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spriggana's review against another edition
4.0
Liked it much better then the first book. The irony here is that this one is clearly a part of minimum two-book series, but somehow it makes it better then the stand-alone book one.
bcinkoske's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
ailsaod's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
OK so after I reread book one specifically so I could read this book (and didn't enjoy it) I should have just been sensible and stopped there. But I didn't because I am a stubborn idiot that hauled this book to and from uni for years in the hopes I would have the time and energy to read it and I wasn't going to let my disappointment at the first book stop me!
For me Whates' books have the strange quality of being unenjoyable but also extremely readable and if you liked book one you'll find this book much of the same. The main difference is that a good deal of the story no longer takes place in Thaiburley and is focused on finding the source of the River Thaiss so there isn't such an urban feel. I will say that Whates doesn't appear to understand Geography particularly well when it comes to the formation of swamps but the worldbuilding was overall OK if a bit unsatisfying. It's hard to describe precisely why it is unsatisfying but my best attempt is that it feels as if you are wearing blinders that only let you see what is straight ahead - or that if you left the exact path the story takes there would be an empty void. There were a couple of instances where Whates came off a bit preachy - ironically about religion/the way it is practiced being stupid - and while I might agree with him on this topic I didn't like the way he wrote about it as it was kind of jarring and going after low-hanging fruit. When the temple at Pilgrimage end was described I very much wished to tell him to chill out - yes the consumerisation of Religion isn't great but there are far worse ways for people to make a living!
After the previous book I was not pleased to hear that Dewar was also going to feature here as he is a self-important nasty piece of work and I really didn't like him. One thing I think this book did very well is that Dewar is brought back from the brink of irredeemable awfulness and while he remains unsympathetic and nasty he is much more interesting. However his continued presence in the narrative is just to be the warrior character to fight off the threats the party faces but there were some issues regarding the outcomes of some fight scenes feeling rushed and anticlimactic.
Another aspect of the book is the arrival of the 'bone plague' in Thaiburley. This part is from the perspective of the Prime Master and has aged like milk because he is e x t r e m e l y irresponsible: he catches the plague and then pretends nothing is wrong even though they have no idea how its spread and he could be infecting everyone! . I think the Prime Master (which I always read as prime minister and get confused) is supposed to be this wise old man figure but he just makes me think of Palpatine when he's pretending to be nice.
All female characters continued to be written in a manner I found uncomfortable: every girl/woman is attractive and we must know this (if ALL of them are super pretty then doesn't that make the term irrelevant?), there is another (luckily only referenced) case of men lusting after a preteen and its framed in that annoying 'oh I am too weak to resist the charms of the seductive hot girl' way when she's literally just EXISTING. At least Jezmina in book 1 was actually setting out to seduce people! To many people this probably sounds like I'm just whining about minor details because I have deemed them 'problematic' and to an extent that is true (sir, I must ask you to look away from the preteen girls!) but really it just spoiled my enjoyment of the book and the story could have done without it fine. The Tom/Mildra romance was very meh and shows that Tom is basically that one guy you went to school with that would ask out a different one of your friends every week and each time pretend he was devoted to that one person all along. ALSO there is an almost sex scene in this book with the sex pollen trope thrown in to really make me want to yeet myself into the next dimension over (why? why would you do this?) and not only was the scene itself yucky but every time Tom interacts with Mildra after that all he can think about is her nipples. I liked Mildra and she was pretty cool in book one but I desperately didn't want to know a thing about anything under her clothes. There is also a case of attempted rape in this book which was fairly intense.
TL;DR: if you liked the first book then you'll like this one. There are some interesting ideas here but much of it has been done better elsewhere.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Gore
tachyondecay's review
2.0
City of Hope & Despair jumps between two narratives. Tom, the street-nick turned unlikely hero with the ability to hide himself and others in plain sight, sets off as part of a small expedition upriver. Back in Thaiburley, Kat, her sister, and the Tattooed Men hunt the Soul Thief. Meanwhile, there is the distinct impression of a ticking clock, as a mysterious calcifying disease afflicts those in the city who have magical talent.
Whates flicks back and forth between these narratives so much that it might make your head spin. This works to the book’s advantage, however. I found myself getting tired of both stories. After a short time with Kat, I’d wonder what Tom and friends were up to outside of the city. Similarly, too long with the anaemic Tom, and I was yearning to see Kat get up to trouble. City of Hope & Despair suffers from a serious case of “grass is always greener” syndrome, but Whates still manages to make it work, barely.
Tom, fresh from saving the city with his ambiguous superpowers, is off on a quest. Yes, it’s quest time in City of a Hundred Rows world! Tom’s party includes the cunning assassin, Dewar; the intriguing Thaistess (priestess), Mildra; and a super-strength Kayjele named Kohn. With brains, spirit, and brawn backing him up, Tom travels upriver. It’s not entirely clear what they are seeking (good old Prime Master of Thaiburley and his amgiuous explanations again), but legend has it that not only is the river the source of the city’s magic but there is a goddess at the source of the river! So there!
In the city, Kat is chasing a Soul Thief. This malignant entity hunts people with magical talent and literally sucks them dry of it. It preys on the poor of the lower city, and so far the authorities have done nothing to stop it. So Kat and her band of antiheroes, the survivors of the vicious gladiatorial pits, are trying to fill the void. Eventually they hatch a half-baked scheme to use people with talent as bait. It doesn’t quite go as planned (thanks to some interference from local gang members). In the end, Kat has to make a deal with the enemy she knows to hunt the enemy she doesn’t.
