City of Stone and Silence
2020 • 368 pages
Ratings5
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings5
Average rating3.8
Django Wexler's City of Stone and Silence is the second book in the cinematic fantasy Wells of Sorcery Trilogy featuring a fierce young woman skilled in the art of combat magic on an epic mission to steal a ghost ship. After surviving the Vile Rot, Isoka, Meroe, and the rest of Soliton’s crew finally arrive at Soliton's mysterious destination, the Harbor—a city of great stone ziggurats, enshrouded in a ghostly veil of Eddica magic. And they're not alone. Royalty, monks, and madmen live in a precarious balance, and by night take shelter from monstrous living corpses. None know how to leave the Harbor, but if Isoka can't find a way to capture Soliton and return it to the Emperor's spymaster before a year is up, her sister's Tori's life will be forfeit. But there's more to Tori's life back in Kahnzoka than the comfortable luxury Isoka intended for her. By night, she visits the lower wards, risking danger to help run a sanctuary for mage-bloods fleeing the Emperor's iron fist. When she discovers that Isoka is missing, her search takes her deep in the mires of intrigue and revolution. And she has her own secret—the power of Kindre, the Well of Mind, which can bend others to its will. Though she's spent her life denying this brutal magic, Tori will use whatever means she has to with Isoka's fate on the line...
Series
3 primary booksThe Wells of Sorcery is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2019 with contributions by Django Wexler.
Reviews with the most likes.
This world is so fascinating and I loved the addition of Tori's story in this installment. I'm super curious what happens in the next book and how everything ties up.
Executive Summary: I enjoyed this, but not as much as the first one, and not nearly as much as his Shadow Campaigns series.
Audiobook: YA books seem to love to do multiple narrators. I've found it a bit of a mixed bag. As both protagonists are female, I didn't really find it necessary to have distinct narrators for each POV. However both narrators were fine.
Catherine Ho returns as Isoka, while Nancy Wu was added to read Torrie's chapters. Both read at a good pace and we recorded at a good volume. While the narration doesn't make this a must listen for me, it's definitely a solid option.
Full Review
I'm not generally a fan of YA books, but I'm a big fan of Django Wexler after thoroughly enjoying his Shadow Campaign series.
I thought the first book of this series started a bit slow, but picked up by the end. This book was a bit similar because we're introduced to a new POV, Torrie and for me her early chapters were kind of slow.
Isoka's chapter picked right up where we left off in the last book so I was a lot more engaged in those from the start. I did find Torrie's chapters to get a lot more interesting by the middle of hte book and by the end I was enjoying each of them about equally. If anything I maybe enjoyed the end of Torrie's chapters the most.
I will say the YA romance was a bit sappy at times, but I guess that's because I'm not the target demographic. For me I'm most interested in the world building. The ancient technology and the really cool magic system.
We got some additional details about the Ghost ship in this book, but not a great deal. It was enough to keep me interested in story though.
Overall I thought this book was enjoyable enough, but not quite as good as the last one or his previous adult series.
