Scan barcode
A review by esop
The City Screams by Phil Williams
5.0
This was my first foray into the Ordshaw universe, and it was quite a fun ride!
I appreciated the book's brisk pace, which is to be expected of a novella. Despite the fast clip this book runs at, I still totally got a sense of the main character Tova and her personality and backstory, as well as the personalities of all her friends and her relationships to them. Williams does a good job of expressing a lot through a little--just one quick line of dialogue is often enough for us to get a clear picture of the history between these characters.
The mystery that unfolds throughout gripped me from the start and never let up. I did get the feeling that the author was purposely holding back a lot of key information that likely is unveiled in the main book series, but it never felt cheap, as if he were saying "Haha, you'll have to buy more books to figure it out!" Instead, it felt like a natural extension of the story. Tova is clueless and wandering around in the dark, unable to grasp any answers with certainty, and it makes sense that we are right there alongside her never fully understanding what's going on or why.
While that aspect might be unsatisfying to some, I appreciated the realism it added to the tale, although I did somewhat think it ended abruptly, and there were other parts of the story and one character in particular's characterization that I found to be odd and unexplained in a way that made it seem like I was missing something, rather than it being intentionally obtuse.
But overall, those minor nitpicks barely detracted from my enjoyment of the book, which kept me hooked for its duration. The City Screams is a fast, exciting thriller with hints of the larger Ordshaw mythos that has me eager to begin the main series.
I appreciated the book's brisk pace, which is to be expected of a novella. Despite the fast clip this book runs at, I still totally got a sense of the main character Tova and her personality and backstory, as well as the personalities of all her friends and her relationships to them. Williams does a good job of expressing a lot through a little--just one quick line of dialogue is often enough for us to get a clear picture of the history between these characters.
The mystery that unfolds throughout gripped me from the start and never let up. I did get the feeling that the author was purposely holding back a lot of key information that likely is unveiled in the main book series, but it never felt cheap, as if he were saying "Haha, you'll have to buy more books to figure it out!" Instead, it felt like a natural extension of the story. Tova is clueless and wandering around in the dark, unable to grasp any answers with certainty, and it makes sense that we are right there alongside her never fully understanding what's going on or why.
While that aspect might be unsatisfying to some, I appreciated the realism it added to the tale, although I did somewhat think it ended abruptly, and there were other parts of the story and one character in particular's characterization that I found to be odd and unexplained in a way that made it seem like I was missing something, rather than it being intentionally obtuse.
But overall, those minor nitpicks barely detracted from my enjoyment of the book, which kept me hooked for its duration. The City Screams is a fast, exciting thriller with hints of the larger Ordshaw mythos that has me eager to begin the main series.