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songwind's review against another edition
Don't think I'll be finishing this one. I don't dislike it or anything, but I also just don't care what happens. Competently written, but I have no particular interest in the main character or the setting.
kitvaria_sarene's review
5.0
Add another re-read - or rather a re-listen to this book! There's an audio omnibus in the making, which will be out soon enough. I was lucky enough to get a bit of a beta listen experience! Suffice it to say, I still love Corin....
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First read November 2015 - reread January 2017 - and I still love it just as much! :)
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Entertaining and fast paced like an urban fantasy, sarcastic and fun - what is not to like?
One of my favorite books 2015! I found this gem more or less by accident, while asking for some bloody or dark fantasy or scifi - and was recommended this one.
This dystopian story takes place sometime in the near future, when humanity has to live down in the oceans, as the surface is uninhabitable. No aliens or spaceships whatsoever, instead big underwater cities, and a lot of submarines and diving gear.
The story never gets too "technical", but instead manages a perfect balance between worldbuilding and plot, without any infodumps at all. And I just love the descriptions of life in the ocean! I listened to the sounds, saw the deep, endless blue and felt the pressure around me. And that all with just a few sentences here and there, and without feeling like you are being told what to feel.
The main character is absolutely to my liking. I love his dry and dark humor, in all situations, and his dark side. A perfect "broken hero". You can't avoid being pulled onto his side and rooting for him. He had me laughing out loud and grinning to myself and even snorting a at times. (And I'm sure my fellow commuters now think I am a maniac...)
The story gripped me right from the first page, and didn't let me off the hook again. It was quite bloody and detailed in some parts - but for me the balance between plot, humor and violence was perfect. No gore just for the sake of it - but instead right for the story. A lot of action also helped to keep me well entertained and be quite flabbergasted when I reached the end of the book all of a sudden, when I could have kept going for another 200 pages...
The writing is easy and perfectly fluent, so you can really dive into the story, without realizing you are reading. Instead you are there, on the bottom of the ocean, following Corin around - who manages to step from one disaster into the next. Especially the witty humor kept me well entertained.
I can only wholeheartedly recommend this story to anyone, be it urban fantasy, scifi or thriller fan! My only complaint - it's way too short!
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First read November 2015 - reread January 2017 - and I still love it just as much! :)
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Entertaining and fast paced like an urban fantasy, sarcastic and fun - what is not to like?
One of my favorite books 2015! I found this gem more or less by accident, while asking for some bloody or dark fantasy or scifi - and was recommended this one.
This dystopian story takes place sometime in the near future, when humanity has to live down in the oceans, as the surface is uninhabitable. No aliens or spaceships whatsoever, instead big underwater cities, and a lot of submarines and diving gear.
The story never gets too "technical", but instead manages a perfect balance between worldbuilding and plot, without any infodumps at all. And I just love the descriptions of life in the ocean! I listened to the sounds, saw the deep, endless blue and felt the pressure around me. And that all with just a few sentences here and there, and without feeling like you are being told what to feel.
The main character is absolutely to my liking. I love his dry and dark humor, in all situations, and his dark side. A perfect "broken hero". You can't avoid being pulled onto his side and rooting for him. He had me laughing out loud and grinning to myself and even snorting a at times. (And I'm sure my fellow commuters now think I am a maniac...)
The story gripped me right from the first page, and didn't let me off the hook again. It was quite bloody and detailed in some parts - but for me the balance between plot, humor and violence was perfect. No gore just for the sake of it - but instead right for the story. A lot of action also helped to keep me well entertained and be quite flabbergasted when I reached the end of the book all of a sudden, when I could have kept going for another 200 pages...
The writing is easy and perfectly fluent, so you can really dive into the story, without realizing you are reading. Instead you are there, on the bottom of the ocean, following Corin around - who manages to step from one disaster into the next. Especially the witty humor kept me well entertained.
