City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett

Published by Broadway Books on January 26, 2016

City of Stairs didn’t need a sequel but I have no complaint about Robert Jackson Bennett’s decision to write one. City of Blades is less surprising than City of Stairs, but that’s to be expected in a sequel. There is plenty of action and excitement, and if City of Blades didn’t blow me away as did City of Stairs, I nevertheless enjoyed reading it.

General Turyin Mulaghesh (retired), finds herself pressed back into service, this time to undertake an investigation for Shara Komayd. A new ore has been discovered in Voortyastan. The ore has unexplained properties. Shara worries that the ore may be miraculous, which would imply that a Divinity still exists (despite the presumption to the contrary at the end of City of Stairs). Since Divinities are nothing but trouble, the possibility that one survived is worrisome. A Saypuri spy with expertise in the miraculous, previously dispatched to study the ore, has disappeared. Hence the need for Mulaghesh.

City of Blades reunites Mulaghesh with Sigrud, my favorite character from City of Stairs. They explore the disappearance of the Saypuri spy and the nature of the miraculous ore while dealing with the unsettled political and military situations in Voortyashtan. A Saypuri outpost is building a harbor there to better serve Saypuri commerce, if not the Voortyashtani. Sigrud’s daughter Signe plays a key role in that effort, adding family drama to the plot.

Bennett always fills his books with interesting ideas. One of my favorites in City of Blades is the notion of Divinities (gods) creating an afterlife as a means of coaxing or coercing mortals into doing what they wanted (coaxing with a version of heaven, coercing with many imaginative versions of hell). But when the gods die, what happens to all the souls who have transitioned to afterlife?

Bennett’s books excel because he mixes ideas and plot with complex characters. City of Blades fleshes out Mulaghesh, explores her formative years as a soldier and the way her past has shaped her present. It does less with Sigrud until the end, which I found disappointing.

City of Blades lacks the moral heft of the first novel, although it offers a good lesson at the end about the heartache caused by the word “deserve.” The sequel doesn’t have the same depth as City of Stairs, but in the second half it develops some of the insight into human nature that makes City of Stairs so memorable. The novel is primarily an exploration of war -- all wars, the nature of war, its inevitable pointless horror -- as well as its impact not just on civilians, but on warriors. It is a story about the difference between soldiers and savages. The ideas expressed are not entirely original or profound, but they have the ring of truth.

If City of Blades is more predictable than its predecessor, that’s because it continues a spectacular universe and must necessarily pale in comparison to the first revelation of that universe. City of Blades still manages to tell a powerful story. The ending, in particular, is strong.

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City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Published by Broadway Books on September 9, 2014

I always look forward to reading a Robert Jackson Bennett novel. City of Stairs has all the hallmarks of Bennett's work, including a fiercely imagined world, offbeat humor, a thoroughly enjoyable story, and characters who, despite being from a different world or universe, illuminate what means to be human.

As a background to the complex plot, Bennett has invented a mythology. In the world Bennett creates, gods (recast as Divinities) once existed; the miracles attributed to them actually occurred. Prior to the Great War, Bulikov was a city of miracles, protected by the Divinities who occupied the Continent. Saypur was a Continental colony across the sea until a Saypuri named Kaj killed the six Divinities ... or so history records. After that, the miracles were locked away and forgotten.

Seventy-five years after Great War, Saypur rules the Continent. The people who inhabit Bulikov hate their occupiers, in part because the Saypuri have outlawed their divine symbols and all works that mention or acknowledge their Divinities.

The novel begins with the murder of Efram Pangyui, a Saypuri who was studying the Divinities and trying to learn how Kaj managed to kill them. Saypur sends Pangyui's mentor, a woman named Shara, to investigate. Shara, who does not want the Continentals to know that she is the great-granddaughter of Kaj, pursues mysteries and conspiracies that go much deeper than Pangyui's murder. Her investigation is impeded both by an uncooperative superior in Saypur and by Continentals who miraculously vanish on Bulikov's streets.

In addition to Shara, the novel's strongest characters include Shara's former lover, now a wealthy Continental; Shara's aunt, who operates Saypur's Ministry of Foreign Affairs while serving her own hidden agenda; and a rough-and-tumble Saypuri woman who is charged with governing Bulikov. The best character is Shara's assistant, Sigrud, who might be described as a philosopher-barbarian. Each character has a fully formed, carefully considered personality.

In many ways, the novel is allegorical. It can be seen as an exploration of leadership, of ruling by fiat versus leading by example. It can also be seen as a critique of religion, particularly religions that micromanage diets, dress, and sex acts, enforcing prohibitions by visiting inhumane punishments upon transgressors. Religious edicts that deny the experience of joy deprive their followers of a part of their humanity, while blind adherence to arbitrary rules, even when made by deities, is antithetical to progress and enlightenment -- or so the novel suggests.

Another of the novel's themes is the tendency of the oppressed to become oppressors once they seize power. Another concerns the consequences that befall wealthy nations when they allow oppressed nations to wallow in poverty. Yet another is how we deal with history when the history we learned turns out to be a lie, and how easily we forget that we all share a common history. This novel isn't a political or ethical tome but it scores points for illustrating meaningful lessons, always within the context of the plot and without lecturing. It scores even more points for using exceptional characters to tell a fascinating story.

