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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.

I didn't particularly enjoy this book. It was an OK thriller marred by some careless writing, and a fairly predictable plot. For example "In addition to the 2,500 euro per head ticket price, the tables arranged outside in the casino gardens, under awnings of silk studded with thousands of tiny lights to give the impression of a canopy of stars, cost upwards of two hundred thousand euros each." What cost 200,000E? The tables? The canopy? In what sense is that "in addition" to the cost of the tickets (a cost borne, presumably, by entirely different parties)? This sentence is characteristic of the writing: far too many subclauses and sub-subclauses to add flavour and enhance characterisation. And despite that, hardly any of the characters have much substance. Even Argylle, the protagonist, feels a bit thin. I did like Coffey though, she's an interesting character.

There's a part at the beginning of chapter 16 where the book jumps back and forth between the characters being on a helicopter or on a bus. Not in a "narrative being told out of order" sort of way, more in a "forgot to turn this reference to bus into chopper during a rewrite" sort of way.

But those gripes aside, it's an easy read and will keep you entertained for a while.