The hemp,” [he] growled. “The roughest hog-bristle hemp you have. But I will have the shave. Let my corpse show the rope burn.” Not that there wasn’t a part of him that wouldn’t have shaken that demon’s taloned hand like a brother, but that would have been a step too far. And so he watched the beast being enslaved to them ills again and knew that even as he fought every day for a better life for his people, he was a collaborator in a larger war. And he hated it. If you are in the market for a superbly written, complex and intricately woven standalone fantasy, with a large cast of stand-out characters, world-building that is metered out at a brilliant pace and a plot that will keep you effortlessly intrigued throughout, then this will be one to read. Creepy Centipedes: The Bitter Sisters use a giant one in their base to dispose of people they want to make an example of. This cool concept falls a bit short for two reasons- one is the simple fact of too many things going on that are not fully explored/developed and the second is that one book can't adequately do justice to such a complex story.

I know many of my friends here on Goodreads have Adrian Tchaikosky as a must-read author, and that makes me so happy. Langrice: owner/barkeep of the Anchorage, the tavern with some sort of connection to the Anchorwood We can’t bring perfection to the world without the threat of force. We can’t rely on the threat of force unless they know we will follow up on it.”Badass Pacifist: After his life is saved by converting to Yasnic's religion, Ruslav is forced to become one, as committing violence will lead to his wounds reopening. This is best shown when God is forced to keep Ruslav alive after Yasnic's apostasy, which Ruslav puts to good use acting as a baton-proof human shield so the Gownhall students can rescue Ivarn. This fun, creepy tribute to the works of C.S. Lewis from Tchaikovsky (Children of Memory) finds children’s television presenter Felix “Harry” Bodie having a tough time. He can’t escape the Continue reading » Ilmar is vividly alive with ideas, conflicts, and a sense of its own history – a truly breathtaking fantasy city, down every street a compelling story.' David Towsey

Despite the city’s refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood—that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores. And you have a mysterious Wood on the edge of the city. Sometimes it’s just a stand of trees you can cross in a few strides. But other times it becomes a vast and mysterious forest, and a path to … elsewhere. If you have the right protections that will let you past the monstrous guardians. Our story begins when the #2 of the occupiers sets out to cross the Wood (because whatever is on the other side could undoubtedly do with some good old fashioned perfecting), yet the magical totem that will let him pass has been mysteriously stolen, with unfortunate consequences for him. The Siblingries, factory workers who banded together first to resist the power of the Armiger factory owners. Picture a city under occupation and on the verge of revolution. Imagine the streets teeming with discontent and bubbling with anger. Delve into each shadowed alcove and underground lair to discern who will light the first match and set fire to the masses, urging them to overrule the Palleseen regime.And because he is far from the only person fulfilling a role like that, and there are a lot of factions and contexts within Ilmar to be explored, this early phase of circling slowly round and round to gather all the points of view is necessarily a slow one. It is interesting, it is clearly beautifully thought out, but it is not always engaging in the way a driving narrative might be. BILL CAPOSSERE, who's been with us since June 2007, lives in Rochester NY, where he is an English adjunct by day and a writer by night. His essays and stories have appeared in Colorado Review, Rosebud, Alaska Quarterly, and other literary journals, along with a few anthologies, and been recognized in the "Notable Essays" section of Best American Essays. His children's work has appeared in several magazines, while his plays have been given stage readings at GEVA Theatre and Bristol Valley Playhouse. When he's not writing, reading, reviewing, or teaching, he can usually be found with his wife and son on the frisbee golf course or the ultimate frisbee field. To those that know Adrian's work a little better - yes, there are bugs and insects scattered intermittently throughout the story. I would be worried if there wasn't at this point. That’s just a very small flavour of everything Tchaikovsky has crammed into the story. There’s so much about Ilmar to discover and every single section of the city we explore is as captivating as the last.

I'm rating City of Last Chances 6/10 as it features moments of Tchaikovsky's brilliance but was hard work in places too. That being said, it was a unique reading experience that I would recommend mostly because I'd be interested to see what other people think of this intriguing book. I’d especially recommend City of Last Chances to readers who enjoyed the sweeping scale, industry, revolution and political turmoil of Joe Abercrombie’s Age of Madness. Indeed, while the world may be richly unique in its aspect, there’s also a joyous familiarity in the smartly exercised plot devices. There’s a Macguffin, a collection of unlikely heroes and a totalitarian state. All of which set the scene for a good solid dose of SFF. The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Most of the city's resistance factions are willing to get their hands as dirty as the Pals' are to free their city and make sure that they get to be on top instead of the other resistance groups when the city is free. This attitude is best exemplified by the murdering, terroristic Shrikes and the brutal, criminal Vultures. When the second-most important Palleseen official in the city is killed while acting as an ambassador to the Wood, his protective charms stolen, the consequences ripple to every part of Ilmar, sparking a series of events that could lead to the city’s liberation, or to its destruction.That being said, those external forces are something of a marmite aspect to the book. By the time I reached the end, I loved the role they had to play in the story, but they wouldn't be to everyone's taste, not least because they leave so much unknown and unresolved. They are a chaotic spectre hovering on the edge of reason and of the city, and to understand them would be to strip them of their magic, their mystique. But that absence of understanding is also an absence of resolution, and that isn't always everyone's cup of tea - especially when it feels, as this does, not like there areanswers but we just don't have them yet, but rather that there may be no answers at all. Some magic is beyond our knowledge, in this book and this world, and we must simply accept that. In many ways, the wood on the edge of the city and what lies beyond it, a portal to other worlds that is discussed by the characters in hushed whispers, with its strange guardians who operate on rules no one else understands, are an element of folklore, not of magic, in the way they act upon the story. Magic might have rules and explanations - folklore is deeper, older and more oblique. We witness happenings that relate to the criminal underworld, academia, workers and demons, refugees and outsiders, forgotten gods, and magical artefacts from a wide range of perspectives. Ilmar is the novel's main character though, and this includes distinct and atmospheric areas such as The Reproach, The Hammer Districts, and The Anchorage. I found The Reproach to be a haunting and intensely interesting part of the city and I adored my time reading about that area and its inhabitants most of all. Unfortunately, the City of Last Chances didn’t captivate me. It’s a sophisticated novel with many characters, a dense writing style, and complex intrigue. I found it difficult to immerse myself in the story or sympathize with its numerous protagonists. Things do fall into place at the end, but I had to force myself to read the book. And that's never a good sign. Gods Need Prayer Badly: The power of a god is directly correlated with how many followers they have; a god such as Yasnic's, who only has one priest, is a knee-high figure in ragged robes. So long as they act within their purview and extend their power to willing converts, however, a god's own strength does not seem to matter too much when preforming miracles. Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Tchaikovsky (Children of Time) makes the end of the world a personal affair in this humorous, sharp-edged novel. The unnamed narrator is the last temporal Continue reading »