In the swirling mists of time, where myth bleeds into reality and the sacred mingles with the profane, there lies a city. Not just any city, mind you, but Azril—a place of wonder and horror, of boundless love and searing pain. This is the beating heart of Nghi Vo’s latest masterpiece, “The City in Glass,” a novel that defies easy categorization and leaves the reader breathless, exhilarated, and forever changed.
Vo, already acclaimed for her Singing Hills Cycle and standalone novels like “Siren Queen,” has outdone herself with this epic tale spanning centuries. It’s a love letter to cities themselves—their grime and their glory, their relentless cycles of destruction and rebirth. But more than that, it’s a profound meditation on memory, identity, and the transformative power of love in all its messy, complicated forms.
A Demon’s Devotion: Vitrine and Her Beloved Azril
At the center of this kaleidoscopic narrative is Vitrine, a demon unlike any other in fantasy literature. Capricious, passionate, and fiercely protective, she adopts the city of Azril as her own, nurturing it through centuries of triumph and tragedy. Vo’s portrayal of Vitrine is nothing short of revolutionary—here is a demon who loves deeply, who grieves, who makes terrible mistakes and struggles to atone for them.
Vitrine’s relationship with Azril is the pulsing heart of the novel. We watch as she shapes the city’s culture, its architecture, and its very soul. Through her eyes, we experience the dizzying highs of Azril’s golden ages and the crushing despair of its darkest hours. Vo’s prose shimmers with sensory detail, bringing the city to vibrant life:
“The sun had barely escaped from the sea when there were sails on the horizon, and Vitrine rose to her feet with a frown. They gained the bay as she watched, and she saw that these were no towering merchant vessels, no fast pirate coursers. Instead there was a homely humiliated quality to these ships, their sails ragged, a list to their wake that made her think that their rudders must be damaged.”
The Angel’s Wings: A Love Story Like No Other
Enter the nameless angel, Vitrine’s counterpart and eventual lover. Their relationship forms the novel’s most complex and compelling arc. Initially adversaries—the angel part of the force that destroys Azril—they slowly, achingly, come to understand and need one another. Vo subverts expectations at every turn, crafting a romance that is neither saccharine nor predictable.
The angel’s sacrifice of his wings to Vitrine is a moment of breathtaking power, symbolizing both his vulnerability and his commitment. Their dance of attraction and repulsion, of trust and betrayal, spans centuries and culminates in one of the most unique and haunting love scenes in recent memory.
Key Themes to Ponder:
- The cyclical nature of cities and civilizations
- The transformative (and sometimes destructive) power of love
- Memory as both a blessing and a curse
- The blurred lines between creation and destruction
- The price of immortality and the weight of witnessing history
A Tapestry of Lives: The People of Azril
While Vitrine and the angel form the novel’s backbone, Vo populates Azril with a rich cast of mortal characters. We meet:
- Jinan, the first child born after Azril’s fall, embodying hope and new beginnings
- Alex Lorca, Jinan’s descendant, a swaggering swordsman with a heart as fragile as glass
- Shani, the quiet scholar who brings Vitrine an unexpected gift
- Countless others whose brief, bright lives leave indelible marks on the city and on Vitrine herself
Vo excels at bringing these fleeting mortal existences to vivid life. We feel Vitrine’s joy in their triumphs and her deep, abiding grief as generation after generation passes. This exploration of the immortal’s perspective on human life is one of the novel’s most poignant and thought-provoking elements.
Language as Magic: Vo’s Mesmerizing Prose
Nghi Vo’s command of language is nothing short of spellbinding. Her prose dances between lush, sensory description and razor-sharp insight. She has a poet’s gift for the perfect, unexpected metaphor:
“Vitrine’s hands were slow when she joined the cannon teams, and when she put her ear to the ground to listen for sappers beyond the wall, the only thing she heard were the commands to retreat in Kanaian, which was spoken in her lost city and had not been heard in the world for four hundred years or more.”