I can only wholeheartedly recommend this story to anyone, be it urban fantasy, scifi or thriller fan! My only complaint - it's way too short!
selinadragonair's review
3.0
The thing I liked most about this book was the underwater setting with submariens, fish-suits, underwater cities and an ex-special forces guy rampaging. The writing was solid and well paced, I found only minor typos. Still, I had two issues with the story: first, after a good opening scene it takes quite a time to get really interesting. For me it was, when Corin finally arrived at the Silent City. The beginning and the introduction of Corin Hayes felt like "by the book": sad, brutal past (check), drowning himself in alcohol and getting into fights (check) and so on. I wished for something more special. The second issue is with Corin Hayes character: although it's written in first person I did not like him (i know, he doesn't want to be liked but still). He's more a brutal one than a clever one and a lot of his self-imposed mystery solving is based on mere assumptions. Luckily he is no detective, he would probably kill half a city on assumptions. In the end a lot of questions weren't answered and I still have the feeling of having no idea what really happend.
lanko's review
3.0
Earth is done for, and we all live in underwater cities. I read plenty of books where people go to another galaxy to try and find a new Earth, but this is the first one I read that we actually stay, but in a totally different environent.
The worldbuilding is great. Mentions of the past civilization kinda of became a myth in the imagination of the people. Jobs, specializations and such also changed a lot. People who use Fish-Suits, like the protagonist, are in high demand.
The main character is pretty hard-boiled, with reason. A lot of things went wrong for him. It's a little hard to connect with him, specially when the secondary characters don't stay for long with him either.
The plot takes a while to go off, but it does go off well when it does. It just kinda of ended a little abruptly.
The worldbuilding is great. Mentions of the past civilization kinda of became a myth in the imagination of the people. Jobs, specializations and such also changed a lot. People who use Fish-Suits, like the protagonist, are in high demand.
The main character is pretty hard-boiled, with reason. A lot of things went wrong for him. It's a little hard to connect with him, specially when the secondary characters don't stay for long with him either.
The plot takes a while to go off, but it does go off well when it does. It just kinda of ended a little abruptly.
mistrum_crowe's review
4.0
Silent City is a thoroughly enjoyable book, and is definitely worth a look. The characterisation is a bit thin at the moment, and the plot seems to largely be set-up for later in the series, but for a first book in a series I'm willing to forgive a bit of mystery. Any flaws that the book may have are balanced out by some truly stellar worldbuilding, which combines all the griminess of cyberpunk with the majesty and terror of the sea. I'd be more than happy to continue the series.
barb4ry1's review
3.0
I wasn't allowed to watch The Abyss in 1989. My parents thought I was too young. Fortunately, there were ways to get around the ban. I remember watching the movie through the half-open doors to my parents' room. They thought I was asleep. I tried to remain silent. It wasn't easy as the movie was breathtaking and awe-inspiring. The scene in which Ed Harris got into the suit filled with breathing fluid was incredible, and it'll stay with me forever.
It turns out liquid breathing isn't a fiction. It's just so damn hard to breathe liquid and move at the same time that it's not used in real life (because of liquid viscosity and problems with CO2 removal). Still, it's a fascinating concept, and science development may allow us one day to feel like a fish in the water.
GR Matthews' Silent City is the first book I read in which liquid breathing is vital to the plot. It's a dystopian tale that takes place in the future. Humanity screwed big time, and the life goes on underwater, in the oceans, under domes. People languish in the underwater cities, surrounded by endless waters. Diving gear is essential for surviving and doing maintenance work. Submarines navigate through waters.
It's difficult to summarise the plot - I feel that what we've got is just an intro to a bigger, more layered adventure. The story's protagonist Corin Hayes is a middle-aged and hard-drinking guy with a dark and tragic history he doesn't want to think or speak about. Whatever money he gains doing underwater maintenance, he spends on alcohol (mostly). He's no stranger to bar fights and bitter reflections about life in general. To be fair, though, he's not (yet) a drunkard. It's just his life lost any sense of the direction and whiskey helps him to go on.
One day he gets a job offer. Money is good. The job is moderately difficult. What could go wrong?
How about everything?
I won't summarise anything more as it would be spoiler territory.
While the book is set in the dystopian future, it has a feel of hard-boiled detective fiction, minus mystery and satisfying conclusion. It ends with many unanswered question and sort of cliffhanger. The plot is rather simple, but my assessment may change when and if the questions that arise will be answered in the sequels.
The story is told from the first-person perspective. Corin Hayes. He's not handsome, his charm is sorely lacking and his social graces were left in the gutter. He's also well past his prime and he repeats it multiple times.
Corin's voice is mostly enjoyable thanks to his wry sense of humour and realistic, down to earth approach to life. On the other hand, he's not fully convincing as a suffering father. He quickly falls in lust and can mourn his daughter's death, picture her mutilated body while assessing breasts of a woman. I dunno. Also, at times his voice becomes simply tiring, and his actions make him kind of a reckless asshole.
All in all, he's decent protagonist, just slightly tiring in bigger doses.
