City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett

Shara Komayd, once Prime Minister of Saypur, has been assassinated. News travels fast and far, even to a remote logging town somewhere northwest of Bulikov, where the silent, shaven-headed Dreyling worker 'Bjorn' picks up the newspaper and walks out. He is shocked and grieved and furious; he's been waiting thirteen years for Shara, his closest friend, to reach out to him - to tell him to come home. He's always believed she was running a long operation, that there would be a role for him at the right time. Now he has no one else in his life, and nothing to live for - except to find the people who did this. Sigrud wasn't there for the death of his daughter Signe, and he wasn't there when Shara was murdered. Now Bjorn is dead and Sigrud is back. And he will find answers, for Shara, and for himself. He's made a promise . . .

“A better world comes not in a flood, but with a steady drip, drip, drip. Yet it feels at times that every drop is bought with sorrow and grief.”

What a series this has been. A series that looks like a blend of fantasy, mystery, adventure but one that on careful interpretation, shows us a reflection of the world that we live in. We can just enjoy this as a wonderful piece of writing or we can imbibe its lessons, learn from the characters and try to better ourselves.

“A woman so esteemed and so notorious and so influential that everyone seems to be waiting on history to get around to judging her so they can figure out how to feel about her tenure as prime minister.”

After loving the first two books in the series, I just had to read the final one as soon as I could get my hands on it. But what a surprise it was, also especially dreadful, when I read the synopsis which said that Shara Komayd is dead. Now that's usually not how books go. You don't kill main characters at the beginning of the book. This made the book heartbreaking even before I began reading.

“What a crime it is that creatures of hope and justice fade from this world, he thinks, while those like me live on.”

If I felt that bad, imagine the horror that Sigrud feels when he learns the news of her assassination after 13 years of exile spent waiting for a word from her. He decides on his path immediately – revenge – not that we would expect anything less from him. But this path leads him to much more – Shara's last operation, divine children trying to keep themselves alive, world unknowingly bracing for another battle of the divinities and the ultimate truth about Tatyana.

“But freedom and human happiness has a direct relationship to the number of people who have power over their own world, their own lives. Far too many people still have no say in how they live.”

This book describes Sigrud's guilt, misery and heartache in such fashion that it's difficult not to be moved by it. The lives of the divine children are so devastating to read about. There is a lot more miracles to learn about here, more magic, more divine power than we have seen before that time and reality seem warped. I also loved Shara's presence in this book; her hopes, her dreams, her struggle to make a better world. I was so happy when the world gives her the honor she deserves. The ending is not all what I expected but it's so apt that now I feel it couldn't have been anything else. The ending doesn't aim for perfection but then, the real world is never perfect; just full of possibilities and it's the people who decide whether to use them in a positive or negative light. And the book left me with tears in my eyes. As I always say, I love books or movies that make me cry. What a fitting end to an amazing world of fantasy.

“Change is a slow flower to bloom. Most of us will not see its full radiance. We plant it not for ourselves, but for future generations.”

“Civilization progresses – one innovation at the right time, changing the very way the world changes. It just needs one big push to start the momentum.”

3.75 out of 5 stars – see this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

In this final volume of Robert Jackson Bennett's brilliantly inventive Divine Cities trilogy, the focus shifts to Sigrud je Harkvaldsson — for my money, one of the best characters in the series. Seeing him get the spotlight was a welcome sight, but I didn't end up enjoying his POV as much as Shara's and Mulaghesh's before him. He may be better served as a supporting character being peppered-in sparingly rather than having full star-status, but as the plot unfolds you come to realize that he was the necessary choice for this role. While he struggles to carry parts of the novel, Bennett builds up a strong supporting cast around him that mostly negates this deficiency.

Bennett's writing is as strong as ever here, as the novel sets off with a propulsive pace. I'll set the scene — against the backdrop of a gloomy metropolis, a hulking, lone-wolf vigilante, stealthily picks off baddies one by one in the dark, fueled by the deaths of those he loved. He's basically Batman for the first part of the novel and I loved it. Despite a middle portion that could have been tightened up as my interest started to wane, Bennett ratchets everything back up for the big heart-pounding finale that each of his books have done so well.

Overall, this was a worthy addition to the Divine Cities series, but not my favorite. That said, Robert Jackson Bennett nailed this trilogy and did a wonderful job with the interplay of gods & mortals, modernity & traditional fantasy worlds, and great characters & an imaginative story. I look forward to seeing what he puts out next.

While I didn't love this as much as I loved the first one, I still had a great time reading it, especially as the action builds towards the end. In this volume, Sigurd becomes the primary POV character, and the journey he has taken, the planning that Bennett must have been putting into this character from the very beginning, transform Sigurd from one-dimensional overpowered bruiser to a multi-farted plot point and perhaps our only hope in the face of this new threat.

Shara, too, while less present in this book, is a shadow whose influence stretches wide over the story as we see the impact her life had on her country, her friends, and the family she chose for herself. if nothing else, this series is one of the few books written by men that I know of which include incredibly complicated and unique female characters.

More so than City of Swords, the Divine elements of this book are back in focus. This is the aspect that most sucked me into this series, and Bennett's creativity and exploration of this world where hey, miracles happen, make it well worth any mythology nerd's time. If you enjoyed the other two books, you will be right at those here.

After a long hiatus, I have finally finished the whole trilogy, the ending of book three, was not the one I was anticipating, I was really sad to see Mr. Bennett, killing off the Divine, some of the greatest slaughter in human history stemmed from religious war brought by the fervor of each faction's belief, the crusades, inquisition to name of few, with that concept running around in my mind, no wonder the Kaj did what he did to the Divinities, it was freedom from divine oppression, Shara, Turyin and Sigurd, were just the latest in a line of deiciders(??? hopefully there is such a word), after the incidents in the first two books, I never imagined they would go after the sons and daughters, as the book progresses, we read the why, how and what, at first I felt the wastefulness of such killings, if only some of these demigods were allowed to live the humane way, they might have some appreciation of the humans, there might have been a way for both divine and humans to live together, but Mr. Bennett was already two to three steps ahead to my way of thinking and the conclusion was most satisfactory........I hope to read another story of this fascinating world....