This linguistic alchemy extends to the novel’s structure. Vo weaves back and forth through time, mirroring Vitrine’s immortal perspective. The effect is initially disorienting but ultimately hypnotic, allowing the reader to experience the sweep of centuries in a way that feels both expansive and intimate.
A New Mythology: Vo’s Unique Cosmology
“The City in Glass” introduces a fascinatingly original take on angels, demons, and the nature of the divine. Vo’s supernatural beings are complex, flawed, and driven by desires that feel achingly human. The novel’s cosmology raises profound questions about free will, predestination, and the nature of good and evil.
Particularly intriguing is Vo’s conception of how demons and angels interact with the mortal world. Vitrine’s ability to shape Azril through subtle influence and occasional direct intervention feels both magical and grounded in a strange sort of reality.
For Fans of:
- China Miéville’s “New Crobuzon” series
- N.K. Jemisin’s “The City We Became”
- Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude”
- Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities”
The City as Character: Azril’s Evolution
Perhaps the novel’s greatest triumph is the way it brings Azril itself to life as a character in its own right. We witness the city’s birth, its growing pains, its moments of glory and its devastating falls. Vo’s attention to detail—from the changing architecture to the evolution of local customs—creates a sense of place so vivid you can almost smell the salt air and hear the bustle of the markets.
Particularly powerful are the sections dealing with Azril’s darkest moments: plagues, wars, and periods of stagnation. Vo doesn’t shy away from the ugliness of urban life, but she balances it with moments of transcendent beauty and human resilience.
A Critique of Immortality: The Weight of Memory
While “The City in Glass” is undoubtedly a love story, it’s also a nuanced exploration of the burdens of immortality. Vitrine’s long life is as much a curse as a blessing. The weight of her memories, the constant cycle of loss as she outlives those she cares for—these take a toll that Vo portrays with aching clarity.
This theme reaches its zenith during Azril’s periods of war and destruction. Vitrine’s near-catatonic state, overwhelmed by the echoes of past traumas, is a devastating portrayal of how an immortal being might experience PTSD on a scale humans can scarcely imagine.
The Limits of Divinity: Angels and Demons as Flawed Beings
Vo’s depiction of supernatural beings is refreshingly grounded. Her angel and demon are powerful, yes, but also deeply limited. They make mistakes, they misunderstand, they hurt each other and those around them. This humanity makes their struggles all the more relatable and impactful.
The novel subtly challenges traditional notions of good and evil. Vitrine, our demon protagonist, is often more compassionate and nurturing than the ostensibly “holy” angel. This moral complexity enriches the narrative and prompts the reader to question their own assumptions.
A Minor Quibble: Pacing in the Middle Acts
If there’s one area where “The City in Glass” occasionally falters, it’s in maintaining momentum through some of its middle sections. The novel’s sprawling timeline sometimes leads to narrative lulls, particularly when jumping between different generations of Azril’s inhabitants. However, these slower moments are more than compensated for by the richness of the world-building and the emotional payoff of the novel’s climactic scenes.
Verdict: A Mesmerizing, Must-Read Fantasy
“The City in Glass” is a triumph of imagination and craft. Nghi Vo has created a work that defies easy categorization—it’s a love story, a fantasy epic, a meditation on urban life, and a profound exploration of memory and identity. Her prose is intoxicating, her characters unforgettable, and the world she’s built will linger in your mind long after you turn the final page.
This is a novel that rewards patience and close reading. Its non-linear structure and deep themes might challenge some readers, but those willing to immerse themselves in Vo’s creation will find a story of staggering beauty and emotional resonance.
For fans of literary fantasy, for lovers of cities in all their complexity, for anyone who’s ever wondered about the weight of history and the nature of love that transcends time – “The City in Glass” is an absolute must-read. Nghi Vo has cemented her place as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary fantasy, and I cannot wait to see what worlds she builds next.