Despite book's short length, there's a healthy dose of world-building done right. I find the concepts of underwater cities, operating the fish tank fascinating and it seems GR Matthews has done some research. If you like technical details, you should be satisfied. I was.
The pacing is right - there's plenty of action (infiltration of the underwater base, bar fights, explosions and stuff). It's difficult to say anything about the villains, though. We learn very little about them. Corin incapacitates or kills some people along the way, but don't expect to learn who they were or if they actually were bad guys. One of the killed dies in a particularly gruesome way.
The writing is accessible and simple. It's also neat, although some misspelt words/under-edited sentences can be spotted. Two examples:
Nothing unforgivable. It happens to the best. The writing is solid, and I appreciate the fact that the author makes the words count. There's no fluff here.
Overall, it's a solid book that doesn't answer any questions. And it's a bit irritating. Will I reach for the sequel? Probably yes. Do I like Corin? Mostly. But he's one of the guys it's cool to know and meet once in a while, just not too often.
I read the book as part of the TBRind - An Indie Author and Reviewer Matching Service created and maintained by The Weatherwax Report.
It turns out liquid breathing isn't a fiction. It's just so damn hard to breathe liquid and move at the same time that it's not used in real life (because of liquid viscosity and problems with CO2 removal). Still, it's a fascinating concept, and science development may allow us one day to feel like a fish in the water.
GR Matthews' Silent City is the first book I read in which liquid breathing is vital to the plot. It's a dystopian tale that takes place in the future. Humanity screwed big time, and the life goes on underwater, in the oceans, under domes. People languish in the underwater cities, surrounded by endless waters. Diving gear is essential for surviving and doing maintenance work. Submarines navigate through waters.
It's difficult to summarise the plot - I feel that what we've got is just an intro to a bigger, more layered adventure. The story's protagonist Corin Hayes is a middle-aged and hard-drinking guy with a dark and tragic history he doesn't want to think or speak about. Whatever money he gains doing underwater maintenance, he spends on alcohol (mostly). He's no stranger to bar fights and bitter reflections about life in general. To be fair, though, he's not (yet) a drunkard. It's just his life lost any sense of the direction and whiskey helps him to go on.
One day he gets a job offer. Money is good. The job is moderately difficult. What could go wrong?
How about everything?
I won't summarise anything more as it would be spoiler territory.
While the book is set in the dystopian future, it has a feel of hard-boiled detective fiction, minus mystery and satisfying conclusion. It ends with many unanswered question and sort of cliffhanger. The plot is rather simple, but my assessment may change when and if the questions that arise will be answered in the sequels.
The story is told from the first-person perspective. Corin Hayes. He's not handsome, his charm is sorely lacking and his social graces were left in the gutter. He's also well past his prime and he repeats it multiple times.
Youngsters always seemed to watch their diet more than us older folks. We knew our body would betray us and begin to build fat no matter what we did, so why bother? I kept it to a minimum, but my metabolism wasn't what it used to be.
Corin's voice is mostly enjoyable thanks to his wry sense of humour and realistic, down to earth approach to life. On the other hand, he's not fully convincing as a suffering father. He quickly falls in lust and can mourn his daughter's death, picture her mutilated body while assessing breasts of a woman. I dunno. Also, at times his voice becomes simply tiring, and his actions make him kind of a reckless asshole.
All in all, he's decent protagonist, just slightly tiring in bigger doses.
Despite book's short length, there's a healthy dose of world-building done right. I find the concepts of underwater cities, operating the fish tank fascinating and it seems GR Matthews has done some research. If you like technical details, you should be satisfied. I was.
The pacing is right - there's plenty of action (infiltration of the underwater base, bar fights, explosions and stuff). It's difficult to say anything about the villains, though. We learn very little about them. Corin incapacitates or kills some people along the way, but don't expect to learn who they were or if they actually were bad guys. One of the killed dies in a particularly gruesome way.
The writing is accessible and simple. It's also neat, although some misspelt words/under-edited sentences can be spotted. Two examples:
I wasn't entirely sure who she was talking too.
They're are called Silent Cities
Nothing unforgivable. It happens to the best. The writing is solid, and I appreciate the fact that the author makes the words count. There's no fluff here.
Overall, it's a solid book that doesn't answer any questions. And it's a bit irritating. Will I reach for the sequel? Probably yes. Do I like Corin? Mostly. But he's one of the guys it's cool to know and meet once in a while, just not too often.
