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kathydavie's review against another edition
5.0
Third in the Downside urban-fantasy series set in a world where the Church of Truth governs all.
Sounds a bit 1984 until I got further into the book where Kane makes a good point—multiple governments battling for supremacy, racism, xenophobia, intolerance, clash of beliefs and cultures versus Downside Church rule. Makes ya wonder...freedom or safety...
The Story
City of Ghosts carries on from Unholy Magic with the sabotaged execution of the medium practicing outside Church bounds. Seems the Lamaru are getting up to something pretty horrific and it involves the psychopomps. The creatures used by the Church to escort souls to the City of Eternity where their ghosts are walled in to prevent their murderous rage from destroying the world…again.
That's besides the super, top-secret case for which Chess accepts a special binding. Wanting that $80 grand promised her at the end of the case, Chess goes through the motions desperate to get away from her new snob of a partner, the Black Squad member, Lauren, who thinks she's all that and couldn't be bothered to stray from her straight and narrow point of view to investigate anything that pops up along the way. By the end, Chess is more concerned with upholding Church rule than the money. If the choice is between receding back into the mess the world was in before Haunted Week or maintaining the current status quo.
Certainly the chaos the Lamaru intend to unleash would be worse with no hope of compassion.
Along the way, Chess stumbles over a magical act entering the lists with its genetically modified children, the dogs, fetishes, and a startling look "under the hood" of the Church's Elders. Most importantly, especially to Chess, her Church investigation in Bump's neighborhood throws her into company with Terrible. A partnership Terrible hates and makes no bones about letting Chess know yet there is still a vulnerability about Terrible. A tenderness that Chess exploits.
The Characters
Chess gets so strung out over "bacterial stew" and worried about other people having worn a Church robe she has on and yet she doesn't have a problem with all the drugs she takes?? I must confess I had hoped that the almost-black binding the Church imposes upon Chess would overwhelm her system to a point that the drugs wouldn't work for her. That she'd have to give them up as pointless. Ah well, into each life a little rain must fall…should'a brought an umbrella!
A sympathetic uncovering of Terrible's insecurities. You'd never think a man like him would have insecurities and yet when Kane reveals them…it makes sense. That Chess gets them even though the most important issue Terrible has still escapes Chess. Only book 5 may tell if she does or if we'll continue to have to wait.
My Take
Chess makes me nuts with all the hiding she does of everything she encounters. Maybe that's part of what makes this series attractive. Why doesn’t Chess just show the photo to Lauren? Granted the woman is an idiot, but… She knows Lauren is a glory hound…as opposed to a Hand of Glory…why not beat her at her own game with someone she knows is on her side?
Okay, she doesn't want the Church to find out about her drugtaking, the jobs she does for Bump or the aid she gave Lex and his gang but why can't she let on about the help her "informers" provide about this case? Although, I do suspect Kane has opened that door for it in the next story. I loved Elder Griffin's query to Chess after the battle…and Chess' response.
Absolutely fascinating all the permutations. Felt like I was in an Anita Blake story with all the action taking place. Maguinness and his double-dealings. The unexpected benefits of Chess' living in her neighborhood and developing relationships with her drug dealers. Lex and Terrible working together, admittedly on a pretty important errand. Chess' unending attempts to talk to Terrible. Make him understand what and how things happened.
The Cover
The cover of the version I read is almost perfect. A tattooed Chess in a little-too-casual pose thinking it over outside a Downside alley. Rather reminiscent of most of her investigations in City of Ghosts let alone where the story's penultimate ending occurs. This ultimate end also reflected in its title.
"The Church…watches you, so you can relax and live a safe and happy life."
Sounds a bit 1984 until I got further into the book where Kane makes a good point—multiple governments battling for supremacy, racism, xenophobia, intolerance, clash of beliefs and cultures versus Downside Church rule. Makes ya wonder...freedom or safety...
The Story
City of Ghosts carries on from Unholy Magic with the sabotaged execution of the medium practicing outside Church bounds. Seems the Lamaru are getting up to something pretty horrific and it involves the psychopomps. The creatures used by the Church to escort souls to the City of Eternity where their ghosts are walled in to prevent their murderous rage from destroying the world…again.
That's besides the super, top-secret case for which Chess accepts a special binding. Wanting that $80 grand promised her at the end of the case, Chess goes through the motions desperate to get away from her new snob of a partner, the Black Squad member, Lauren, who thinks she's all that and couldn't be bothered to stray from her straight and narrow point of view to investigate anything that pops up along the way. By the end, Chess is more concerned with upholding Church rule than the money. If the choice is between receding back into the mess the world was in before Haunted Week or maintaining the current status quo.