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American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett

Published by Orbit on February 12, 2013 

Robert Jackson Bennett is a masterful creator of unclassifiable fiction. Is American Elsewhere science fiction, fantasy, or a horror story? Is it a crime novel? A mystery? A satire? Is it an allegory of insular life in small town America, a commentary on intolerance of outsiders? A send-up of the illusory wholesomeness of small town life? A wry take on motherhood and dysfunctional families? Maybe it's a conundrum wrapped in a paradox soaked in a one hundred proof fever dream. Fortunately, you don't have to categorize American Elsewhere to enjoy it.

The quirky residents of Wink know there are places in Wink you just don't go. It's best, in fact, to stay inside at night. You might want to gaze at the moon, but you're never really sure whose sky it's in. You don't ever go into the woods because you might encounter ... well, nobody in Wink really wants to talk about that. Other things about Wink are strange -- rooms you enter that keep going forever, mirrors that relocate the objects they reflect, the way time is broken (or maybe it's just bruised). People don't want to talk about that either. In fact, they can't, under penalty of ... well, they can't talk about the penalty, but you wouldn't want to experience it.

Mona Bright, a former cop, can barely remember her mother. When her father dies, she is surprised to learn that she has inherited her mother's house -- surprised to learn that the house exists, in a town she's never heard of in New Mexico. Mona's mother worked for a lab outside of Wink that did research into quantum states. These days, Wink is difficult to find, as Mona discovers when she searches for it. She arrives just in time to disrupt the funeral of Mr. Weringer, Wink's most popular resident and a victim (if you believe the rumors) of homicide. When a second murder occurs, Mona is called upon to use her skills to find the killer, although Mona's true purpose for being in Wink (which she does not learn until late in the novel) is much more personal. As Mona tries to learn about the mother she remembers only as a mentally ill woman who disappeared, no Winkian she meets can remember ever meeting the woman ... or if they do, they don't want to talk about it.

Layered over Mona's search for her mother's past is the story of a drug dealing roadhouse owner who follows mysterious orders issued by a stock ticker. There's also the story of Mr. First, who lives in a desolate canyon just outside of town. Most of the people in Wink want nothing to do with Mr. First, but there's this young waitress named Gracie ....

So if you're wondering, American Elsewhere is really more science fiction than fantasy (there's a science-based explanation for the oddness of Wink) but with its elements of horror and humor and crime, it's still difficult to pigeonhole. The novel is lengthy -- half of it is gone before things start to become clear, and then only in a fuzzy way -- but Bennett is such an engaging writer that every page is a joy to read. His prose is literary but lively, without the slightest hint of pretention. The creepy atmosphere Bennett manufactures is stunning. Every character is so meticulously crafted you would think they are carved out of scrimshaw. The reader never quite knows where the story is going, but Bennett, to his credit, does. His careful plotting assures that not a word is wasted, despite the novel's length. American Elsewhere is full of unexpected occurrences, but like the residents of Wink, I don't want to talk about them. It's much better if you discover them for yourself.

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The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett

Published by Orbit on April 11, 2011

If Upton Sinclair and Philip K. Dick had collaborated to write a Sam Spade novel, they might have produced The Company Man. Poor working conditions and inadequate wages cause conflict between labor and management, leading to murders in the slums that are investigated by a noir-coated private detective, and it all takes place in an alternate history where mysterious machinery seem to be speaking to those who toil or dwell beneath a vast city. I'm not sure when I've read a science fiction novel quite as odd as The Company Man.

The company in question is McNaughton Western Foundry Corp. which, by 1919 (when the novel takes place) has become the world leader in technology. It is so powerful that it averted World War I by threatening to cut off production of products (like airships) that could be used militarily. Credit for McNaughton's innovative technological breakthroughs is given to Lawrence Kulahee, an eccentric inventor who died in 1904. The company continued to grow despite his death, as did the former fishing village of Evesden, near Puget Sound, now a thriving metropolis with smokestacks and slums and dozens of murders each month. One of the murders -- of a man found floating in a canal -- prompts police detective Garvey to contact Cyril Hayes, who plays a murky role in McNaughton's security force. As Hayes tries to determine whether the nameless corpse is affiliated with McNaughton, he's assigned to investigate the union movement, which is suspected of sabotaging the corporation's factories. The lovely Samantha Fairbanks is asked to keep an eye on Hayes, who has a problem with opium and alcohol. Notwithstanding his addictions, Hayes has an unusual talent: he can establish a telepathic connection with people that grows stronger the longer he's in contact with them. Hayes' twin investigations of the murder and union violence eventually converge but only after he begins to believe all the underground workers who claim that McNaughton's mysterious machinery is trying to talk to them.

Hayes has the kind of troubled soul that's standard for genre heroes, but Bennett managed to give him an interesting background and enough personality to make him memorable. The other characters aren't particularly special yet neither are they trite. While Hayes is hardly the first science fiction character to be blessed (or cursed) with some form of telepathic power, Bennett's description of its operation places it outside the ordinary. The story is, at times, surprisingly poignant, although it's generally quite dark. Perhaps at the novel's end Bennett tries to do too much, giving the story an almost mystical quality, an upbeat tone that seemed out of place in a decidedly downbeat novel, but that didn't impair my enjoyment of the strange story that Bennett concocted. There's room for a sequel here; if Bennett writes it, I'll read it.

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