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Both my parents read this book by Robert Jackson Bennett and would not shut up about how good it was. My mom dove straight into the second book before even giving me the first one so, in the interest of having something to talk about with my parents, I put Red Queen aside to wait for another day while I read this book.
Totally worth it.
This book is amazing. It’s fantasy but we don’t get a name for the world it takes place in. There are just the countries of Saypur, the Continent, and the Dreyling Republic/North Seas, although we don’t hear much about the latter. The focus is on Saypur and the Continent.
The Continent used to be ruled by six different divinities and the people who lived on the Continent were called the Blessed, which means their lives were extraordinarily lucky. They abused this luck, enslaved the Saypuris, and used Saypuri resources for their own gain.
After several hundred years of this, the Saypuris got fed up and one of them managed to conceive of a way to kill the gods. So that’s what he did. The great Kaj invaded the Continent, killed all the gods, and took over.
When he did this, the Continent experienced what they call the Blink. Because the Continentals had been living in such close proximity with the Divinities, the gods had literally built parts of the Continent, and when they died, everything they had created disappeared. Whole buildings vanished along with all the people inside them, leaving many parts of the continent in ruins and cities looking and feeling disjointed as streets and buildings appear to just end. The book gets its name from the fact it takes place in Bulikov, the city in the center of the Continent that has staircases that climb several stories before just ending in midair as a result of the Blink.
That was just under a century ago and the Saypuris have been running things ever since. They have outlawed any and all mentions of any deities, miracles, blessings, etc. The Continentals are not allowed access to their own histories, but the Saypuris are allowed to study it as much as they want. You can see why this would cause tension.
Dr. Efrem Pangyui is an historian who has been sent from Saypur to learn as much about Continental history and mythology as he can. When he turns up dead, Shara Komayd, a spy and a direct descendant of the great Kaj, gets herself assigned to the case so she can figure out who killed him and bring that person to justice. She knew Pangyui personally and is probably the most knowledgable person on Continental history other than Pangyui himself.
That sets the plot up for a murder mystery, and it kind of is, but the more Shara learns about everything that’s going on in the Continent (and her own family/government) the more poor Pangyui’s murder takes a back seat. There is a lot of discussion about good and evil.
Most of the Continentals still think they are morally superior to the Saypuris while many Saypuris feel the opposite. They look down on the Continentals as “savages” who have a hard time making do without the miracles that formed a part of their day-to-day lives for millennia.
Shara is one of the few who sees there is no good and evil, only people. She hasn’t forgotten the atrocities the Continentals brought down on the Saypuris for centuries, but she also doesn’t believe that excuses the often “insensitive” treatment of the Continentals by the Saypuris.
There is also a lot of talk about religion, gods, saints, miracles, mythology, etc. It even covers the question of whether the gods need the people to worship them as much as or more than the people need the gods. It’s fascinating and it’s extremely well written. Each simile Bennett uses is intentionally designed to create a specific feeling about that particular character/situation and the result is flawless.
And I gotta love a male writer who lets his female characters take center stage. They’re awesome and badass and human and irreverent and unapologetic and I love them so much!
There are a lot of serious issues being dealt with in this book, plus multiple life-and-death battles, politics, important reveals, etc. But that doesn’t mean this book isn’t fun. The main characters maintain a sense of humor throughout and there were many times that had me smiling, if not laughing out loud. If you have yet to check out this series, I highly recommend you do so. I seriously don’t have one bad thing to say about it.
What did you guys read this week? Anything someone else recommended to you? I want to hear all about it!