"Delightfully strange''. That's what I'd tag this book. Call it Epic Fiction, if you like. City of Stairs is a book unlike any other.
Urban Fantasy has a new voice, a new face. And it is here, in the very pages of a book that depicts a society very much like ours.
City of Stairs is a book like no other. It starts off with all the quiet mystery of a pulsating Thriller and ends with not just one but multiple plot twists. There's just no easy way out here.
The entire setting seems to be a conflagrate of Urbanism, a seemingly obscure yet utterly fascinating magic system, unique themes, and a small cast of characters that brilliantly portray human behavior in never-before-seen ways, all expertly penned by an author who knows how to captivate his readers. The book depicts, amongst many other things, a mirror scenario of the colonial experience, albeit through a nicely cracked pane of glass, combined with a lot of mystery.
While a lot of effort is expended in the plot buildup, there's some action as well. But the true beauty of the story lies in the gradual unraveling of the many mysteries in the book.
