My recent stretch of random books has been on a successful run but The City in the Middle of the Night was a misstep for me. I found the book to be a drag and I kept waiting for something to happen and justify my investment. I can tolerate a slow burn or a reveal at the end that connects everything together but there was none of that here.

The individual elements of the story (origin of the planet pioneers, tales of two cities, mysterious creatures living in the shadow of night) were interesting in concept but failed to resonate with me. What was the story about? What was the conflict? Even if information is withheld it should keep the reader engaged but all I was interested in was the number of pages remaining.

Other reviews echo my feelings and do a more elegant job of dissecting what worked and what didn't so this is where my review ends.