(1/4 of) City of Dreams and Nightmare
Jan. 18th, 2012 02:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishIn my Monday peregrinations (of which more anon) I found myself at White Dwarf Books, a spec-fic bookstore with a wide selection. All new, as the proprietor informed me, although some have been there for awhile. They had the second and third volumes of Gwyneth Jones's Aleutian trilogy, for instance (though not the first), which have been out of print except as ebooks for some years.
I ended up walking away with the three volumes of Ian Whates's City of a Hundred Rows. It had what looked to be a fairly inventive setting (huge enclosed vertical city, stratified and run-down, with steampunk overtones that aren't quite enough to turn me off it), and the main character as introduced in the first couple of pages is a guardsman whose parents decided that his being a guardsman was their ticket to higher society but who isn't very thrilled about this.
The first thing that happens in the book, after an introductory bit devoted to Tylus the hapless guardsman, is a viewpoint switch to Tom the Plucky Young Street Urchin. Tom has climbed up near the top of the city on a dare. He witnesses a Very Important murder and escapes from the murderer, in the process demonstrating his Mystical Powers.
"Disappointment" would cover my reaction, if stretched very thinly.
I'm a quarter or so through the first book. Tom has yet to acquire much in the way of characterization beyond being Plucky, and also a Street Urchin, and having Mystic Powers, which is unfortunate since well over half the book's been following him. Tylus's sections show more promise but are few and far between. There are also occasional bits devoted to other characters: one from the murderer's perspective, because unless the reader knows that these events are Big and World-Changing she won't care (spoiler: this reader doesn't anyway), and a couple from the assassin who's been sent to track Tylus while Tylus tracks Tom.
(Tom later meets up with a lizardman named Ty-Gen. Far be it from me to complain about names that start with T but this is a bit much.)
I'm still reading, partly out of sheer bloody-mindedness at having spent good money on these but mostly for the world-building. Which really is excellent. I"m enjoying the heck out of Whates's giant clanky slime-ridden city, and the Watch and the lizardmen and all that. I just wish it had a less-generic plot and some less-generic characters to go with it.
I ended up walking away with the three volumes of Ian Whates's City of a Hundred Rows. It had what looked to be a fairly inventive setting (huge enclosed vertical city, stratified and run-down, with steampunk overtones that aren't quite enough to turn me off it), and the main character as introduced in the first couple of pages is a guardsman whose parents decided that his being a guardsman was their ticket to higher society but who isn't very thrilled about this.
The first thing that happens in the book, after an introductory bit devoted to Tylus the hapless guardsman, is a viewpoint switch to Tom the Plucky Young Street Urchin. Tom has climbed up near the top of the city on a dare. He witnesses a Very Important murder and escapes from the murderer, in the process demonstrating his Mystical Powers.
"Disappointment" would cover my reaction, if stretched very thinly.
I'm a quarter or so through the first book. Tom has yet to acquire much in the way of characterization beyond being Plucky, and also a Street Urchin, and having Mystic Powers, which is unfortunate since well over half the book's been following him. Tylus's sections show more promise but are few and far between. There are also occasional bits devoted to other characters: one from the murderer's perspective, because unless the reader knows that these events are Big and World-Changing she won't care (spoiler: this reader doesn't anyway), and a couple from the assassin who's been sent to track Tylus while Tylus tracks Tom.
(Tom later meets up with a lizardman named Ty-Gen. Far be it from me to complain about names that start with T but this is a bit much.)
I'm still reading, partly out of sheer bloody-mindedness at having spent good money on these but mostly for the world-building. Which really is excellent. I"m enjoying the heck out of Whates's giant clanky slime-ridden city, and the Watch and the lizardmen and all that. I just wish it had a less-generic plot and some less-generic characters to go with it.