"The Divine Cities Trilogy" (starting with "City of Stairs") by Robert Jackson Bennet (series; 2014-2017)

**An epic fantasy trilogy in the oldschool sense, driven by its robust and deep mythology to create a believable world for the characters and the reader to inhabit.  Also Sigrud is awesome**

Robert Jackson Bennet has been under the radar for a while, quietly putting out quality book after quality book for a decade and a half.  Fortunately, it seems like "The Tainted Cup" is getting some well-deserved awards buzz, hopefully that will give his whole catalog some hype (personally, if you want to start with one of his standalones, "The Company Man" is a great little urban mystery scifi, "American Elsewhere" is a small town eldritch shenanigans story very reminiscent of Stranger Things, and "Mr. Shivers" reads like if Stephen King decided to write a John Steinbeck novel, or vice versa)

But I want to talk about the Divine Cities trilogy, which I honestly think stands up as a masterpiece

Are any of the three individual books masterpieces on their own? Hrm, the second one maybe, but only maybe.  However, I think it's fair to say that the whole trilogy is greater than the sum of its parts. Because this kind of book, regardless of other qualities, is about escapism. And Bennett created a huge world, populated it with three-dimensional characters, and let them run around doing cool stuff.  And we get to hang out with them while they do it

The Divine Cities feel vast. I bought into the world--and I bought into the mythology in a big way, what can I say I'm a sucker for a really good invented mythology (even if it does feel that parts were jury-rigged on in books 2 and 3; Bennet isn't Steven Erickson).  Oh and if nothing else, yeah, Bennet has some serious chops when it comes to prose:

From her arms hang all the tides and all the storms of all the seas, and all the dawns and sunsets; from her back there hangs a cape of all the births and all the deaths, both those that have come and those that have yet to be; and about her waist is a skirt composed of all the frantic desires that time would not pass by, the wish that all these moments, however beautiful or brutal, would persist, and linger, and continue. And at the bottom of this skirt is a broad, black hem, cutting all these wishes short.

But let's talk about that invented mythology.  Bennet created a full backdrop of gods and their powers and their champions and their feuds.  And then we open up Book One with the gods dead.  Humanity rose up and killed them before the novel even began.  We killed the gods, and now we're finally free to write our own destiny.  This is a series about what kind of world we would create

I loved this book because of how vast its world felt.  Every character feels real, there's a sense of things happening off the page, in other countries and other cities.  But we do get to be here, to watch the birth of a new era, watch big events set in motion and see how our characters handle it.  It's a lot of fun

And yes, this is a series about pain and loss.  It's about the end of one age and the start of a new one, both for the world as a whole and so many of the characters.  For all that the books are full of action setpieces and dramatic revelations, it takes its time to remember the small pains inflicted by a world of chaos.  It is, however, wonderful that so many of these characters manage to find each other:

“Do you know what it’s like, to lose everything in an instant?” Taty asks. “To lose normal overnight?” 

“Yes,” says Sigrud. 

“Yes,” says Ivanya.

Oh, and I loved this book because of Sigrud Je Harkvaldsson, one of the silliest, greatest characters in modern fantasy.  If this series ever gets the HBO series treatment it could absolutely pull off, he will immediately be the fan favorite.  Introduced in the first book as the main character's secretary, it's immediately clear that he is in fact her bodyguard, operative, and enforcer.  A Viking-flavored al'Lan Mandragoran, complete with the mysterious and significant past.  In a novel full of cunning political operatives and patient tacticians, he stands out as a man whose "response to the Divine has always been to hit it with something very durable as hard as he can, preferably in the face—if it has a face."

Sigrud's purpose in the novel (other than to be the center of some truly excellent action scenes) is obvious, he's a symbol of the old world.  The one we're trying to get away from.  The one where capricious gods ruled through strength of might, and mankind needed to be equally strong to stand up to them.  And what makes him a great character is the fact that he knows it.  He has a gift for violence, and he hates it.  He knows that the world he and the main characters are trying to create is one that doesn't need him, and he knows this is a very good thing.  Even if he does get maudlin, at times:

"'The world is a coward,' he thinks. 'It does not change before your face; it waits until your back is turned, and pounces….'"

Honestly, I'm just going to drop a ton of quotes by or about Sigrud.  This is going to end up being like half the post, isn't it?  Worth it

“Life is full of beautiful dangers, dangerous beauties,” says Sigrud. He stares into the sky, and the white sunlight glints off of his many scars. “They wound us in ways we cannot see: an injury ripples out, like a stone dropped in water, touching moments years into the future.”

* * *

I do not really know what’s going on, he thinks. He stomps the gas pedal and buckles his safety belt. But I hope I live to find out.

* * *

"It is a fool who lives his life believing the waves upon which he sails shall remember him. The seas know nothing. This makes them beautiful. And this makes them terrible."

* * *

"'There is rice whisky in the washroom,' says Sigrud, 'if you would like some.'

"'Mm? What? You hid booze in my room?'

"'I have booze hidden all over the place. Dead drop training has its uses beyond espionage.'"

Anyways, this is a great series.  An epic tale of the death of a previous age and the birth of a new one, a tale of angry and vindictive gods, a tale of heroes when we need them and heroes when we find them in ourselves.  Take a weeklong trip to the Divine Cities, you won't be disapointed

I loved this book

"'It’s unfair that the dead leave us,' she says. 'But it’s worse that they never really go away.'"