Certainly the chaos the Lamaru intend to unleash would be worse with no hope of compassion.
Along the way, Chess stumbles over a magical act entering the lists with its genetically modified children, the dogs, fetishes, and a startling look "under the hood" of the Church's Elders. Most importantly, especially to Chess, her Church investigation in Bump's neighborhood throws her into company with Terrible. A partnership Terrible hates and makes no bones about letting Chess know yet there is still a vulnerability about Terrible. A tenderness that Chess exploits.
The Characters
Chess gets so strung out over "bacterial stew" and worried about other people having worn a Church robe she has on and yet she doesn't have a problem with all the drugs she takes?? I must confess I had hoped that the almost-black binding the Church imposes upon Chess would overwhelm her system to a point that the drugs wouldn't work for her. That she'd have to give them up as pointless. Ah well, into each life a little rain must fall…should'a brought an umbrella!
A sympathetic uncovering of Terrible's insecurities. You'd never think a man like him would have insecurities and yet when Kane reveals them…it makes sense. That Chess gets them even though the most important issue Terrible has still escapes Chess. Only book 5 may tell if she does or if we'll continue to have to wait.
My Take
Chess makes me nuts with all the hiding she does of everything she encounters. Maybe that's part of what makes this series attractive. Why doesn’t Chess just show the photo to Lauren? Granted the woman is an idiot, but… She knows Lauren is a glory hound…as opposed to a Hand of Glory…why not beat her at her own game with someone she knows is on her side?
Okay, she doesn't want the Church to find out about her drugtaking, the jobs she does for Bump or the aid she gave Lex and his gang but why can't she let on about the help her "informers" provide about this case? Although, I do suspect Kane has opened that door for it in the next story. I loved Elder Griffin's query to Chess after the battle…and Chess' response.
Absolutely fascinating all the permutations. Felt like I was in an Anita Blake story with all the action taking place. Maguinness and his double-dealings. The unexpected benefits of Chess' living in her neighborhood and developing relationships with her drug dealers. Lex and Terrible working together, admittedly on a pretty important errand. Chess' unending attempts to talk to Terrible. Make him understand what and how things happened.
The Cover
The cover of the version I read is almost perfect. A tattooed Chess in a little-too-casual pose thinking it over outside a Downside alley. Rather reminiscent of most of her investigations in City of Ghosts let alone where the story's penultimate ending occurs. This ultimate end also reflected in its title.
yodamom's review against another edition
5.0
FAVORITE ! Chess is still in her dark, dank, dangerous world. Her trip through the ugliness of her world wraps around your soul, and takes you for a wild ride. Her betrayal of Terrible, rips at her and drives her into feelings she does not understand. Her past has left her with "emotional retardation" as she so beautifully states.
She has to fight a strong and exhausting force, one that will take her to the edge of her life. The Church bounds her to a secret case, tying her to a spoiled princess she must work with. The princess is not street smart nor is any use to Chess. Hiding her drugs,her friends, her life becomes almost too much an top of everything else. Everything she knows and loves will be tested, the out come....
I loved the ending, it satisfied me enough I don't feel tortured till the next book comes out. Thank You to the author !
She has to fight a strong and exhausting force, one that will take her to the edge of her life. The Church bounds her to a secret case, tying her to a spoiled princess she must work with. The princess is not street smart nor is any use to Chess. Hiding her drugs,her friends, her life becomes almost too much an top of everything else. Everything she knows and loves will be tested, the out come....
I loved the ending, it satisfied me enough I don't feel tortured till the next book comes out. Thank You to the author !
rchll's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
parpacifica's review against another edition
3.0
3 stars. I want to give this two, but it has a solid, albeit a little confusing, plot line and downright beautiful romance.
Chess's self-deprecating narration gets to me sometimes.
And then I find myself in this lonely, depressed state, so I just stopped reading the series. I really thought her addiction would get better meaning that she would make some sort of stride towards getting herself help.
Guess not.
Chess's self-deprecating narration gets to me sometimes.
And then I find myself in this lonely, depressed state, so I just stopped reading the series. I really thought her addiction would get better meaning that she would make some sort of stride towards getting herself help.
