The City in Glass
#7793.67 adjusted 3.70 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 1 book Status Complete 2024 Reading commitment Low Nghi Vo Last reviewed 2026-09-04
Overview
The City in Glass follows Vitrine, a demon who has spent centuries cursing the angel who destroyed her beloved city of Azril and killed its people, only to discover that he intends to help her rebuild it. Trapped together in the ruins, the two mend the city and its returning refugee descendants across generations, their relationship evolving from enmity toward something more entangled, building toward a reckoning between them. Nghi Vo's 2024 standalone literary and mythic fantasy has been praised for its lush, precise prose and its refusal of easy catharsis, examining trauma and survival rather than resolving them neatly. It was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction, the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature, and was shortlisted for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize.
Mythic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (1 work) counts toward ranking
The City in Glass (2024) core · 3.67 (7,601 ratings)
Quick answers
- How many books are in The City in Glass? The City in Glass's Core Canon is 1 book.
- Is The City in Glass finished? Complete (2024).
- How much reading does The City in Glass take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 1 Core Canon book · ~216 pages).
- How is The City in Glass ranked? #779 in this site's official ranking, based on 7,601 reader ratings across 1 Core Canon book. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #779?
Ranked #779 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.67 across 1 core book.
- A smaller readership (7,601 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #778, The Well of the Unicorn (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
- A single standalone novel: ranked on that one book alone.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 1 book · Complete · 8k ratings · Ranks #779 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment mythic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
A single Core Canon work: no sequencing question to resolve.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.67 across 7,601 ratings on 1 Core Canon book. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit The City in Glass (Nghi Vo) accepted 2026-09-03
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Mythopoeic Society -- 2025 Mythopoeic Awards, Adult Literature finalists Tier 1
- Rating-platform listing: The City in Glass Tier 2
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_in_Glass
Last reviewed: 2026-09-04
Rule: Core Canon: the single 2024 novel.