An interesting read.

It wasn't amazing but a solid read. Interested to see where it goes next. I think it's a little over hyped, I've read a lot of fantasy that is a great deal better but I did enjoy it overall.

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incredible

I loved every moment of this book. I read some complaints about the narrator but personally I liked her. its definitely worth a read

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3 people found this helpful

Ok

The narrator had quite an annoying voice when she tried to do the male characters. Story-wise the magic system was inventive but the characters were very similar - the swearing always irritated type. I nearly returned the book after two hours but by ten was enjoying it.

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Good read, made me want to read the next one

The story is interesting, the magic system intriguing, and it sets a good foundation for the rest of the story. I wish character development was better, I wanted to get to know them better. I have also bought the kindle version, reading the book helped me due to the the narrator of the audio book. Oh boy. She almost made me not buying the second book. I think she over-dramatised and, as a UK listner the American nasal accent really put me off.

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Disappointing but left me wanting more.

After the excellent Divine cities trilogy this book is a bit of a come down. The beginning heist feels like Thief (the game) fan fiction. It gets worse when the target of the heist turns out to be an object that jumped ship from a Disney cartoon. If you can accept that the rest of the story plays out nicely apart from the final confrontation. This depends on Sansia being extremely stupid for a while, this was so annoying I was grinding my teeth as I listened.

Still it left me looking forward to book 2.

Narration was good.

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2/3rds of a good story

First thing's first, it's too long. Secondly, the third act is bad. Finally, the world and the characters are mostly great. This is an enjoyable listen with a good flow and interesting language, if the author could rein it in a bit with the waffle and pace the story better this would be excellent.

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Wonderful setting and environments

Great fun from the outset. If you enjoyed City of Stairs then this should be on your TBR list.

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Spoilers

I bought this because I really wanted the book but the Kindle version had dramatic flaws.

Narration: the voice is a tad annoying. It shakes like due to nervousness and it's too high pitched.

Story: good story. Somehow it feels less original than the Divine Cities but after having some time to internalize it, I came to appreciate it more. I guess it might have been a problem of expectations than the story actually not being good. Good foreshadowing, good plot twists, original world, good characters, solid 4.5/5. There's a lot of world with rich history, interesting artifacts, and a cool physical magic system. It's excellent that they need to make an artificial intelligence by actually incorporating a human one in an object.

The magic system is new, interesting, rule-based, inspired from physics, and has limitations just like it's supposed to. The plot is interesting, fast paced, and full of heists. There are lots of sexy ancient artefacts that do all sorts of cool stuff and sexy new artefacts that do other cool stuff. There's engineering, reverse-engineering, and magical artificial intelligence. The characters are likable. I confess to having liked that big dumb lawful good Gregor right since when Sancia broke into his waterfront fortress and it was suggested he's the enemy. It's new, fresh, interesting, makes sense, is unpredictable, and original.

I mostly disliked motivations and character building. How can Sancia befriend Clef so quickly? Why are all the main characters so open to befriending each other? There should be tons of mistrust, even disgust between the main characters but everyone is jolly good friends and ready to take a stroll together through the park very quickly. Which is terribly convenient for advancing the plot. Why does Sancia start out as a strong cold-eyed professional only to become insecure and dismayed by everything she sees? What makes Gregor such an ethical character? He's like a silly cross between Jordan's Galad and Pratchett's Captain Carrot. It was predictable that he was the one to convince Sancia to break into the Mountain but in a 5-minute dialogue?! There's just too much that doesn't make sense about character motivations.

The love story: somehow even great writers like RJB fumble to get a same gender love story right. In heteromance, authors create a visceral feel. The protagonists meet and first glance at each other from the corner of the eye, then laugh awkwardly at each other etc. You know there's a romance brewing and you feel for them. Same gender love stories not so much. It's a bit of hinting and then you are told how they feel. Like the whole affair is a distasteful happenstance that needs to be handled very discreetly. Well that's not good enough. It's not convincing. Convince me, RJB, that they are falling for each other and that they have good reason to do so. Show me more than just their skills or that they make a good team. We're talking romance here, not coworkers.

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4 people found this helpful

Mostly good

I enjoyed the pace, world building and a few of the characters. It got a bit technical for me at times though, and the romantic relationship came without hardly any build-up.

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Fast moving fantasy cyberpunk heist adventure

This story is well written, well read and full of big ideas and high speed action. Worth reading for anyone who enjoys genre fiction, might particularly appeal to people who like Brandon Sanderson or Neal Stephenson - it is in no way derivative but the attention to careful, detailed world building as a core element of the story puts them in a similar space.

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2 people found this helpful