City of Hope and Despair Ian Whates 9780857660886 Books
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City of Hope and Despair Ian Whates 9780857660886 Books
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City of Hope and Despair Ian Whates 9780857660886 Books Reviews
I was really enjoying this second book in the series, but the author decided to end it on a fairly abrupt cliff hanger - something that really irks me a lot. Any book one buys should try to be self contained. If a book and an author is good enough - the reader will buy the next book based on those qualities. It's very possible to end a book fairly conclusively and yet still leave the door open for the next book. The first book in this series actually did this well and I think i commended it for that in a review.
I find it frustrating that the resolution we expect in a novel is artificially postponed to the next book simply to entice or force the reader to spend more $$. I find it frankly dishonest and more than a little slimy. If anything, this "trick" makes me wary of buying future releases from an author. But, if an abrupt cliff hanger doesn't bother you - and you enjoyed the first book in this series. This is a fun, well written entry into this interesting series. You might be better off waiting for book 3 and reading both together.
Having been left off in a rather disconcerting cliffhanger from the previous book in this series and being sufficiently intrigued by the characters to want to see more of them, I obtained a copy of City of Hope & Despair.
The story seems split more decisively into three separate parts. Kat, independent street-nick and sometimes co-leader of the formidable Tattooed Men, learns that the nasty critter that killed her mother is back. So naturally she and her sister Chavver set aside their differences to go hunt the Soul Thief down. Meanwhile, Tom is going on a pilgrimage with Dewar and Mildra, all of whom appeared in the previous book. They are looking for the source of the river Thair that runs through Thaiburley. There are two other peripheral stories, One where a nebulous organization of bad guys are being mildly mysterious and another far less nebulous problem that the Prime Master of Thaiburley is attempting to counteract before it becomes an even more serious issue than it already is.
In my review of the previous novel, I mentioned that the plot seemed extremely distracted and somewhat lacking in focus. That was happily not the case this time. Each substory is pretty much self contained which made the jumps between them much easier to pick up and set down as the book progressed. The nebulous bad guys' and the Prime Master's story arcs are better worked in this time around as an overarching plot device which looks like it will continue to play out as these books progress.
There were still a few issues regarding one of the story arcs though. Tom's side of the book was logical as far as it went, but I could not for the life of me find mention of why him and the others were trying to find the source of the Thair river. I understood the narrative mythos and what they were hoping to find, but not what specifically motivated the trip. I suppose that the problem that the Prime Master was dealing with could have been the motivation behind it, but it's just something where I wish as a reader I had been allowed to see more of the logic behind these things. Also at times the pace seemed to drag a bit, but this might have been a product of having a faster paced storyline running at the same time
Kat's story angle was pretty clear cut and at least made partial sense with the interloping shadow plots that were hinted at. I did want more time spent here because it was slightly annoying to have a tense action-y story line broken up as it was.
Separately though, both of the main story branches were well done and marked primarily by Kat's and Tom's development through them.
For Kat, her branch of the book focuses on her growth as a leader of the the Tattooed Men and how she interacts with them and the rest of the residents of the lowest level of Thaiburley. I liked how she moved from loner to leader with all the reluctance and worry that comes as a result. I also liked the detail that loss made her look after what she had left much more carefully and I hope to see her side of things expanded upon through the next installment. I also want to see her break certain nebulous heads in the next round as well.
Tom was very distinctly written as "normal kid with odd ability that manifests if he really thinks hard about it." Through some of the slower sections of the book it's really easy to forget that he has what is referred to as "talent" because he's busy doing more normal preteen things, like crushing over Mildra or taking basic sword lessons from Dewar or looking around the places they travel through with interest. His inexperience outside of Thaiburley made it particularly easy for this reader to get a sense of the new places that were visited in the story, since Tom had never seen them before either. For much of the book I waited for the street-nick Tom to reemerge and remind the wide-eyed in wonder Tom that he wasn't helpless. I was not disappointed in this. Yay!
