eBook, 545 pages
English language
Published Dec. 8, 2022 by Head of Zeus - an AdAstra Book.
There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse.
What will be the spark that lights the conflagration?
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.
Ilmar, some say, is the worst place in the world and the gateway to a thousand worse places.
Ilmar, City of Long Shadows.
City of Bad Decisions.
City of Last Chances.
I really think this is one of my favourite AT novels I have read.
My simple pitch, this is the fantasy novel equivalent of Fredy Perlmans "Worker-student action committees".
full stop.
The setting is reminiscent of the industrialized magic setting of Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside. There are quite a few narrative threads but I did not find it overwhelming (as an audiobook, fwiw).
The villains are bureaucratic, venal, and hypocritical. They are also a "foreign occupation", but Tchaikovsky spends as much time poking fun at patriotism and nostalgia as he does explaining the (many) failings of the occupiers.
The would-be heroes are various of combinations pompous, naive, violent, passive, venal (again), opportunistic, and cowardly. It is something of a magic trick of character development that one's sympathies are clear. It isn't even that one identifies with some of the character's cynicism (although there is a bit of that).
As an academic, I endorse books where the main villains are academic organizations. Imagine if not only were University administrators not going to save us, but if they were the ones the whole …
The setting is reminiscent of the industrialized magic setting of Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside. There are quite a few narrative threads but I did not find it overwhelming (as an audiobook, fwiw).
The villains are bureaucratic, venal, and hypocritical. They are also a "foreign occupation", but Tchaikovsky spends as much time poking fun at patriotism and nostalgia as he does explaining the (many) failings of the occupiers.
The would-be heroes are various of combinations pompous, naive, violent, passive, venal (again), opportunistic, and cowardly. It is something of a magic trick of character development that one's sympathies are clear. It isn't even that one identifies with some of the character's cynicism (although there is a bit of that).
As an academic, I endorse books where the main villains are academic organizations. Imagine if not only were University administrators not going to save us, but if they were the ones the whole of society needed saving from.
I laughed out loud several times while listening to this. At some points it has an almost Pratchett-like wit (if Pratchett had been doomscrolling for another decade, instead of shuffling off this mortal coil).
Ok, this book was very fun and gave me some of those excitement in the streets feels at moments I am just always there for. Going in blind to the story, it took me way to long to feel invested in the story, it being fantasy and starting off with a tale about god, I was pretty much ready to swipe left on this one. But then the world came into focus and I was hooked.
I read a review that said in the fantasy world, it's hip to be exploring the magic/creatures/polygod world's through a lens of the industrial revolution rather than bronze or medieval developments. And within this modern trend this is Adrian Tchaikovsky's contribution to that.
I couldn't help but map Marx's capital onto this world, updated by my stronger and stronger appreciation of Tchaikovsky's work and left politics. We have main characters from the factory works, …
Ok, this book was very fun and gave me some of those excitement in the streets feels at moments I am just always there for. Going in blind to the story, it took me way to long to feel invested in the story, it being fantasy and starting off with a tale about god, I was pretty much ready to swipe left on this one. But then the world came into focus and I was hooked.
I read a review that said in the fantasy world, it's hip to be exploring the magic/creatures/polygod world's through a lens of the industrial revolution rather than bronze or medieval developments. And within this modern trend this is Adrian Tchaikovsky's contribution to that.
I couldn't help but map Marx's capital onto this world, updated by my stronger and stronger appreciation of Tchaikovsky's work and left politics. We have main characters from the factory works, lumpen proles, sex workers, students, immigrants, and heretic theologians. The book explores a world colonized by an analogue of Roman Catholic conservatism and empire. There is even a parallel of Marx's theory of dead-labour embodied in commodities as magic embed in objects, which lends them value and can be distilled and extracted to produce further value.
Definitely a strong nationalist anti-colonialism bent to the societal tensions, with nostalgia and ghosts of feudal ethnic powers and the folk cultures and traditions lost to urbanization and proletarianization.
Reading it as a Marxist, one would be happy by its interpretation of struggle, class and modernization with greater heed paid to the lumpen proles and gender. Reading it as an anarchist, there are critiques to be made around the appeal of nationalism, hierarchy, and power as little fiefdoms and warlords struggle to remain dominant above and sometimes oblivious to the peoples struggles in the streets.
I would highly recommend this book, 1 of 2 in the series as of yet, as a fun read that gets your heart racing while both escaping from this world to better view it as an outsider.
Probably gonna stay in my top 5 of 2024!
First in a series, but reads very well as a stand alone story. There is immediately a sense of depth and perspective in the setting without labouring detail. The characters have plenty of interesting angles without feeling imbalanced. The use of the overtly magical is handled with deft restraint.
There are enough facets to the plot that it would be boring to try to list them all. Reads like Pratchett and China Melville had an impromptu spawning. Hooray for this writer.
This is actually a really good book, but for some reason I struggled a lot with the format, in which each chapter is told from a different character's perspective and frequently only a character that we meet for one or two chapters. Yes, there are a few "main" characters that we get to come back to again and again, but you don't really start revisiting them until later in the book and so for the first part it's kind of an endless parade of new points of view. Took me quite a while to wade through those to where everything clicked for me and I was able to keep my attention on the book for more than a single chapter at a time.
Overall, it has a good arc, a good plot, good character development etc though and I enjoyed the story quite a lot by the time I reached …
This is actually a really good book, but for some reason I struggled a lot with the format, in which each chapter is told from a different character's perspective and frequently only a character that we meet for one or two chapters. Yes, there are a few "main" characters that we get to come back to again and again, but you don't really start revisiting them until later in the book and so for the first part it's kind of an endless parade of new points of view. Took me quite a while to wade through those to where everything clicked for me and I was able to keep my attention on the book for more than a single chapter at a time.
Overall, it has a good arc, a good plot, good character development etc though and I enjoyed the story quite a lot by the time I reached the end. Just tough going at the start, and possibly only for me?
Great sprawling story with about a dozen complex backstories behind it that you just have to figure out. Characters are fantastic and the plot buzzes along. Really enjoyed it
4 stars is fair here I think. There seems to be a bit of a thing where a few authors are trying to move Fantasy forward to the industrial era and extrapolating into what that might look like. This is Tchaikovsky's take on that trend. This, however, was a slightly odd book. Firstly, I should say it is Tchaikovsky so it is well executed with his trademark flair. However (and you knew there was a but), it ended up striking me as a somewhat disjointed book. I don't know if it was meant to be the lead off for a series or not (and it certainly felt as if it was written that way) but there were a few notes that jarred for me and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the resolution. For example, a Shakespearean narration is thrown in about a third through, clearly to smooth over a rough …
4 stars is fair here I think. There seems to be a bit of a thing where a few authors are trying to move Fantasy forward to the industrial era and extrapolating into what that might look like. This is Tchaikovsky's take on that trend. This, however, was a slightly odd book. Firstly, I should say it is Tchaikovsky so it is well executed with his trademark flair. However (and you knew there was a but), it ended up striking me as a somewhat disjointed book. I don't know if it was meant to be the lead off for a series or not (and it certainly felt as if it was written that way) but there were a few notes that jarred for me and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the resolution. For example, a Shakespearean narration is thrown in about a third through, clearly to smooth over a rough join, and it just didn't sit right with me. Still, 4 stars it is and if Fantasy is your jam this is a decent one so I can recommend.