Guess not.
strayfe_angel's review against another edition
5.0
I really loved these books - I had none of the problems with Chess that others seem to have, and Chess and Terrible = Awesome.
mellhay's review against another edition
5.0
Chess has been off work for three weeks recouping from her leg wound with the help of meds and some extra pills she's picked up along the way. She has returned to the Church for the execution of Madame Lupita for breaking the law and trying to kill a church employee, Chess. But something is off. By the time Chess realizes it, it's to late. Ghosts are attacking and the psycopomp is acting way off as well. Chess is ready to come back to work and Elder Griffin pairs her up with Lauren Abrams a high member of the Black Squad, along with a few other connections too. Chess isn't thrilled about the binding oath she has to undergo and working with the Black Squad, but seeing as she is ending her physical relationship with Lex and Terrible's not wanting anything to do with her, she needs the major extra money offered and takes the job.
With an opening sentence like that what all would you expect? I love reading this series as the writing is wonderful and it's world and characters are rough and gritty. Down right mean, and I love it! This world may not be for everyone, but with the drugs and the harsh streets it makes for a wonderful action, fast paced read. Then we have the ghosts that are always around some where lingering wanted to get revenge on any living being around it. This book even takes us to a new level of evil with the wraiths now. Evil buggers they are. The magic is stronger here with the Black Squad and the eviltries after Chess.
We get to see Chess in a new light as a character. She is starting to break down emotionally as she realizes it's Terrible she really wants, and she will punish herself for the misdoings she's done in the past to him. We even get some new characters, who might have some dark secrets of their own to keep and add to the twists of the plot.
The plot... now that is the story here. We have a few things going on, the church case and Chess's life messes. Both are fun to watch unravel. The church case Chess is on takes us through some crazy and amazing turns in the story. Things I never seen coming. And I loved the way magic plays a big part in this story. Then we have Chess's messed up life. Yep, that girl is so messed up and can really mess it up more. Even when Chess knows what she wants. But Chess tries to get through when the man she wants and has helped her survive before, could care less if she makes it through.
This is one book I enjoyed reading. Actually the three books thus far in the series have been wonderful for me. I enjoy the characters and the deep story lines along with the harsh gritty world. I love a great dark urban fantasy read and this is it!
With an opening sentence like that what all would you expect? I love reading this series as the writing is wonderful and it's world and characters are rough and gritty. Down right mean, and I love it! This world may not be for everyone, but with the drugs and the harsh streets it makes for a wonderful action, fast paced read. Then we have the ghosts that are always around some where lingering wanted to get revenge on any living being around it. This book even takes us to a new level of evil with the wraiths now. Evil buggers they are. The magic is stronger here with the Black Squad and the eviltries after Chess.
We get to see Chess in a new light as a character. She is starting to break down emotionally as she realizes it's Terrible she really wants, and she will punish herself for the misdoings she's done in the past to him. We even get some new characters, who might have some dark secrets of their own to keep and add to the twists of the plot.
The plot... now that is the story here. We have a few things going on, the church case and Chess's life messes. Both are fun to watch unravel. The church case Chess is on takes us through some crazy and amazing turns in the story. Things I never seen coming. And I loved the way magic plays a big part in this story. Then we have Chess's messed up life. Yep, that girl is so messed up and can really mess it up more. Even when Chess knows what she wants. But Chess tries to get through when the man she wants and has helped her survive before, could care less if she makes it through.
This is one book I enjoyed reading. Actually the three books thus far in the series have been wonderful for me. I enjoy the characters and the deep story lines along with the harsh gritty world. I love a great dark urban fantasy read and this is it!
amym84's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book! I think that it's the best, so far, in the series. City of Ghosts picks up about a month after the events in Unholy Magic. So much happened with our characters in Unholy Magic that I wasn't sure how things were going to be tied up in this book. The series was originally supposed to be a trilogy (ending with city of Ghosts). Luckily we are going to at least get three more books in the series starting with Sacrificial Magic out in March '12.
I thought that Stacia Kane handled everything really well. She met the challenge of having to tie up some loose ends started in the first book. The main bad guy in this book is the Lamaru. Of course it wouldn't be a Downside book if there were twists and turns along that way. I think this book was the most comprehensive with tthe mystery storyline. In the other two books there were aspects of solving the mystery that I'm still a little cloudy on how everything fit. This is more than likely due to the fact that I was reading them super fast so a re-read of the series is in order, probably before March. But with this book, I immediately undestood all the threads and connections between the different evil factions.
