Foundryside is a great urban fantasy novel set in a world where people can change the properties of matter – an ability held by powerful merchant houses that, like any good company, monopolize the technique to maximize profit and gain political power. The protagonist is Sancia, a young thief with a very special ability: she can “communicate” with any object …
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City of Miracles
The final chapter of The Divine Cities trilogy, City of Miracles treads a familiar path, putting an old side character, Sigurd je Harkvaldsson, under the spotlight, who once again must deal with a divine threat and, worse still, humans who yearn for violence. Although it never reaches the same heights as its predecessor, the novel represents a solid conclusion to …
Read More »City of Blades
City of Blades – the second book in The Divine Cities trilogy written by Robert Jackson Bennett – manages to easily surpass its already great predecessor. The novel offers a complicated discussion on the problem of soldiering, juxtaposing the idealized purpose of the military with its real one in a narrative tinged with blood and violence, but also deeply melancholic. …
Read More »City of Stairs
Written by Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs is a great urban fantasy novel that frames its narrative around religion, persecution, and war, excelling when it comes to worldbuilding, but faltering when it’s time to build suspense at the beginning. After an important Saypuri historian is found dead in the ancient city of Bulikov, Saypur tasks a young female ambassador, …
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