#robert-jackson-bennett — Public Fediverse posts

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, Book Review

I started my review of the last book by comparison to other books. I’ll start this with a quote.

I learned very early on not to speak to my folk from on high, but to get down with them, beside them, showing them how to act rather than telling them. And I suggested that they should do the same with one another: that they didn’t need a book of rules to tell them what to do and what not to do, but experience and action.

Robert Bennett builds not just a fantasy world but a wisdom system for his series. It doesn’t need to be correct, to be appealing.

The gods were killed 80 years ago. With their deaths, most of their miracles vanished as well, including a large number of buildings from the sacred city of Bulikov. Eighty years later, the gods are forbidden. They can’t be mentioned, studied, hinted, their religions practiced, and the leftovers of their miracles cannot be used. People pretend they never existed, or at least most people.

Someone is breaking these rules. A top spy, the mighty Shara, is sent to Bulikov to figure out the conspiracy. Who killed the expert of the divine past, Efrem Pangyui? Why? Why do miracles still exist?

Dense and likable characters, a rich world, and an endlessly long ending, just like The Tainted Cup. Would I have been able to read this book if I hadn’t read The Tainted Cup? Unsure. But it’s a clear 5*/5 and a great fantasy. Ending with a quote as well.

Forgetting… is a beautiful thing. When you forget, you remake yourself… For a caterpillar to become a butterfly, it must forget it was a caterpillar at all. Then it will be as if the caterpillar never was & there was only ever a butterfly.

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, Book Review

I started my review of the last book by comparison to other books. I’ll start this with a quote.

I learned very early on not to speak to my folk from on high, but to get down with them, beside them, showing them how to act rather than telling them. And I suggested that they should do the same with one another: that they didn’t need a book of rules to tell them what to do and what not to do, but experience and action.

Robert Bennett builds not just a fantasy world but a wisdom system for his series. It doesn’t need to be correct, to be appealing.

The gods were killed 80 years ago. With their deaths, most of their miracles vanished as well, including a large number of buildings from the sacred city of Bulikov. Eighty years later, the gods are forbidden. They can’t be mentioned, studied, hinted, their religions practiced, and the leftovers of their miracles cannot be used. People pretend they never existed, or at least most people.

Someone is breaking these rules. A top spy, the mighty Shara, is sent to Bulikov to figure out the conspiracy. Who killed the expert of the divine past, Efrem Pangyui? Why? Why do miracles still exist?

Dense and likable characters, a rich world, and an endlessly long ending, just like The Tainted Cup. Would I have been able to read this book if I hadn’t read The Tainted Cup? Unsure. But it’s a clear 5*/5 and a great fantasy. Ending with a quote as well.

Forgetting… is a beautiful thing. When you forget, you remake yourself… For a caterpillar to become a butterfly, it must forget it was a caterpillar at all. Then it will be as if the caterpillar never was & there was only ever a butterfly.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, Book Review

I’ll start writing about this book by comparison. It has the charm of Tress of the Emerald Sea, the worldbuilding of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, and the green aesthetic of Jade City by Fonda Lee. I mean, the story feels green, not the book itself. That’s good company for any novel.

The world is GMO-fantasy, where all life is subject to genetic modifications, and the modifications often go out of control. Perhaps one of these insanely potent GMOs, one of the sources of them, or both, are the leviathans. They are Godzilla-like monsters, coming out of the sea every year in a mindless attempt to either destroy all humans or talk to them. Humans are always trying to stop them, structured to sustain an army that can battle with such giant creatures. That’s the world, and the world is just a humble background.

Our main characters, Dinios and Ana, are investigators with peculiar powers. He has a GMO-altered memory that lets him remember everything, and she is smart. Ana and Dinios have to investigate a murder where the victim has a tree growing out of his corpse. How does one even approach a disaster like that? They will figure it out, step by step, by using their superpowers.

The story flows naturally, and the pacing is strong right up until the ending. If there’s one critique, it’s that not every thread needed to be fully explained or wrapped up in detail. I would have preferred a bit more left unsaid for what comes next.

Overall, a fantastic story, a solid 5*, and probably the best book I’ve read this month so far.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, Book Review

I’ll start writing about this book by comparison. It has the charm of Tress of the Emerald Sea, the worldbuilding of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, and the green aesthetic of Jade City by Fonda Lee. I mean, the story feels green, not the book itself. That’s good company for any novel.

The world is GMO-fantasy, where all life is subject to genetic modifications, and the modifications often go out of control. Perhaps one of these insanely potent GMOs, one of the sources of them, or both, are the leviathans. They are Godzilla-like monsters, coming out of the sea every year in a mindless attempt to either destroy all humans or talk to them. Humans are always trying to stop them, structured to sustain an army that can battle with such giant creatures. That’s the world, and the world is just a humble background.

Our main characters, Dinios and Ana, are investigators with peculiar powers. He has a GMO-altered memory that lets him remember everything, and she is smart. Ana and Dinios have to investigate a murder where the victim has a tree growing out of his corpse. How does one even approach a disaster like that? They will figure it out, step by step, by using their superpowers.

The story flows naturally, and the pacing is strong right up until the ending. If there’s one critique, it’s that not every thread needed to be fully explained or wrapped up in detail. I would have preferred a bit more left unsaid for what comes next.

Overall, a fantastic story, a solid 5*, and probably the best book I’ve read this month so far.

I've finished: Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett

This is not what I'm used to from Robert Jackson Bennett,

A hard hitting, near future, techno-thriller, parody of American gun culture.

It is not the funny sort of satire, it is the tragic, tense drama kind.

