City of Last Chances

I can respect the ambition on this story and on the surface it ticks all the boxes that I like in a book. Fantasy with a dash of grimdark? Check. Machiavellian scheming? Check. Fascinating world building? Check.

The titular city is a boiling mess of revolution, criminality and idealism. Located on a portal to another world the whole place is a cauldron of different tensions and motivations. Recently conquered by the Palleseen, an intensely bureaucratic civilization that aims to ‘perfect' the world, the underlying tensions of the occupation provide the main setting. The Pals want order, but they are somewhat corrupt and lazy, following a brutal approach to dissent. The students are idealists who want to throw off the yoke of oppresion. The workers are chafing under increased work and the brutality of the occupation. The criminals and the old high society each want to try and take control of any revolution to make sure they end up on top at the end. The setting is delightful!

There are a lot of characters and this is where it began to fall down a little for me. Some of the characters I really loved (the priest with his god is brilliant!) but the shear size of the cast means that they don't really get time to develop and quite a few of them I just failed to engage with.

This is an epic novel, dense in its construction and I can really appreciate the self contained nature of it. There is a lot to love here.