The City in Glass (Nghi Vo)

The City in Glass
Nghi Vo
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Since fleeing catastrophe in a southern land, the demon Vitrine came to love the port city of Azril, becoming its invisible guardian and gardener. Under her influence, it rose to be a shining jewel in the land, home to wonders and scholars and music... until the angels came from the east, bearing fire and the righteous word of their master. They do not explain themselves, do not heed a mere demon pleading for mercy, and in the devastation that follows Vitrine can only watch helplessly - watch, and fling a sliver of her cursed self into one of their own. Corrupted, the angel can no longer return to the heavens, but neither does Vitrine desire his company as she mourns her city. As years, decades, and generations of mortals pass, the two are bound in an uneasy coexistence. Between them lie the ruins of Azril, the memories the demon holds in the book within the glass cabinet of her heart, and a future neither can anticipate.

REVIEW: I've been enjoying Vo's Singing Hills novellas (which have a tangential relationship to this story), so I figured I'd try some other works by the author. (That, and the audiobook fit into a gap in listening time to make work tolerable; yes, sometimes I select for time - so sue me, my job can be rather mind-numbing.) I'm sometimes a little leery of books with demons and angels, as they can traipse close to religious fiction and I'm not a huge fan of real-world religions. This tale, however, subverts several expectations. Vitrine is the one who loves the world and sees the humanity of the city, embracing its darkness and its light, coaxing it toward greatness as a bonsai gardener shapes their trees. Then the angels arrive with divine orders to level the city and destroy everyone in it. Why? They do not explain; it is not their duty or inclination to explain, to consider, let alone to care, but simply to act, destroying good along with bad if that is what they're charged to do. The rest is as much an examination of trauma and grief as it is about the growing bond between the mourning demon and the now-earthbound angel... an angel who does not understand why a demon grew so attached to the city, who has never had to spend time in the mortal world, who may never have even had an original thought that was not dictated by his divine master before encountering Vitrine; he does not even have a name, nor does the demon ever give him one. The demon tries to rebuild the city, the angel often more an obstacle than an asset, but still struggles to process her centuries-deep grief and impotent rage over the needless devastation. There are some very clear metaphors to be found in the ruins of Azril and the efforts of the immortals to process the terrible thing that happened and the seemingly-impossible task of moving forward in a world that insists on turning after everything worth living for has been destroyed. It nearly earned an extra half-star, as it has some beautiful and poignant moments, but at some point it starts meandering, and the conclusion is so exceptionally surreal that I couldn't quite work out how I felt about it as an endcap.

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