lanko's review against another edition
5.0
October 2016 --> Reread for the sequel. Discovered Goodreads doesn't have a "re-read" option and unless I pick a different edition, it also won't count towards Reading Challenges...
One year later I still enjoyed the story, but of course, the suspense/mystery parts weren't as strong as I already knew how it would all play out.
2015 --> This was extremely good. It's Fantasy with touches of Mystery, Sci-Fi and Suspense. And everything blended perfectly. The book I liked the most in the SPFBO.
I liked the pace and the mystery, the tension intensifying as the story progressed.
There were at least four different "factions", plus the protagonist, and it simply wasn't possible to tell who you could trust. This sparked so much tension in the story. Even better when you cared for people in all the groups involved.
The twists and revelations that kept coming were well thought and once they were revealed, just made strange things that happened before make complete sense. Thank goodness the characters had quick thinking. I never felt "Come on, how can you not see X?"
The characters were great and meshed really well with the plot.
The protagonist, of course, but also all the other ones. I liked Seana, Amelia and Iris.
Spark and Copper could have been fleshed out a bit more, specially Spark considering her importance to the story.
Micah and Voggs, this one ended up being vital in a certain part, but at least Voggs ended up being too much of a badass. Can't spoil the other male character involved, but he is enjoyable as well.
Also enjoyed that I cared for certain characters because of the feelings of another character for them, not just the protagonist (for example, Amelia because of Iris). That adds more weight for more characters in the story.
Now the antagonists were creepy and relentless. Something that could have come from a game like Dead Space, for example.
The magic was probably left ambiguous to further the mystery aspect of the story, but maybe more details could have been given about its limits.
I was afraid the story would crumble because of its mix of genres, because I wasn't sure how magic, sci-fi technology and guns, alien urban dystopia and suspense/mystery would pull it off, but it did very well.
One year later I still enjoyed the story, but of course, the suspense/mystery parts weren't as strong as I already knew how it would all play out.
2015 --> This was extremely good. It's Fantasy with touches of Mystery, Sci-Fi and Suspense. And everything blended perfectly. The book I liked the most in the SPFBO.
I liked the pace and the mystery, the tension intensifying as the story progressed.
There were at least four different "factions", plus the protagonist, and it simply wasn't possible to tell who you could trust. This sparked so much tension in the story. Even better when you cared for people in all the groups involved.
The twists and revelations that kept coming were well thought and once they were revealed, just made strange things that happened before make complete sense. Thank goodness the characters had quick thinking. I never felt "Come on, how can you not see X?"
The characters were great and meshed really well with the plot.
The protagonist, of course, but also all the other ones. I liked Seana, Amelia and Iris.
Spark and Copper could have been fleshed out a bit more, specially Spark considering her importance to the story.
Micah and Voggs, this one ended up being vital in a certain part, but at least Voggs ended up being too much of a badass. Can't spoil the other male character involved, but he is enjoyable as well.
Also enjoyed that I cared for certain characters because of the feelings of another character for them, not just the protagonist (for example, Amelia because of Iris). That adds more weight for more characters in the story.
Now the antagonists were creepy and relentless. Something that could have come from a game like Dead Space, for example.
The magic was probably left ambiguous to further the mystery aspect of the story, but maybe more details could have been given about its limits.
I was afraid the story would crumble because of its mix of genres, because I wasn't sure how magic, sci-fi technology and guns, alien urban dystopia and suspense/mystery would pull it off, but it did very well.
wandering_not_lost's review against another edition
2.0
This book's premise was so very promising, with technology and magic and absent gods and bruised faith. The worldbuilding was immensely ambitious, which I always like to see, but i feel like there was just too much going on for it to hold together. There was god-given magic AND non-god-given magic AND technology AND some kind of possibly-trans-dimensional "Invader" mentioned only in passing. The pace at which the reader finds out about these things is glacial, so I was left not really knowing how the world works for quite awhile and thus not knowing what the tension level should be. This problem persisted throughout: the character would be scared of physical confrontations, but then would come up with powerful physical magic on the fly. The city is cut off because the underground transit system is damaged, but for some reason they can't just leave the city overland. They have electricity and "wireless" networked devices and iPads in addition to magic, but for some reason they have no way to communicate with the outside world. Why? The answer inevitably seemed to be "it has to work this way because the story needs tension/a problem for the characters to overcome". It just fell flat for me.
