.
Part of her luck is called Sigrud. An almost excessively inventive name for what amounts to a Viking. Huge, strong, pragmatic, silent, world-wise, a perfect companion and bodyguard who fights his way into and out of hell.
Also: Steampunk. I hate steampunk; steampunk’s illogical and impractical approach to technology is so annoying: They have cars but the term “battle-axe” is still present. They have “common firearms” but shoot bolts from crossbows. They have gunpowder and combustion, they work many kinds of metal and into huge projects to boot but they use traditional sailing ships.
As so often, steampunk here, too, feels more like a superficial exercise in aesthetics than a thoughtful exploration of science fiction or social commentary. And yet there’s a lot of heavy-handed kitchen philosophy to be found in this.
Worst of all, though: This novel is so boring! Nobody is relatable and I didn’t give a rat’s ass about anybody. Despite featuring quite a few characters, most of them essentially “sound” and “feel” alike. For example, Shara and Mulaghesh sound exactly the same from what they say and do.
The writing is nothing special either: There are absolutely no highlights but no crimes against language either. In its mediocrity, it feels very fitting.
Since the ending was at least somewhat amusing, this garners it two stars instead of the one I originally intended.
Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam
View all my reviews
