''City of Stairs'' is a 2014

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

novel by

Robert Jackson Bennett Robert Jackson Bennett (born 1984) is an American writer of speculative fiction. Early life and education Robert Jackson Bennett was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He graduated from the University of Texas with special honors in English in 2005 ...

. The first in his " Divine Cities" trilogy, it was published by

Broadway Books Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a Division of Random House, Inc., released its first list in Fall, 1996. Broadway was founded in 1995 as a unit of Bantam Doubleday Dell a unit of Bertelsmann. Bertelsmann acquired Rando ...

Synopsis

For centuries, the city-state of Bulikov used the magic of its patron deities to rule the world — until their

vassal state A vassal state is any state that has a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire, in a status similar to that of a vassal in the feudal system in medieval Europe. Vassal states were common among the empires of the Near East, dating back to ...

Saypur killed the gods and conquered Bulikov. Decades later, a Saypuri historian is murdered while investigating Bulikov gods and magic, and the Saypuri

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

administration in Bulikov sends Ashara Komayd to investigate.

Reception

''City of Stairs'' was a finalist for the 2015

World Fantasy Award—Novel The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described by book critics such as ''The Guardian'' as a "presti ...

,2015 World Fantasy Convention
at WorldFantasy.org; retrieved August 10, 2018 the 2015

Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel The Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel is a literary award given annually by ''Locus Magazine'' as part of their Locus Awards. Winners References External links The Locus Award Index: FantasyThe Locus Award: 2011 winnersExcerpts and summaries o ...

,2015 Locus Awards Finalists Revealed
by Dianna Dilworth, at ''

Adweek ''Adweek'' is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1979. ''Adweek'' covers creativity, client–agency relationships, global advertising, accounts in review, and new campaigns. During this time, it has cover ...

''; published May 6, 2015; retrieved August 10, 2018 and the 2015

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of S ...

for Best Fantasy Novel;British Fantasy Awards 2015: the nominees
, at the

British Fantasy Society The British Fantasy Society (BFS) was founded in 1971 as the British Weird Fantasy Society, an offshoot of the British Science Fiction Association. The society is dedicated to promoting the best in the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres. ...

; published July 21, 2015; retrieved August 10, 2018 as well, an analysis of the nominations for the 2015

Hugo Awards The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

has shown that, if it were not for the involvement of the

Sad Puppies Sad Puppies was an unsuccessful right-wing anti-diversity voting campaign run from 2013 to 2017 and intended to influence the outcome of the annual Hugo Awards, the longest-running prize (since 1953) for science fiction or fantasy works. It was ...

, ''City of Stairs'' would have been a finalist for the

Hugo Award for Best Novel The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,00 ...

.This Is What The 2015 Hugo Ballot Should Have Been
by Andrew Liptak, at

Io9 ''io9'' is part of Gizmodo media since 2015, and it began as blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The site initially focused on the subjects of science fiction, fantasy, futurism, science, technology and related areas but over the years has ...

; published August 23, 2015; retrieved August 10, 2018 In the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'',

N. K. Jemisin Nora Keita Jemisin (born September 19, 1972) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, better known as N. K. Jemisin. Her fiction includes a wide range of themes, notably cultural conflict and oppression. Her debut novel, ''The Hundre ...

lauded Bennett's

worldbuilding Worldbuilding is the process of constructing a world, originally an imaginary one, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, and ecology is a key task fo ...

, noting that Bulikov and Saypur "refreshingly" evoke "

czarist Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...

and

Mughal India The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

" rather than "staid medieval Europe", but considered that the book's "espionage and police-procedural components" were its "least interesting"; Jemisin also faulted the characterization of Komayd as a "cipher" who is "(made) more interesting by (the) reflected quirkiness" of her associates, but who "never quite leaps off the page." At ''

Strange Horizons ''Strange Horizons'' is an online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and nonfiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in September 2000, and ...

'',

Niall Harrison Niall Harrison is a British medical writer and science fiction editor and critic. He was a judge of the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2006 and 2007 and Guest of Honour at Eastercon 2023. Biography Harrison attended Reading Blue Coat School and read ...

likewise praised the worldbuilding for its "coherency ndcompleteness that precious few fantasies can match", and compared the violence and brutality of Komayd's assistant/bodyguard Sigrud to that of a

Joe Abercrombie Joseph Edward Abercrombie (born December 31, 1974) is a British fantasy writer and film editor. He is the author of ''The First Law'' trilogy, as well as other fantasy books in the same setting and a trilogy of young adult novels. His novel '' ...

character. ''

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

'' criticized Bennett for opening the novel with a lengthy courtroom scene in which (to the "extraordinary boredom (of) all the characters involved") a Bulikov merchant is prosecuted for illegally displaying the symbol of a dead god, but praised the pacing of the rest of the novel, calling Komayd and Sigrud "a post-feminist

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are two sword-and-sorcery heroes appearing in stories written by American author Fritz Leiber. They are the protagonists of what are probably Leiber's best-known stories. One of his motives in writing them was to have ...

References

{{reflist 2014 American novels 2014 fantasy novels Broadway Books books