The Not a Book Club Club discussion
This topic is about
City of Blades
The Divine Cities
>
CoB Part 3 (Chapter 12-End) Full Spoilers
date
newest »
newest »
Halfway through chapter 15 and holy guacamole the revelations are coming fast and furiousHave to pat myself on the back even though I sort of backtracked in the last section :D
Totally did not see Thanadeshi having been in the city of blades, keeping control of the dead though. What a way to spend the rest of your life
Wonder what the consequences will be of Mula taking the sword...
Oh Shara you manipulative so-and-so. After that ordeal, I really hope Mulaghesh gets some peace of mind in the future. That was some insanely brutal shit she just went through.
Great story, loved every page.
Is Sigrud scheduled to be the main POV character for the next book? With him on the run, that could be mighty interesting.
Still early in this section but it's interesting that both Signe and Mulaghesh had Lord of the Flies situations when they were children and they dealt with them in diammetrically opposing ways.
Congrats, Scott, on guessing about Rada :). Thanks to you, it didn't come as a complete surprise.I didn't like the 'grimdark' ending of the book. I know that it's very subjective and I'm probably the only one here, but to me it was so much less interesting than the City of Stairs, in that it's similar to many other books in the genre: tons of bodies, lots of carnage and a pretty depressing ending. In the first one, there was hope in the end, while here I'm fed up with Mulagesh. Overall, there was a lot less mystery, too - mostly because we are already familiar with the world. So even though the first 2/3 of the book was a lot of fun for me, I rated it 4 stars only.
Ah damn, sorry you didn't enjoy it as much. What about Mulaghesh made you fed up (out of curiosity)? Brad made a comment in the other group that he thinks Shara's daughter will end being the main character we get for the next book, which is a pretty interesting thought.
I did miss Shara as a character, I'll be honest. She was great with her scheming ways, and I could have done with some more of that.
I did think it was bad ass when Mula dropped that sword on the army of the undead.
Oh, as for Mulaghesh: I liked her as a person, but I'm fed up with her as the main and only POV. It's just the fact that she was a warrior made for a very different story, where fighting (as opposed to intrigue) was at the very centre of everything. I usually enjoy fighting scenes in fantasy novels, but here the last 30 % of the book ( ever since the visit to the City of Blades ) was action -only, with (almost) nothing else at all, and I stopped caring somewhere in the middle, when Mulaghesh came too late for the umpteenth time.In the end, I also disliked her attitude, which struck me as somewhat hypocritical . She was very good at what she was doing, killed a lot of people throughout her career as a soldier, and then wouldn't cover for Sigrud when he went into berserk rage over Signe's death? After all, he had every reason to do so.
I think I would have liked this book a lot better if it was the first one in the series, whereas I wanted it - a bit unfairly, perhaps - to be a bit more like its predecessor, with a less grim ending.
Yeah, I totally get that. Thanks for the insight! I did kind of miss Shara and the story revolving around her as she was a lot more sneaky and subtle.
Finished this one on my way to PAX South, and I enjoyed it, but probably not as much as City of Stairs. I agree with Teanka that Mulaghesh's attitude was kind of an issue for me, but I could also see that she was in a difficult situation and all. By about halfway through the book, it seemed pretty clear that Rada was the villain and the general was crazy-pants, that Thanadeshi was going to come into the story somehow, and that the mystery metal was the swords.I'm actually surprised that they haven't run into more issues with the divinities being held to their promises even after they've died. I guess maybe in a religion where your god is actually, physically there every day they don't have to make quite as many promises to their followers... but still, it seems like this kind of thing wouldn't come as much of a surprise.
Still, very enjoyable, Mulaghesh fit the end much better than she fit the beginning, and while I would have liked a 2nd PoV to handle the intrigue stuff or had it more evenly mixed throughout, I was never bored reading it. Solid 4-star book.