I would say the main thing, for me anyway, was finding out how Kane was going to handle things between Terrible and Chess after the heartbreaking events of Unholy Magic. Let me tell you the book was filled with more heartbreaking moments interspersed with sweet caring moments. I understood why they had to be that way. It made their relationship seem more real. It would have been so easy for Terrible to have forgiven Chess right away and forget everything else that happened but that wouldn't be realistic no matter how much readers didn't want to go through more heartache. Whe trust is broken it takes time to repair. This will be something they will be continuing to work on in the upcoming books as well. This is also a way for the readers to see more growth out of Chess. We may never get to see her kick are addiction, but we can see her finally grow enough to love and care for someone. To take that risk after what we know of her past and what we know of her fears is such big growth. I only hope that Kane gives these two a chance and Chess doesn't end up taking two steps back after she's already taken one step forward. I like where this is going. The scenes between Terrible and Chess were what was fueling the story for me. I know this is technically a UF story and let me assure you there's plenty of other stuff going on besides the romance, but it's something that was more in the foreground of this book simply because it's been building sice the fisrt book and this is kind of the completion of a story arc so of course it's going to get handled. Kane does a wonderful job.
The ending is very satisfying (very!). Waiting until March for book 4 is going to be difficult enough and I just started reading the series. I can't imagine what people who've been waiting over a yeard for the mext installment have been going through. It helps that there's no cliffhanger ending, just possibilities.
If you are like me and saddened that there's still quite I wait until book 4 check out Stacia Kane's story in the [b:Home Improvement: Undead Edition|11168860|Home Improvement Undead Edition|Charlaine Harris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328330714s/11168860.jpg|14335169] anthology. It takes place in the Downside world, but told from a different POV besides Chess. Both Chess and Terrible are in it and it's very interesting to see them from someone else's perspective, getting to see their interactions. There's some really cute subtlety going on! Well Until March then!
I thought that Stacia Kane handled everything really well. She met the challenge of having to tie up some loose ends started in the first book. The main bad guy in this book is the Lamaru. Of course it wouldn't be a Downside book if there were twists and turns along that way. I think this book was the most comprehensive with tthe mystery storyline. In the other two books there were aspects of solving the mystery that I'm still a little cloudy on how everything fit. This is more than likely due to the fact that I was reading them super fast so a re-read of the series is in order, probably before March. But with this book, I immediately undestood all the threads and connections between the different evil factions.
I would say the main thing, for me anyway, was finding out how Kane was going to handle things between Terrible and Chess after the heartbreaking events of Unholy Magic. Let me tell you the book was filled with more heartbreaking moments interspersed with sweet caring moments. I understood why they had to be that way. It made their relationship seem more real. It would have been so easy for Terrible to have forgiven Chess right away and forget everything else that happened but that wouldn't be realistic no matter how much readers didn't want to go through more heartache. Whe trust is broken it takes time to repair. This will be something they will be continuing to work on in the upcoming books as well. This is also a way for the readers to see more growth out of Chess. We may never get to see her kick are addiction, but we can see her finally grow enough to love and care for someone. To take that risk after what we know of her past and what we know of her fears is such big growth. I only hope that Kane gives these two a chance and Chess doesn't end up taking two steps back after she's already taken one step forward. I like where this is going. The scenes between Terrible and Chess were what was fueling the story for me. I know this is technically a UF story and let me assure you there's plenty of other stuff going on besides the romance, but it's something that was more in the foreground of this book simply because it's been building sice the fisrt book and this is kind of the completion of a story arc so of course it's going to get handled. Kane does a wonderful job.
The ending is very satisfying (very!). Waiting until March for book 4 is going to be difficult enough and I just started reading the series. I can't imagine what people who've been waiting over a yeard for the mext installment have been going through. It helps that there's no cliffhanger ending, just possibilities.
If you are like me and saddened that there's still quite I wait until book 4 check out Stacia Kane's story in the [b:Home Improvement: Undead Edition|11168860|Home Improvement Undead Edition|Charlaine Harris|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328330714s/11168860.jpg|14335169] anthology. It takes place in the Downside world, but told from a different POV besides Chess. Both Chess and Terrible are in it and it's very interesting to see them from someone else's perspective, getting to see their interactions. There's some really cute subtlety going on! Well Until March then!
somasunshine's review against another edition
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I looved it but some of the plot points were really reminiscent of the first book. However! Terrible! And Chess had some character development! Only a little bit, but at least something.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse and Violence