City of Blades

City of Stairs was one of the best books I have read this year, and so I had high hopes for the sequel. I was not disappointed, even though we got a protagonist switch. Set five years after City of Stairs, Shara Komayd is now the prime minister of her country, and too busy to investigate issues on the continent. Instead, she sends General Turyin Mulaghesh, former polis governor of Bulikov, now in grand retirement. She's sent to Voortyashtan to investigate the case of a missing Saypuri. Turns out bad divine things are happening, and the General gets fully swept up in all of this. We meet Sigrun again, and his estranged daughter Signe, who is in charge of building a trade harbor.

A delight to read, always exciting to follow the plot along, and its only shortcoming probably that Mulaghesh is just not as entertaining as Shara was. The fantasy is very gunpowder-flavored, and if you don't know it already, war is a grisly thing, as we get to experience through Mulaghesh's backstory. Already looking forward to the next one. Criminally underrated, I think, this trilogy.