Published in 2019 it hit's a bit too close to home in 2025.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/08c7b0e6-cf4b-4405-8219-5d51dd7b8095

@bookstodon @audiobooks #ScienceFiction #dystopia #satire #NearFuture #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks #robertjacksonbennett

I've finished: Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett

This is not what I'm used to from Robert Jackson Bennett,

A hard hitting, near future, techno-thriller, parody of American gun culture.

It is not the funny sort of satire, it is the tragic, tense drama kind.

Published in 2019 it hit's a bit too close to home in 2025.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/08c7b0e6-cf4b-4405-8219-5d51dd7b8095

@bookstodon @audiobooks #ScienceFiction #dystopia #satire #NearFuture #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks #robertjacksonbennett

In the fantasy mystery THE TAINTED CUP, by Robert Jackson Bennett, a very green apprentice named Kol is assigned to help the investigator Ana Dolabra, who has a Nero Wolfe-esque set of quirks. They're investigating the murder of an army engineer, killed when plants rapidly sprouted from inside his body. The army belongs to the Empire, which builds & maintains sea walls to keep out giant kaiju that periodically try to come ashore & attack. The Empire is based upon technology that uses a wide variety of plants and potions to bioengineer their people; for example, Kol is an Engraver, able to photographically remember scenes and conversations in order to testify to them later.

This was a lot of fun: I liked the setting, which felt vividly drawn and had an underlying sense of body horror (all these modifications come with costs). Kol was a good choice as our Watson character, though Dolabra felt more like Nero Wolfe than Sherlock Holmes, and she was disappointingly unmemorable; she has quirks that are more disadvantaging than Holmes, though she will (reluctantly) travel for her investigation.

(3/5)

#TheTaintedCup #RobertJacksonBennett

In the fantasy mystery THE TAINTED CUP, by Robert Jackson Bennett, a very green apprentice named Kol is assigned to help the investigator Ana Dolabra, who has a Nero Wolfe-esque set of quirks. They're investigating the murder of an army engineer, killed when plants rapidly sprouted from inside his body. The army belongs to the Empire, which builds & maintains sea walls to keep out giant kaiju that periodically try to come ashore & attack. The Empire is based upon technology that uses a wide variety of plants and potions to bioengineer their people; for example, Kol is an Engraver, able to photographically remember scenes and conversations in order to testify to them later.

This was a lot of fun: I liked the setting, which felt vividly drawn and had an underlying sense of body horror (all these modifications come with costs). Kol was a good choice as our Watson character, though Dolabra felt more like Nero Wolfe than Sherlock Holmes, and she was disappointingly unmemorable; she has quirks that are more disadvantaging than Holmes, though she will (reluctantly) travel for her investigation.

(3/5)

#TheTaintedCup #RobertJacksonBennett

I've finished: City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett

General Mulaghesh, the grizzled veteran is at the center of this Divine Cities novel.

This one is about the horrors of war, and the harm it does to the perpetrators as well as the victims.

As ancient and modern warfare come to ahead, can the cycle of violence be broken?

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a32241fc-48cd-499f-9192-1a631294f6da

@bookstodon @audiobooks
#fantasy #RobertJacksonBennett #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks

I've finished: City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett

General Mulaghesh, the grizzled veteran is at the center of this Divine Cities novel.

This one is about the horrors of war, and the harm it does to the perpetrators as well as the victims.

As ancient and modern warfare come to ahead, can the cycle of violence be broken?

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a32241fc-48cd-499f-9192-1a631294f6da

@bookstodon @audiobooks
#fantasy #RobertJacksonBennett #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks

I've finished: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

After I finished A Drop of Corruption, I was looking for more Robert Jackson Bennett.

City of Stairs is similar enough to the Shadow of the Leviathan Series to feel very familiar yet not so similar you feel like your reading the same story in a different location.

This time the female is the lead, but she isn't infallible, and the male partner is an uncannily capable muscle.

Like in the Leviathan novels, The story begins with a murder investigation that then reveals more and more about the world, the gods, the old imperial power and the new. Neither political system is admirable but our heroine intends to try and change things for the better.

The premise is also quite unique, What if the rebels found a way to kill the empire's gods? What would an empire that has lost not only its gods but everything that was powered by their miracles look like after decades of occupation?

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/b092604c-3cdd-4088-9691-e3ce2d6d577d

@bookstodon @audiobooks
#fantasy #amReading #RobertJacksonBennett
#bookstodon #AudioBooks

I've finished: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

After I finished A Drop of Corruption, I was looking for more Robert Jackson Bennett.

City of Stairs is similar enough to the Shadow of the Leviathan Series to feel very familiar yet not so similar you feel like your reading the same story in a different location.

This time the female is the lead, but she isn't infallible, and the male partner is an uncannily capable muscle.

Like in the Leviathan novels, The story begins with a murder investigation that then reveals more and more about the world, the gods, the old imperial power and the new. Neither political system is admirable but our heroine intends to try and change things for the better.

The premise is also quite unique, What if the rebels found a way to kill the empire's gods? What would an empire that has lost not only its gods but everything that was powered by their miracles look like after decades of occupation?

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/b092604c-3cdd-4088-9691-e3ce2d6d577d

@bookstodon @audiobooks
#fantasy #amReading #RobertJacksonBennett
#bookstodon #AudioBooks

I #AmReading Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett.
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In a city that runs on industrialized magic, a secret war will be fought to overwrite reality itself

#Foundryside #RobertJacksonBennett

#CurrentlyReading #Foundryside #TheFoundersTrilogy book 1 by #RobertJacksonBennett . I read the Divine Cities Trilogy by the same author a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I like this one quite a bit, though i'm only a few chapters in so far. #Fantasy #Bookstodon