Book reviews by Mobilism's Book Review team
Jul 5th, 2017, 8:02 am
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TITLE: City of Miracles (Divine Cities #3)
AUTHOR: Robert Jackson Bennett
GENRE: Fantasy
PUBLISHED: May 2, 2016
RATING: ★★★★★

PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon
MOBILISM LINK: Mobilism

This is a review for the last book in a trilogy, so it might contain spoilers for the first two books. Please read the other books first before reading this review.

City of Miracles takes place some years after the events of City of Blades. It follows Sigrud je Harkvaldsson, who has been in hiding since the terrible events in the city of Voortyashtan - events that include the death of his daughter, Signe, and the deaths of dozens of young Saypuri soldiers, whom Sigrud slew in the midst of a berserker-like rage. By remaining in hiding, Sigrud hopes to prevent further tragedies at his hand while he waits for his friend and handler, Shara Komayd, to call him back into service - back to her side - once more.

But events take a tragic turn when Shara is assassinated, and Sigrud’s world is rocked down to its very foundations. Wracked by grief and rage from events both past and present, Sigrud sets himself down the only path he knows to take: the path of vengeance. As he hunts down those responsible for Shara’s murder, he learns that the assassination of his closest friend has less to do with discontent over the policies she instituted as Saypuri Prime Minister, and a lot more to do with the Divine.

When the blurb for this novel first came out, I was utterly shocked to see that within the first few lines it had given away what I thought was a spoiler of epic proportions: Shara Komayd was dead. I was utterly aghast and horrified by the idea of one of my favourite characters being dead, and moreover, to know it even before the book had come out. On hindsight, however, I think Bennett was trying to be kind to his readers: after all, by making it known that Shara was dead in the book’s official blurb, before the novel had even come out, then readers would have time to get over the shock and judge the story outside of their feelings for Shara’s death.

And that has turned out to be a good thing, because although Shara’s death is an important plot point of City of Miracles in that it launches everything else in the novel, it is not the novel’s heart. After all, a death with that kind of impact isn’t really about the person who died, but about the people who will be most affected by said person’s death. And in the world of the Divine Cities trilogy, no one could possibly be more affected by Shara Komayd’s death than Sigrud - and it is his story that is told in this novel.

Sigrud as a character has intrigued me from the moment he stepped off the train in City of Stairs. Brutal in battle but also fiercely intelligent in his own way, he is the perfect weapon - and at the same time, one of the most emotionally vulnerable characters in the entire series. That vulnerability is hinted at in the first book and made more visible in the second, but it is only in the third book that the reader truly sees how deeply and how badly broken Sigrud is, as illustrated in this excerpt:
I was not there to save you, he says to the photograph. I was not there to save Shara. I was never there for any of it.

He stows the newspaper clipping away in his pocket, then gives the pocket a reassuring pat, as if ushering the memory back to sleep.

He grips his knife in his other hand. His grip is tight, his knuckles a bright white.

Sigrud lunges forward and stabs the dead pine, his knife sinking in almost to the hilt. A sob nearly escapes his mouth, but he retains the sense to strangle it before it can give away his position.

Wretched is the creature, he thinks, that is not even even allowed to weep!

This burden of guilt, both for his daughter’s death and for Shara’s, is what drives Sigrud forward:
An old survival tactic, for Sigrud: to forge a compass from your sorrow, and let it lead you ahead.

Guilt is a furnace that feeds on Sigrud’s soul and drives the engine of his vengeance forward, forward, ever forward. It is such a powerful force that it does not escape the notice of his friends - most notably, Turyin Mulaghesh, the protagonist of City of Blades and who herself has plenty to feel guilty about:
"Sigrud…Sigrud, listen to me. Signe…” She grabs his shoulder and squeezes it. “Signe’s death was not your fault. You know that. You know that, don’t you?”

“Even if I believed that,” says Sigrud, “it would not make me any more whole Turyin. So much has been taken from us. I must do something about that.”

At this point, the reader is probably thinking of a certain kind of movie: the ones about old men who lose everything and have nothing left to them but their vengeance, and so they go seeking and destroying all the people and all the institutions that have done them wrong. The problem with a majority of those movies, though, is that they do not really get to the hard, bitter truth of revenge: that it is as destructive to the self as it is to those they seek to destroy. Even Sigrud knows this:
"To live with hatred,” says Sigrud, “is like grabbing hot embers to throw at someone you think an enemy. Who gets burned the worst?”

