BOOK REVIEW: CITY OF STAIRS BY ROBERT JACKSON BENNETT

"History will not let us forget: it wears disguises, reintroduces itself to us, claims it is someone new and wonderful...But it will not let us forget."

An amazing fantasy world complete with well-developed female characters, fantastic social commentary, and wonderful writing? WUT????

Confession: I'm scared of adult fantasy. Not because it's adult or because I'm intimidated by the fantasy genre. No. I'm scared of adult fantasy because oftentimes (and I don't want to generalize a whole genre here but I'm gonna do it anyway), it's decidedly male-centric. I'm a firm believer that every book I read has to have at least one developed female character with substantial presence (the operative word here being DEVELOPED because let's face it, a lot of the times that one female character will be a manic pixie dream girl/beautiful and perfect love interest with no personality *cough* The Name of the Wind *cough*). That's the bare minimum, no exceptions. And sadly, a lot of fantasy books can't even deliver that. Not one, singular developed female character. It's disheartening, and it really puts me off the genre. It's gotten to a point where for every new fantasy book I discover on Goodreads, I will Ctrl+F the review page for "female characters" and see what people have said about them. I want to see explicit mentions of female characters and their quality, or lack thereof. It's a huge selling point for me when someone says a fantasy book has great female characters. So, when I heard  that City of Stairs had great female characters—not to mention a wonderful, well-developed fantasy world—I was pretty much instantly sold on this book. 

I think the best word to describe City of Stairs is "unique." Usually I'd hesitate to use that word since I find that most good books are unique in one way or another, but in this case, I think "unique" works perfectly. I haven't read anything like City of Stairs before, both in terms of the characters and the world. 

First, characters. This book's main protagonist is the oh-so-stoic Shara, a middle-aged, smart, curious intelligence officer who wears glasses, loves tea, and is pragmatic to a fault (more on that later). She may look harmless, she may seem harmless, but oh man are you screwed if you think she's actually harmless. Simply put, Shara is a force to be reckoned with. Then we have Mulaghesh, the foul-mouthed but lovable polis governor with a military background (who is 45 years old!!!!! You rarely ever see women that old in books). Lastly, I want to talk about Sigrud. Sigrud reminds me of the men of the Snuggly Duckling from the movie Tangled. He's this giant man who seems to have no emotions or pain receptors (where can I get some of Sigrud's pain tolerance though???), but the more you delve into the book, the more you see that there's more to him than meets the eye. (There's also Vo, who is funny and tragic, and whom you will love and want more of. I seriously needed more Vo in this book.)

(That's basically Sigrud in my head)

Now, for the world. This world is just so damn interesting. It's like a grittier, far more plausible version of the world of the Greek gods. There's definitely more to this story's gods than petty squabbling though. Bennett takes this concept of gods presiding over different portions of a country and completely subverts it by turning it on its head. Also, this book has heaps and heaps of commentary. Racism, colonialism, the disremembering and erasure of a people's history, religious discrimination, politics, power and the extent to which one is willing to use it, the list goes on and on, and Bennett somehow manages to seamlessly weave it all into the story. You just have to read this quote to see what I mean:

"I have never met a person who possessed a privilege who did not exercise that privilege to the fullest extent that they possibly could. Say what you like of a belief, of a party, of a finance system, of a power—all I see is privilege and its consequences. 

States are not, in my opinion, composed of structures supporting privilege. Rather, they are composed of structures denying it—in other words, deciding who is not invited to the table. 

Regrettably, people often allow prejudice, grudges, and superstitions to dictate the denial of these privileges—when really it's much more efficient for it all to be a rather cold-blooded affair."

Oh Vinya, you are so damn ruthless. (And shitty.)

Perhaps my only complaint is that sometimes I wanted more of Shara. Shara is an INCREDIBLY pragmatic person, and sometimes you kind of want her to have a nervous breakdown or something. Basically, I wanted more emotion from her. I understand that it's not in her nature to be super emotional or sentimental, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have emotions, that just means she's better at reigning them in and not expressing them. I would've loved to see more emotional turmoil from her in her inner monologues or with any other character. 

Oh, one last thing. This book is remarkably well-written. Usually I don't expect much in the way of writing style from fantasy books, but City of Stairs was a pleasant surprise. 

THAT'S IT! (she says after she writes a gushy, not at all succinct 6+ paragraph review). I guess you could say this was a good book.