#city of stairs

[gunkreads]

Tagged by @highladyluck to give 3 book recommendations and tag a few people!

edit alright i didnt read the original. these were supposed to be one sentence each. fuckin whatever

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett:

The Divine Cities trilogy is one of my favorite series ever. Fortunately, this is actually the weakest of the three and it still rocks ass. This book takes place in the city of Bulikov, once the greatest city on the Continent that ran on the power of highly active gods and slaves from the island nation of Saypur, now a center for the Saypuri counter-colonization of the Continent after a Saypuri guy went on the most successful deicide spree since God of War III.

This is fundamentally a conspiracy story, with the core plot question being "whodunnit" (or, more accurately, who's gonna dunnit). The core theme, though, is "What makes YOU the good guys?" The thing I find so strong in all of Bennett's work is that he presents characters who have actively orchestrated systemic evils, makes them sympathetic and interesting, and absolutely refuses to allow you to forgive them.

Turyin Mulaghesh, the #1 Woman Ever, is in this one. The second book centers around her. I'd confidently say these books are an excellent prelude or follow-up to The Masquerade; they're attacking many of the same questions from a very, very different angle.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames:

An all timer for a me for a reason. Pulp fantasy camp elevated to something greater. Eames understands that if you grab a concept and run with it, you can actually run far and fast enough that it's yours now. The cops won't get you.

This book is about a bunch of old retired guys who used to be The Rolling Stones Saga, the greatest rock mercenary band in the world. This world, Grandual, effectively asks the question, "what if being a hero was an actual job and a legitimate career path?" I'm not being cheeky with the strikethroughs. These guys are explicitly supposed to be 80s rock bands. It's an excellently woven bit of absurdity that feels completely diegetic somehow.

It takes place long after Saga's heyday, and Eames does an excellent job of having background characters trickle in half-true anecdotes supporting the protagonist, Clay Cooper, in his belief that Saga really DID go everywhere and do everything. They're going everywhere for the second time, but everything feels fresh because Clay's back fucking hurts.

The core plot is that the former lead singer swordsman of Saga had a daughter who took up the same trade, but got herself into an impossible siege, so Saga is getting back together to go bail her (and several dozen thousand other people) out.

Structurally, it's a fairly stereotypical fantasy adventure, crossing the country through all the standard Danger Zones and recovering your lost bandmates (one of whom is very explicitly just Mat Cauthon), but Eames squeezed absolutely everything he could out out of the rock band and old guy concepts. These guys are celebrities everywhere they go (Clay was the bassist so nobody recognizes him), and they have been EVERYWHERE. Eames layers on their experience with the world in a way that only deepens the worldbuilding, by omitting the initial description of places and phenomena in favor of Clay's second or tenth reaction to them.

Also, it's fucking fun as hell.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss:

What are we even doing here. Don't even fucking talk to me. It's as good as everyone says. No, that's not true. It's unbelievably better.

The Name of the Wind is a story about what a story is. It could be about anything or anyone, except that it couldn't, because it's about Kvothe and it's about being alive. I can't even put two sentences together recommending or describing this book. I would be nowhere without it. I have read it and its sequel around 10 times and I'm overdue for a reread. I genuinely could not name a single aspect of the story that I'd consider a flaw. Caveats for certain people, sure, because I'm a critic at heart, but not flaws.

Tagging @pillowfriendly @briannysey @terramythos

[evenaturtleduck]

Shara Komayd, with Sigrud for scale

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[caribeandthebooks]

Caribe's Fantasy TBR - Part 1

These Fantasy books have been on my TBR for SOO long. They're in the jar though so progress? We'll get to them soon enough.

I won't even try to pretend that the length of Way of Kings doesn't scares me. May pick it up if I meet my reading challenge early this year.

I've read other V.E. Schwab books so I have an idea what to expect there but all the other books just never made it off the TBR the year they caught my attention. Oh well.

[arintheman]

God I got this done at 1 am

At least it’s done though. I feel like this might be a piece I revisit in a year or something.

This is Sigrud and the beast Urav from City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. It’s the first book of a trilogy (Divine Cities series) I want to finish. I do recommend it if y’all are wanting a book to read but it is young adult maybe even adult because some of the content.

[joncronshawauthor]

Scott Lynch's Revolutionary Impact on Fantasy Literature: The Influence of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora'

Scott Lynch’s tour de force, ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’ burst onto the fantasy scene in 2006, marking a significant turning point in the genre’s evolution. The book, and its subsequent sequels in the ‘Gentleman Bastard’ series, introduced readers to a unique and innovative world of fantasy that has since greatly influenced countless authors and contributed to the development of modern fantasy…

[hyperfixated-unicorn]

Finished reading the City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett, the last book in The Divine Cities trilogy. There's happiness and satisfaction in the way it ended, but, oh man, it made me cry so much. Bennett's world-building is not only written intricately but his characters are so realistically crafted, and so very much human. Moreover, it's fantasy not just to be fantastical, but it's actual speculative fiction that questions and explores real, human problems in a fantasy setting. The goal is not just to build the most creative fantasy world but to experiment and ask, and prod. The world is just a grand backdrop to the more humane part. The trilogy did exactly this and it was an emotional, darkly complex but always hopeful ride. Loved every second reading Bennett's works (also read The Tainted Cup, one of his most recent novel!). I'm gonna miss Sigrud, Shara and Mulaghesh.

[ferussy]

something I love about the world of divine cities is how even the most hardened people in the series are not impervious to the evil they face. They throw up, they feel sick, they are not omnipotent and neither are their stomachs. They continue to do their job but it weighs and it continues to weigh on them for they are human which is important

[upstairsdownstairsandinbetween]

"Village Falls Asleep"

Photography by Karunchai Treetrong

[suntails]

⚔️🦈

this is a piece from my silver artbook, currently accepting preorders!! u can get a copy here!

non-UK: suntails.bigcartel.com

UK: etsy.com/shop/SuntailsArt

[2seeitall]

Athens, 2023

[arc-hus]

Tres Rios House, Culican Rosales, Mexico - César Béjar Studio

[ardley]

Karsten Schubert Gallery - Soho, London

Photographed by Freddie Ardley

[tygerland]

[absentlyabbie]

reading this book and it describes this fantasy tiered city built on the side of a mountain and it has one "impossibly long" stairway for traversing from one tier to another

and all i can think is "wow that is awful urban design."

without even getting into the inherent ableism (but hey! fantasy city with fantasy races which are naturally superior and therefore pretty much never experience disability, of course, because that's what superiority means) of the apparently sole system of traveling between levels of this city being stairs and only stairs, it's a freaking deathtrap.

one impossibly long unbroken stairway across the breadth of a tiered city built into the side of a mountain? no landings are described, even. without some kinda natural break, one moment of clumsiness or an unfriendly shove and someone is having a long, long tumble to a broken neck (and broken everything else.)

[arcadebroke]