City of Blades

Executive Summary: The sequel I wasn't sure I wanted turned out to be the best read of the year so far.Full ReviewBefore my book club did a read of [b:City of Stairs 20174424 City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1) Robert Jackson Bennett https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394545220s/20174424.jpg 28030792] a year and a half ago, I had not heard of [a:Robert Jackson Bennett 2916869 Robert Jackson Bennett https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1328633063p2/2916869.jpg]. It ended up being one of my favorite reads of 2014.Not only was it well written and engrossing, but it was a stand alone! Who does that? No one anymore it seems like. While the world Mr. Bennett built was fascinating and large enough to accommodate many stories, I didn't feel I needed another one.So when I found out he was going to be writing a sequel to it after all, I was apprehensive. Would riding the popularity of the first book lessen it? If an author writes a book as a stand alone, would a sequel he never intended to write be any good? In this case, the answer is it turns out to be even better. At least for me.I found Mulaghesh to be an excellent supporting character in the first book. I was intrigued by the idea of her being the protagonist. Of course it didn't hurt that the rumor was we'd get more of Sigurd as well. The change of protagonist and location made this book feel mostly like another stand alone story set in the same world. However, unlike the first book, I don't think you can just pick this up on it's own. It still builds on the foundation of the first book, while largely being it's own thing. Also, unlike the first book, it does a lot more to set up another book which looks to be on the way sometime next year.I found the city Voortyashtan just as fascinating as Bulikov, while being completely different. [b:City of Stairs 20174424 City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1) Robert Jackson Bennett https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394545220s/20174424.jpg 28030792] hints at a larger world of fallen cities built by vanquished deities, and this book shows us just another small part of that.I really enjoyed most of the new characters, but I especially liked Signe. She was a good compliment and contrast to Mulaghesh. Both are smart, capable and determined, but Signe is much more an intellectual. It helped (though not enough) to offset the lack of Shara.This was one of those books I had a hard time putting down, and would have read it far faster if “real life” hadn't kept conspiring to take up my reading time. It's for that reason I ended up giving it a very rare 5 stars. My typical criteria for 5 star books are those I can't put down and stay with me when I do. This book definitely fit that. It's the sequel I didn't know I wanted. Now I just hope that Mr. Bennett can pull it off again with a third novel, because after this book, I definitely want another.