Lurking behind these two stories, like a spider at its web, is the prime master. I love this guy. I hate that I love this guy, because he is bad for the plot like trans fat is for your heart—it can taste so good, but it is going to kill you one day. The prime master is one of those characters who has more answers than the reader—almost but not quite an author avatar—and manipulates other characters from behind the scenes. He confronts the mysterious bone disease that is attacking the talented of Thaiburley. It seems clear that he knows more about Tom’s quest than he has let on to Tom. And he personally gets involved in Kat’s hunt for the Soul Thief—though he has ulterior motives for sending her on a joint expedition with the Kite Guard into the Stain.
Tom, on the other hand, I still can’t bring myself to love. He’s just so plain and transparent. Whates gets into his head, and it’s full of the fluffiness of youth without any of the flaws. It’s true that Tom is no warrior. When it comes to his personality, his character, there are no flaws. He’s a nice guy who, in a high school setting, would probably get beat up a lot because he’s just so nice it’s sickening.
I’m conflicted about Kat. I like her, but I think Whates leans too much on the stereotype of the “strong, damaged badass girl” without seriously exploring it. To his credit, he gives Kat and her sister an interesting and fairly deep backstory about their childhood in the Pits. Kat’s adversarial relationship with her sister figures prominently in this book, coming to a head during the climax of her plot and resulting in a change to Kat’s status that will leave her uncertain and unbalanced in the next book.
City of Hope & Despair definitely has a lot going on, which isn’t quite the same as saying it has a lot going for it. Much like the first book, this one seem to reach for but never quite grasp the story it wants to be. I’m disappointed that it didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but after re-reading my review of the first book and thinking about it some more, I shouldn’t be surprised. Though this is a competent, complete story that sets the scene for what promises to be an intense third volume, City of Hope & Despair does not rise to the level of fascinating or epic.
Whates flicks back and forth between these narratives so much that it might make your head spin. This works to the book’s advantage, however. I found myself getting tired of both stories. After a short time with Kat, I’d wonder what Tom and friends were up to outside of the city. Similarly, too long with the anaemic Tom, and I was yearning to see Kat get up to trouble. City of Hope & Despair suffers from a serious case of “grass is always greener” syndrome, but Whates still manages to make it work, barely.
Tom, fresh from saving the city with his ambiguous superpowers, is off on a quest. Yes, it’s quest time in City of a Hundred Rows world! Tom’s party includes the cunning assassin, Dewar; the intriguing Thaistess (priestess), Mildra; and a super-strength Kayjele named Kohn. With brains, spirit, and brawn backing him up, Tom travels upriver. It’s not entirely clear what they are seeking (good old Prime Master of Thaiburley and his amgiuous explanations again), but legend has it that not only is the river the source of the city’s magic but there is a goddess at the source of the river! So there!
In the city, Kat is chasing a Soul Thief. This malignant entity hunts people with magical talent and literally sucks them dry of it. It preys on the poor of the lower city, and so far the authorities have done nothing to stop it. So Kat and her band of antiheroes, the survivors of the vicious gladiatorial pits, are trying to fill the void. Eventually they hatch a half-baked scheme to use people with talent as bait. It doesn’t quite go as planned (thanks to some interference from local gang members). In the end, Kat has to make a deal with the enemy she knows to hunt the enemy she doesn’t.
Lurking behind these two stories, like a spider at its web, is the prime master. I love this guy. I hate that I love this guy, because he is bad for the plot like trans fat is for your heart—it can taste so good, but it is going to kill you one day. The prime master is one of those characters who has more answers than the reader—almost but not quite an author avatar—and manipulates other characters from behind the scenes. He confronts the mysterious bone disease that is attacking the talented of Thaiburley. It seems clear that he knows more about Tom’s quest than he has let on to Tom. And he personally gets involved in Kat’s hunt for the Soul Thief—though he has ulterior motives for sending her on a joint expedition with the Kite Guard into the Stain.
Tom, on the other hand, I still can’t bring myself to love. He’s just so plain and transparent. Whates gets into his head, and it’s full of the fluffiness of youth without any of the flaws. It’s true that Tom is no warrior. When it comes to his personality, his character, there are no flaws. He’s a nice guy who, in a high school setting, would probably get beat up a lot because he’s just so nice it’s sickening.
I’m conflicted about Kat. I like her, but I think Whates leans too much on the stereotype of the “strong, damaged badass girl” without seriously exploring it. To his credit, he gives Kat and her sister an interesting and fairly deep backstory about their childhood in the Pits. Kat’s adversarial relationship with her sister figures prominently in this book, coming to a head during the climax of her plot and resulting in a change to Kat’s status that will leave her uncertain and unbalanced in the next book.
City of Hope & Despair definitely has a lot going on, which isn’t quite the same as saying it has a lot going for it. Much like the first book, this one seem to reach for but never quite grasp the story it wants to be. I’m disappointed that it didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but after re-reading my review of the first book and thinking about it some more, I shouldn’t be surprised. Though this is a competent, complete story that sets the scene for what promises to be an intense third volume, City of Hope & Despair does not rise to the level of fascinating or epic.
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