I read the book as part of the TBRind - An Indie Author and Reviewer Matching Service created and maintained by The Weatherwax Report.
yarnandcameras's review
4.0
What an interesting read. The main character, Corin, is a bit of a ne’er-do-well with a murky back story, but somehow I was always rooting for him. The setting was neat; it seems to be Earth in the future, after some catastrophe has made people move into habitats in the ocean, and Corin is sort of a specialised diver-mechanic that can go into more extreme conditions than most. He gets caught up into some very big, and not totally explained, political manoeuvring, tries to figure it out, and finds that things are much more complicated than he knew—and that’s the cliffhanger. I want to know what happens...
Disclaimer: I received a free copy through the TBRINDR database in exchange for an honest review.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy through the TBRINDR database in exchange for an honest review.
rustymiller's review
4.0
Is it fair to say that an author did too well?
Silent City by G.R. Matthews is a post-apocalyptic underwater sci-fi thriller. It wasn’t until I read this book that I realized just how claustrophobic I might be. This book showcased all the dangers that come with air-breathers living below the waves, and if it wasn’t bad enough that the main character (Colin Hayes) could drown, or suffocate, or find himself unable to escape from falling debris, or be caught in explosions or torpedo fire, there was the threat of gunfire, guards/soldiers with excellent combat skills, and more.
Hayes is a troubled man with a past that he is trying to avoid. The story is told from his first-person perspective as he seeks to discover the truth of what is going on around him. I would have liked a little more depth to his character, but I suspect that is unrealistic given how much time he spends alone with no interaction with others. Plus, given that this is the first book in a series it is likely that more will be revealed in later stories.
The science and world-building seemed well researched and very plausible, again perhaps too well done. As I mentioned earlier, this felt claustrophobic, which comes partly from the descriptions of the environment and the threats related to it. (The first person perspective heightened this sense even more, I suspect.)
I tend not to stray away from fantasy, but this was a quick, action-packed, intense sci-fi story that will surely impress those readers who can handle the threat. Perhaps I was not that reader, and the book made me more anxious than I would have liked. Again, it might have been too well done for me. I will still give it a 3.8 out of 5 stars (rounded up to 4 for Goodreads). This is (cautiously) recommend for those more daring than I am.
(I was given a copy of this book by the author through the TBRindr program in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thank you G.R. Matthews!)
Silent City by G.R. Matthews is a post-apocalyptic underwater sci-fi thriller. It wasn’t until I read this book that I realized just how claustrophobic I might be. This book showcased all the dangers that come with air-breathers living below the waves, and if it wasn’t bad enough that the main character (Colin Hayes) could drown, or suffocate, or find himself unable to escape from falling debris, or be caught in explosions or torpedo fire, there was the threat of gunfire, guards/soldiers with excellent combat skills, and more.
Hayes is a troubled man with a past that he is trying to avoid. The story is told from his first-person perspective as he seeks to discover the truth of what is going on around him. I would have liked a little more depth to his character, but I suspect that is unrealistic given how much time he spends alone with no interaction with others. Plus, given that this is the first book in a series it is likely that more will be revealed in later stories.
The science and world-building seemed well researched and very plausible, again perhaps too well done. As I mentioned earlier, this felt claustrophobic, which comes partly from the descriptions of the environment and the threats related to it. (The first person perspective heightened this sense even more, I suspect.)
I tend not to stray away from fantasy, but this was a quick, action-packed, intense sci-fi story that will surely impress those readers who can handle the threat. Perhaps I was not that reader, and the book made me more anxious than I would have liked. Again, it might have been too well done for me. I will still give it a 3.8 out of 5 stars (rounded up to 4 for Goodreads). This is (cautiously) recommend for those more daring than I am.
(I was given a copy of this book by the author through the TBRindr program in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thank you G.R. Matthews!)
jamesnotlatimer's review
5.0
A great little book this - something of a throw-back to classic adventure sci-fi, since in style and tech it could have easily been written in the 70s or earlier - if only it had a retro cover (not that the one it's got isn't ace). While reading I came up with the line "Like Die Hard meets Dashiel Hammet" but I think what it most reminded me of was Harry Harrison (these are all Good Things). Only the occasional expository chunk slows down the action, the mystery keeps you hooked and the short chapters keep you going "just one more...". Not sure how long it is (Amazon says 181 pages - another throwback element!) but I read it in a few days, and was left wanting more (luckily, a second book is in the works).
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