City of Stairs

I recently read another book by Robert Jackson Bennett, Foundryside, and liked it so well that I decided to jump into his "Divine Cities" trilogy. I do love the main characters, Shara Thivani and Sigrud, Shara's so-called secretary, who Shara refers to as “a hammer in a world of nails.” But I felt a little overwhelmed by the rather complex geography and accompanying rash of place names. As in Foundryside, there is a mix of magic and technology that lends the book a somewhat steampunk aura, and once again the protagonist is a small, seemingly unpretentious woman--yay for that. Shara has been sent to the Continental city of Bulikov, presumably as an assistant cultural ambassador from the now ruling country of Saypur, to investigate the murder of Shara's friend and mentor and an eminent historian of the Continent, Dr. Efrem Pangyui. At one time the Continent was ruled by six Divinities and was the dominant power in the world, cruelly treating Saypur as a poor and backward colony. But the tables turned when one of Saypur's own, the Kaj, discovered a way to kill the Divinities; Saypur went to war with the Continent and when the Divinities died or fled, everything collapsed. After the "Blink," everything the gods had helped magically create disintegrated. Architecture, culture, the economy, and life as the population knew it are gone. Now Saypur calls the shots and no one is allowed to discuss any aspect of the Divinities or the Continent's history. But Shara is not  really a cultural ambassador; she is a spy--and one who is 2nd only to Dr. Pangyui in her knowledge of the Divinities and Continental history. And the gods may not all be dead, although perhaps not as all powerful as once imagined. And the population of Bulikov is not necessarily going to take the status quo lying down. Worst of all, Shara may have been betrayed by those she trusted the most. This is an incredibly complex storyline and sometimes it felt like it just went on too long. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable work of world building and once you get into it, you'll want to keep going.
By all means go read this nice summary by a reviewer for NPR. Here's a review from Kirkus, one from The New York Times, and from Publishers Weekly.