The rest of the cast was believably written but didn't seem to progress as much as Tom or Kat. Dewar's past seems to come up and bite him on the butt during the trip up the Thair and Mildra seemed to be there more as a mentor for Tom than anything else. My one major character gripe from the last book (Prime Minister = deus ex machina in a snuggie) has been largely alleviated with some glimpses of the problems he's trying to keep quiet. Let's give a cheer for character motivation!
I am still enjoying the careful mix between sword and sorcery type fantasy and steampunk throughout the setting. The focus on characters aids in this a great deal. I especially like the notion that the Stain in the undercity spawns forth monsters like the Soul Thief on a semi regular basis, a tacit nod to how mucking up the environment in which one lives in will come back to haunt you later.
I enjoyed this book a great deal and look forwards to the next installment.
INTRODUCTION City of Hope & Despair is the second book in the series about Thaiburley, the famed City of a Hundred Rows that has started last year in City of Dreams and Nightmares.
I was a little surprised by some aspects of it; most notably the fact that it is a *middle book* in a trilogy - not a 2nd part of a duology as I expected, so it has the typical structure of such where things advance, some threads get solved but nothing essentially stands on its own.
The blurb below provided the other new aspect, namely the expansion of the story beyond Thaiburley though the city features strongly in the second main thread of the novel.
"A SECOND VISIT TO THAIBURLEY THE CITY OF DREAMS, THE FABLED CITY OF A HUNDRED ROWS.
Dark forces are gathering in the shadowy depths, and the whole city is under threat. The former street-nick, Tom, embarks on a journey to discover the source of the great river Thair, said to be the ultimate power behind all of Thaiburley. Accompanying him are the assassin Dewar and the young Thaistess Mildra. It soon becomes evident that their journey has more significance than any of them realize, as past secrets catch up with them and unknown adversaries hunt them... to the death! "
According to the information inside the copy I have, the concluding series book will be called City of Lights and Shadows and there is an excerpt that gives a hint where it goes.
ANALYSIS City of Hope & Despair essentially starts where City Dreams and Nightmare ends, though it takes a little to get there since the first pages of the book are a sort of extended prologue that seems disconnected from what came before.
Inside Thaiburley nasty things stir and bad things happen, most notably a creature called The Soul Thief - who does precisely what its name says and steals the souls especially of the people with a little "talent" - is on one of its occasional rampages. To add to uncertainty, the city's underground is in flux after the events of the first book and new gangs appear to take place of the decimated older ones
Kat whom we last have seen locked into mortal duel with her sister for the mastery of the Tattooed Men and the Arena is the main protagonist here with her sister - their battle gets postponed due to the Soul Thief of course - and a various cast, mostly familiar from the first book; this part is a little weaker than the first book mostly because it brings little new and reads not unlike typical UF stuff, but Kat makes it worth reading.
In the second thread we get to see the world outside Thaiburley and learn some backstory and some of the big picture issues, when Tom is sent by the First Minister on a crucial mission with DeWar as a "bodyguard" as well as two other companions. Of course there are people/entities that do not want the mission to succeed and they command a skilled assassin with a personal grudge against DeWar to stop them at any cost. This part alternates the expected - fights, ambushes,...- with a lot of world building expansion and it is pretty good.
So the content of the book is comparable with book one with the large advantage in originality City of Dreams and Nightmares had by simply being the first book in the milieu, being only partly compensated by the expansion of the universe here.
In execution, I would say the books are also comparable so City of Hope & Despair moves fast and is a page turner with everything that made City Dreams and Nightmare entertaining. The action takes place in a fairly limited amount of time so the main characters do not change much, but we find out crucial information about their background and that adds to their depth as well as offering a better understanding of their motivations and actions from the first book. These "back story nuggets" scattered throughout City of Hope & Despair were very well done and I found them a major new strength of the series.
City of Hope & Despair (A) ends like the first one with a semi-cliffhanger in one of the two main storylines and with a clear to be continued in the other, so the trilogy ending which I plan to read asap of course will determine how the series stands for me.
Note this review has been published originally on Fantasy Book Critic and all referred links are there
I liked this series.
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