As I said, though this is a story that’s become familiar in recent years due to the films that have been built around the concept, it must be said that City of Miracles tells that story with greater depth and nuance than those films ever could. Part of it might be because of the medium, but I think it has more to do with the way Bennett frames Sigrud and his struggles in the preceding books of this series, but most especially in this one.

Another interesting - and heart-wrenching - thematic aspect of this novel is how it deals with the concept of parenthood. This was an important theme in City of Blades, but it is equally important in City of Miracles, albeit from a different perspective. In City of Blades, it was the theme of motherhood in the context of war, as explored through Mulaghesh and Voortya. City of Miracles is not as specific as City of Blades, though it does touch upon the complex nature of fatherhood. Instead, it touches upon parenthood in the broadest sense: not only what it means to be a parent to a child, but a parent to a people as a whole. What does it mean to raise an entire nation of people from fragile beginnings to a fully-fledged, functioning country? For that matter: what does it take to create that kind of change in the entire world? These are vitally important questions not only in the context of the novel but also in the real world. The novel does not offer any easy answers, though it does offer a hint in this quote:
"A better world comes not in a flood…but with a steady drip, drip, drip. …”

Since this is the concluding novel of a trilogy, it is vitally important that it wraps the story up as it deserves. I don’t mean that it must end happily - after all, not all stories can end happily. A story, however must end convincingly: that is, in a manner befitting everything that has happened before. I don’t particularly care if that ending is happy, or if it is sad - what matters more to me, as a reader, is that the ending is satisfying and believable.

Fortunately, City of Miracles is precisely the kind of ending I wanted for the Divine Cities trilogy. I will say nothing further on the matter, lest I spoil it, but suffice to say that it is an ending that rings true with the rest of the trilogy, and wraps it all up in the most satisfying and convincing way possible.

Overall, City of Miracles is an incredible conclusion to an equally incredible series. Though I had doubts about what the story would be like when it was announced that City of Stairs would be the first in a series instead of a standalone, all of those doubts have since been blasted away by City of Blades, and now I am glad that the story has reached its beautiful, heartbreaking conclusion in City of Miracles. This is definitely a series I will return to every so often and is very much an experience I would recommend to any and all readers, regardless of their preferred genre.
Jul 5th, 2017, 8:02 am
Jul 5th, 2017, 10:14 am
I loved book one and really enjoyed book two, but found out a few days before this one was published that Bennett goes back to treating queer people terribly in this one (I was willing to give him a pass on the Kill Your Gays trope in book one, but to do it twice? Nope.) Cancelled my pre-order and haven't regretted it.

But this is an excellent review and was a joy to read, even if I won't be picking up the actual book :)
Jul 5th, 2017, 10:14 am
Jul 6th, 2017, 12:14 am
skydancer8 wrote:I loved book one and really enjoyed book two, but found out a few days before this one was published that Bennett goes back to treating queer people terribly in this one (I was willing to give him a pass on the Kill Your Gays trope in book one, but to do it twice? Nope.) Cancelled my pre-order and haven't regretted it.

But this is an excellent review and was a joy to read, even if I won't be picking up the actual book :)


Yeah, I know the bit you're referencing, but I was too caught up in what was going on with Sigrud to really be able to hone in on it (which makes me feel terrible :( ). I think a second read will bring it out more clearly - which I should do, as I promised a close friend of mine that we'd do a reread of the whole series soon.

Thanks for pointing that out though :D. I'll pay closer attention to it next readthrough.
Jul 6th, 2017, 12:14 am

I have only two wishes. The first is for strong coffee, and the second is for stronger coffee. - Jean Tannen, from Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch
Jan 15th, 2018, 2:55 am
So it's a good book but it's not PC?
Honestly, I don't care.
Jan 15th, 2018, 2:55 am

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." - Jojen Reed
Sep 12th, 2019, 10:12 am
So I need to read it in order?
Sep 12th, 2019, 10:12 am
Apr 10th, 2022, 12:54 pm
I only read Bennett's first novel, Mr. Shivers, and I highly recommend it. This review made me want to read this trilogy.
Apr 10th, 2022, 12:54 pm

I was in the beginning and shall be forever. The first and the last. The world come full circle. I am time, the destroyer. I was the wind and the stars before this. Before planets. Before heaven and hell. And when all is done, I will be wind again, to blow this world as dust back into endless space.
Online
Oct 14th, 2022, 11:54 am
GGYubari wrote:So I need to read it in order?

yes, this trilogy should be read in proper order (City of Stairs,Blades and Miracles)
I read all three and would also recommend it
it is not traditional fantasy from "medieval" age, but set to fictional present or near past age
Oct 14th, 2022, 11:54 am

Bookworm from the center of the Europe