Michael Barnes
This book's attraction for me was the use of alchemy, with my love of chemistry I am drawn to stories which weave a unique alchemical framework that maintains a consistent fundamental system that still allows a surprise that you could predict from the details provided bravo to Lu. The different ways that alchemy can take a life, from transmutating your opponent's skin to the pavement, to melding metal to your target’s scalp – the fighting tactics are innovative and gruesome. Alchemy, in Marie Lu’s adult debut Red City, is the art of transformation. In the novel, we learn that a drug known as Sand is used to make people 'the best they can be' so whilst it heightens their strengths, but also their weaknesses. The tagline of the book reads ‘power always has a price’, referring largely to the fact that the use of alchemy erodes part of the user’s soul. It also, however, alludes to the greater narrative of the story, that power is a give-and-take; so how much are you willing to give up?
The supporting characters are fascination as well all with depth and motivation that make them so much more than just easily categorised hero/villain. Please don't think I some moral equivalence excuses their horrible deeds but at least there are no mustachio cartoon Dick Dastardly plotting evil for the laughs.
The world building is superb in an alternative contemporary of our own but in which alchemy exists in a shadowy underworld. If you have read and enjoyed Fonda Lee’s Greenbone Saga, and V.E. Schwab’s Vicious then I think you will enjoy this new series. Like those this include magical crime syndicates, and childhood unrequited love. Sam and Ari are tragic characters destined to be on opposing sides of a magical war between Alchemists trying to control the most valuable substance: sand. Set primarily in an alternate Los Angeles, we follow these characters as they grow up and head their separate ways. Lu also touches on first generation immigrant struggles, the complicated relationship dynamics with family, and cultural differences drawing on some of her own experiences as she says in the acknowledgements at the end of the book. There might be a few scenes you may find confronting, as there is torture, so check for warnings.
This book's attraction for me was the use of alchemy, with my love of chemistry I am drawn to stories which weave a unique alchemical framework that maintains a consistent fundamental system that still allows a surprise that you could predict from the details provided bravo to Lu. The different ways that alchemy can take a life, from transmutating your opponent's skin to the pavement, to melding metal to your target’s scalp – the fighting tactics are innovative and gruesome. Alchemy, in Marie Lu’s adult debut Red City, is the art of transformation. In the novel, we learn that a drug known as Sand is used to make people 'the best they can be' so whilst it heightens their strengths, but also their weaknesses. The tagline of the book reads ‘power always has a price’, referring largely to the fact that the use of alchemy erodes part of the user’s soul. It also, however, alludes to the greater narrative of the story, that power is a give-and-take; so how much are you willing to give up?
The supporting characters are fascination as well all with depth and motivation that make them so much more than just easily categorised hero/villain. Please don't think I some moral equivalence excuses their horrible deeds but at least there are no mustachio cartoon Dick Dastardly plotting evil for the laughs.
The world building is superb in an alternative contemporary of our own but in which alchemy exists in a shadowy underworld. If you have read and enjoyed Fonda Lee’s Greenbone Saga, and V.E. Schwab’s Vicious then I think you will enjoy this new series. Like those this include magical crime syndicates, and childhood unrequited love. Sam and Ari are tragic characters destined to be on opposing sides of a magical war between Alchemists trying to control the most valuable substance: sand. Set primarily in an alternate Los Angeles, we follow these characters as they grow up and head their separate ways. Lu also touches on first generation immigrant struggles, the complicated relationship dynamics with family, and cultural differences drawing on some of her own experiences as she says in the acknowledgements at the end of the book. There might be a few scenes you may find confronting, as there is torture, so check for warnings.