The characters, also, were OK, but fell in some of the same plot holes. There's a tendency to very linear thinking. I got very tired of hearing the MC go on about how it was the end of the world. Also, later, about how their myriad of problems would go away if they could just do X, when it was pretty obvious to me that X would not fix about half of their problems. The main character would do things and I'd not buy his reason for making that decision, or understand why he thought his plan would succeed, or why this place would be safe, or why he suddenly trusted a person he'd not trusted before. In one place, he very obviously misses a huge clue as to his enemy's identity that even _I_ picked up on, and usually I'm pretty good about suspension of disbelief. I just feel like the book could have used more clarification on a lot of points to keep it from feeling like the author is just dragging us from bullet point to bullet point.
One point in the book's favor is the wide variety of characters. Different races, different sexualities, different genders, a good number of competent and likable lady characters. Though So. *wiggle hands*
In the end, it was OK, but given the issues I had with the plot and setting and character decision-making, I was thrown out of the story a lot, and I'm not eager to pick anything else up by this author.
The characters, also, were OK, but fell in some of the same plot holes. There's a tendency to very linear thinking. I got very tired of hearing the MC go on about how it was the end of the world. Also, later, about how their myriad of problems would go away if they could just do X, when it was pretty obvious to me that X would not fix about half of their problems. The main character would do things and I'd not buy his reason for making that decision, or understand why he thought his plan would succeed, or why this place would be safe, or why he suddenly trusted a person he'd not trusted before. In one place, he very obviously misses a huge clue as to his enemy's identity that even _I_ picked up on, and usually I'm pretty good about suspension of disbelief. I just feel like the book could have used more clarification on a lot of points to keep it from feeling like the author is just dragging us from bullet point to bullet point.
One point in the book's favor is the wide variety of characters. Different races, different sexualities, different genders, a good number of competent and likable lady characters. Though
Spoiler
the canon lesbian relationship ends tragically, and quite a few of those competent, powerful lady characters do not make it to the end of the book.In the end, it was OK, but given the issues I had with the plot and setting and character decision-making, I was thrown out of the story a lot, and I'm not eager to pick anything else up by this author.
robotgoods's review
4.0
Really good integration of mystical and magical in a dystopian urban setting.
bibliotropic's review
4.0
It’s not that common to find urban fantasy set in secondary worlds. Only a small handful of them come to mind. And it was this that made Webb’s City of Burning Shadows stand out right from the get-go for me. It’s very much urban fantasy. And it’s very much not set in our world, nor some strange post-apocalyptic version of our potential future.
It is, however, set in a post-apocalyptic world for the characters. The gods have vanished. Gone, disappeared, and aren’t coming back. For an ex-priest, finding a way to live in the new world is difficult, especially in a time of such chaos when more pressing concerns than religious crises are at hand. Water is running out for the desert city he calls his home. Rain hasn’t fallen in too long. Certain technology could save it, but that technology is a closely-guarded secret, and is danger of being misappropriated for more sinister uses.
And that doesn’t even begin to explain the sinister shadows following Ash around the city…
The narration for the story often verges on a noir feel without ever really doing more than just brushing by it, making it sometimes feel inconsistently detailed. I rarely, for instance, got a good handle on what most of the characters actually looked like, though I can picture the city streets quite vividly. The tone works, though, given the story: a man trying to a escape his past gets sucked into a dangerous mystery. It was odd, but I think that’s an entirely personal thing. I’m not used to noir stuff, and I can’t pretend that it wasn’t fitting or that it didn’t really work out, because it definitely did.
