The Divided Earth by Faith Erin Hicks

I somehow spaced out on even knowing this book existed. It was published in 2018, a year after the second book in the trilogy (The Stone Heart) and two years after the first (The Nameless City), exactly when I should have expected it and likely at the center of an impressive promotional campaign. 

I even knew the title, and mentioned it near the end of my post on Stone Heart. So I don't know why it took me five years to remember that The Divided Earth existed, and to finally read it. I can say that my memories of the first two books are a bit thin almost a decade later, so I may largely point you readers (assuming you exist, which you may not) to those earlier posts.

Faith Erin Hicks is an accomplished and supple maker of comics, and she finishes up her trilogy well here. It's in vaguely-fantasy territory, that disputed land where there's no obvious magic, clearly a secondary world that resembles medieval China but isn't. I mean that whether a book like this counts as "fantasy" is disputed, but the series is about a disputed land more centrally: the Nameless City itself - actually a city with more names than it would like, as it has been conquered in turn over and over again by the three major nations it lies at the borders of - is both strategically important and a major hub for trade, and is currently in the mitts of the Dao people.

There was a push to make this city semi-independent, ruled by a council with representatives of all of the local powers, to stop the cycle of conquest and death, in the last book. It moved forward a bit, but is the kind of thing that obviously needs all of the major powers to be on board for...and that's going to be difficult at best.

Divided still mostly focused on the two young protagonists - Dao military scion Kaidu and Nameless street kid Rat - and, since this is a series for young readers, what they do has to be not just important but defining for this city. (And who doesn't like a story about fearless young people running along rooftops, battling evil forces, and pleading for peace? Especially when we know they will be successful in the end?) The city comes briefly under siege here, and there's also some sneaking through tunnels to go along with the rooftop parkour we've had in all three volumes. It's fun and adventurous and somewhat inventive - definitely a genre exercise whose broad outlines are visible from space, but solidly constructed, telling a good story well and keeping its moral mostly implied.