City of Last Chances

This is actually a really good book, but for some reason I struggled a lot with the format, in which each chapter is told from a different character's perspective and frequently only a character that we meet for one or two chapters. Yes, there are a few "main" characters that we get to come back to again and again, but you don't really start revisiting them until later in the book and so for the first part it's kind of an endless parade of new points of view. Took me quite a while to wade through those to where everything clicked for me and I was able to keep my attention on the book for more than a single chapter at a time.

Overall, it has a good arc, a good plot, good character development etc though and I enjoyed the story quite a lot by the time I reached the end. Just tough going at the start, and possibly only for me?

4 stars is fair here I think. There seems to be a bit of a thing where a few authors are trying to move Fantasy forward to the industrial era and extrapolating into what that might look like. This is Tchaikovsky's take on that trend. This, however, was a slightly odd book. Firstly, I should say it is Tchaikovsky so it is well executed with his trademark flair. However (and you knew there was a but), it ended up striking me as a somewhat disjointed book. I don't know if it was meant to be the lead off for a series or not (and it certainly felt as if it was written that way) but there were a few notes that jarred for me and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the resolution. For example, a Shakespearean narration is thrown in about a third through, clearly to smooth over a rough join, and it just didn't sit right with me. Still, 4 stars it is and if Fantasy is your jam this is a decent one so I can recommend.