Haha, I just listened to it earlier today. That dude is entertaining. Loved that he wouldn't really answer any questions seriously. The music in the background was a nice touch
I think the old, crazy general was my least favorite part - I felt like he was stupid and I couldn't quite buy into his motivations for doing things.The parts with Sigurd made me sad.
Mod
Other group?
Mod
I had ZERO clue who Thanadeshi was, even though Sky apparently expected her to show up. Thankfully he filled us in shortly after she appeared. I assume she a detail from the first book I forgot,or maybe early in this book that I overlooked.
I'm genrally tired of dark fantasy, but I was OK with this ending. I couldn't put it down. In fact I delayed reading it for 2 days because I figured I wouldnt want to put it down again and I didnt have much time to read before today.
I never really wanted a sequel to Stairs, but i I'm glad we got one, because I thought it was fantastic. Though I still might round down.
I'd love to see more of Sigurd - and since he is now heading off into the unknown....well...I'd vote to follow.
Suzanne wrote: "I'd love to see more of Sigurd - and since he is now heading off into the unknown....well...I'd vote to follow."City of Miracles is Sigrud's book.
Rob wrote: "Scott wrote: "Brad made a comment in the other group that he thinks Shara's daughter will end being the main character we get for the next book, which is a pretty interesting thought."Other group?"
SpecFic Buddy Reads is doing this book this month as well.
Mod
Yes, Scott, Teanka, Suzanne and myself.
Thinadeshi comes up early in this book when Mulaghesh is learning the background of the city. She's described as an idealistic genius that came to Voortyashtan and disappeared.
Mod
Yeah, the fort and the metal are both named after her. They had a little aside section about how kids growing up initially wanted to be the Raj, then when they figured out that Thinadeshi was the real hero, they all wanted to be her instead.
Her name was dropped often enough that I figured she would be making an appearance, although I almost would have preferred it if the woman playing Voortya in the City of Blades had been the other goddess (who helped make it) instead, keeping the city alive out of her love for her and Voortya's creation, but being a Divinity of creation not being okay with letting the dead sentinels destroy everything. Heck, she could have even been hiding out there from a world that wanted her dead. Then it could have been a connection to her miracles that would let our protagonists find the city, and it wouldn't have left me questioning whether or not other gods' promises were still alive and kicking, and how they hadn't run into this kind of thing before. Come to think of it, I had a similar gripe with the previous book. Ah well, it was still enjoyable.
Honestly, I probably only remembered because I read like 80% of the book in one sitting on the plane. It's hard to hide reveals when someone's reading like that...
I liked it better than the first one too. So I guess you weren't quite alone in that. Thinadeshi was also the hero of the "childrens book" they found when searching the missing woman's room.
That's cool that "City of Miracles" is about Sigurd - I didn't know that.
He dropped the info in the latest Rocket Talk podcast. I recommend listening to it, I laughed out loud several times and I've never heard Justin Landon so flustered, and this is aguy who regularly interviews Sam Sykes.
Great book. I didn't find it dark at all - I thought the ending was rather uplifting. I agree with Other Sky - I was thinking the same thing about divinities and the power of their promises - surely this isn't the only promise made that would need to be kept?
Excited for the next book if Sigrud is the main character. Needs more giant kraken battles though.
Uplifting? With Signe and her lover dead, Sigrud banished and Shara going to lose her power? I think we have different definitions of 'uplifting', lol.Thanks for the info on City of Miracles. I wonder which city/deity it was, can't remember now, but there might have been something mentioned in the first book.
I had a feeling Rada was bad from our first meeting.I loved this, and even with the deaths found it uplifting, the healing of Mulaghesh, and how even with deep scars from our youth we can do that. I liked the way everything tied together, what the ore was, even the goddess of war being effected by her relationship with a goddess of love, our innate character is touched by outside.
The Not a Book Club Club
Books mentioned in this topic
City of Stairs (other topics)City of Stairs (other topics)
No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling this for your friends.
Please do not discuss events from later chapters/books. Referring back to events from a previous section/book is fine.