The pacing, though, it great, and City of Burning Shadows is the kind of book that you put down after a bout of reading and realise you had no idea how much time had passed. Things move along at a brisk pace, action and reflection interspersed pretty well through the pages, and Ash is a great character to follow. You get to see how the sudden absence of the gods is affecting society for people who didn’t really pay much mind to gods and to people who placed them at the very centre of their lives. It’s a really interesting way to start things off, as being part of the story but not being what the entire story is about.
So in this Webb has some great skill at worldbuilding, and in taking chances with uncommon themes. That, and she knows how to write a good mystery. Questions get answered and new questions arise, and the story grows darker and more complex and after a while you’re not entirely sure who or what is at the centre of the mystery because it could be any number of people. But as with any good mystery, the final reveal is only partly what you expect, and all of it makes sense and hints at far more interesting things to come.
I was pretty impressed by this novel. It turned out to be more than I expected at first glance, and I was pleased by the dive into the oft-ignored idea of secondary-world urban-fantasy. I think I would have liked it a bit better had there been some more detail thrown in, better description and whatnot, but overall, it was a good novel and I’m glad to have had the chance to read it. You have a protagonist who’s a man of colour, a load of different nonhuman races living in a desert city on the edge of collapse, and a very good blend of the fantastical and the technological. There’s a reason this is a strong contender for Round 2 of the SPFBO!
(Received for review as part of the SPFBO.)
It is, however, set in a post-apocalyptic world for the characters. The gods have vanished. Gone, disappeared, and aren’t coming back. For an ex-priest, finding a way to live in the new world is difficult, especially in a time of such chaos when more pressing concerns than religious crises are at hand. Water is running out for the desert city he calls his home. Rain hasn’t fallen in too long. Certain technology could save it, but that technology is a closely-guarded secret, and is danger of being misappropriated for more sinister uses.
And that doesn’t even begin to explain the sinister shadows following Ash around the city…
The narration for the story often verges on a noir feel without ever really doing more than just brushing by it, making it sometimes feel inconsistently detailed. I rarely, for instance, got a good handle on what most of the characters actually looked like, though I can picture the city streets quite vividly. The tone works, though, given the story: a man trying to a escape his past gets sucked into a dangerous mystery. It was odd, but I think that’s an entirely personal thing. I’m not used to noir stuff, and I can’t pretend that it wasn’t fitting or that it didn’t really work out, because it definitely did.
The pacing, though, it great, and City of Burning Shadows is the kind of book that you put down after a bout of reading and realise you had no idea how much time had passed. Things move along at a brisk pace, action and reflection interspersed pretty well through the pages, and Ash is a great character to follow. You get to see how the sudden absence of the gods is affecting society for people who didn’t really pay much mind to gods and to people who placed them at the very centre of their lives. It’s a really interesting way to start things off, as being part of the story but not being what the entire story is about.
So in this Webb has some great skill at worldbuilding, and in taking chances with uncommon themes. That, and she knows how to write a good mystery. Questions get answered and new questions arise, and the story grows darker and more complex and after a while you’re not entirely sure who or what is at the centre of the mystery because it could be any number of people. But as with any good mystery, the final reveal is only partly what you expect, and all of it makes sense and hints at far more interesting things to come.
I was pretty impressed by this novel. It turned out to be more than I expected at first glance, and I was pleased by the dive into the oft-ignored idea of secondary-world urban-fantasy. I think I would have liked it a bit better had there been some more detail thrown in, better description and whatnot, but overall, it was a good novel and I’m glad to have had the chance to read it. You have a protagonist who’s a man of colour, a load of different nonhuman races living in a desert city on the edge of collapse, and a very good blend of the fantastical and the technological. There’s a reason this is a strong contender for Round 2 of the SPFBO!
(Received for review as part of the SPFBO.)
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