English language
Published Dec. 6, 2023 by Head of Zeus.
City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world. As their legions scour the world of superstition with the bright flame of reason, so they deliver a mountain of ragged, holed and scorched flesh to the field hospital tents just behind the frontline.
Which is where Yasnic, one-time priest, healer and rebel, finds himself. Reprieved from the gallows and sent to war clutching a box of orphan Gods, he has been sequestered to a particularity unorthodox medical unit.
Led by 'the Butcher', an ogre of a man who's a dab hand with a bone-saw and an alchemical tincture, the unit's motley crew of conscripts, healers and orderlies are no strangers to the horrors of war. Their's is an unspeakable trade: elbow-deep in gore they have a first-hand view of the suffering caused by flesh-rending monsters, arcane magical weaponry and embittered enemy soldiers.
Entrusted - …
City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world. As their legions scour the world of superstition with the bright flame of reason, so they deliver a mountain of ragged, holed and scorched flesh to the field hospital tents just behind the frontline.
Which is where Yasnic, one-time priest, healer and rebel, finds himself. Reprieved from the gallows and sent to war clutching a box of orphan Gods, he has been sequestered to a particularity unorthodox medical unit.
Led by 'the Butcher', an ogre of a man who's a dab hand with a bone-saw and an alchemical tincture, the unit's motley crew of conscripts, healers and orderlies are no strangers to the horrors of war. Their's is an unspeakable trade: elbow-deep in gore they have a first-hand view of the suffering caused by flesh-rending monsters, arcane magical weaponry and embittered enemy soldiers.
Entrusted - for now - with saving lives deemed otherwise un-saveable, the field hospital's crew face a precarious existence. Their work with unapproved magic, necromancy, demonology and Yansic's thoroughly illicit Gods could lead to the unit being disbanded, arrested or worse.
Beset by enemies within and without, the last thing anyone needs is a miracle.
This one is very different from the first book, but eventually I decided it's my favorite. It's close to a three-way tie though.
I enjoyed The City of Last Chances, and this is a worthy successor. It's a sequel in only the loosest of senses: there's only a couple of characters from City of Last Chances that make an appearance. In another sense, it is continuing the same story: the story of the Palleseen's hegemonic expansionist forever war.
There was a section in the middle of the book where I wasn't sure whether it was as good as the first one: the story seemed to be dragging a bit, and the multiple perspective storytelling that worked so well in City of Last Chances just didn't seem to be working as well. But the book redeems itself in the last fifth or so. The disparate strands of the story come together perfectly and the final tense scenes are really good.
I titled this review "What if Pratchett but dark?" and I stand by that: …
I enjoyed The City of Last Chances, and this is a worthy successor. It's a sequel in only the loosest of senses: there's only a couple of characters from City of Last Chances that make an appearance. In another sense, it is continuing the same story: the story of the Palleseen's hegemonic expansionist forever war.
There was a section in the middle of the book where I wasn't sure whether it was as good as the first one: the story seemed to be dragging a bit, and the multiple perspective storytelling that worked so well in City of Last Chances just didn't seem to be working as well. But the book redeems itself in the last fifth or so. The disparate strands of the story come together perfectly and the final tense scenes are really good.
I titled this review "What if Pratchett but dark?" and I stand by that: I think Adrian Tchaikovsky has, here, tapped in to something of the same worldbuilding that Terry Pratchett did so well. Tchaikovsky's books don't have the gentleness of Pratchett, and the humour is less central, but there's definitely something of the same vibe to the world.
I don't think this is as good as City of Last Chances, but it is, nevertheless, a very good book.
Really loved the first book in this series so even with developing the characters and world further and the addition of a demon sex workers character, it can only get a 4.5 to differentiate it from book 1.
set in a military camp this time, it appeared as a departure from a lot of the themes from the first book but it maintained the polygod central plot.
Definitely enjoyed and would recommend and am not sure where book three is gonna take us, but i am in for the ride.
This feels like a big departure from the previous book. The first one was kind of a set of slices of life from a weird fantasy city under occupation, and this one follows one of the characters into an army field hospital.
The main theme seems to be exploration of what it would look like to attempt to rules-lawyer a world with magic, gods, and demons.
I enjoyed it, but I didn't get a real sense of continuity from City of Last Chances - they're essentially two distinct novels set in the same world.
House of Open Wounds wasn't what I expected.
It's not a middle book in a trilogy, it has an ending. It's not about the mysterious Woods at the edge of Ilmar that were so promenant at the end of City of Last Chances.
It's about my favorite characters from that novel, Yasnic and his God. It's about the healers that are allowed to work their miracles at the periphery of the Pall war camp because they are useful. It dangles the promise of healing in return for pacifism at a humanity that can't stop fighting.
Like City of Last Chances, it's about the people stuck in the gears of the Palleseen Empire's ambitions. Not about kings and emperors.
Tchaikovsky has grown allot at a writer since the Shadow of the Apt series and has written a very compelling story that concentrates on engaging characters.
I couldn't put it down, I …
House of Open Wounds wasn't what I expected.
It's not a middle book in a trilogy, it has an ending. It's not about the mysterious Woods at the edge of Ilmar that were so promenant at the end of City of Last Chances.
It's about my favorite characters from that novel, Yasnic and his God. It's about the healers that are allowed to work their miracles at the periphery of the Pall war camp because they are useful. It dangles the promise of healing in return for pacifism at a humanity that can't stop fighting.
Like City of Last Chances, it's about the people stuck in the gears of the Palleseen Empire's ambitions. Not about kings and emperors.
Tchaikovsky has grown allot at a writer since the Shadow of the Apt series and has written a very compelling story that concentrates on engaging characters.
I couldn't put it down, I listened at every opportunity. It did sometimes feel repetitive and perhaps could have been shorter. But the ending clinched it all and most of it payed off brilliantly.
A friend of mine told me that the characters in this series remind him of Pratchett characters and that House of Open Wounds reminds him of Monstrous Regiment. Now that he has brought my attention to it, I can't unsee it.
Tchaikovsky isn't Pratchett and isn't trying to be Pratchett. He is not trying to be funny, but the social commentary, humanism and satire are reminiscent of Pratchett.
I really like how this world works, the magic, the gods, the attention to detail, and the way humans deal with all that. Also, a great cast of characters and a worthy conclusion.
