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A review by mspilesofpaper
The Pale City by Marshall J. Moore
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Gaius Cassius Calvus is a Legate - the special force of the Albastine's military that can use the dead (Attendants) as weapons by commanding them through ancient rites. Forced into early retirement through a received injury, and dealing with survivor's guilt, Gaius struggles as a civilian. Until he is called upon to examine the death of one of Albastine's senators. Quickly, it is revealed that it wasn't suicide like everyone thought but murder and the weapon was an Attendant. Gaius sets out to investigate who killed the senator and discovers a conspiracy that could threaten the entire city if successful. Sworn to defend the Republic and its People with his life, Gaius is quickly drawn into the conspiracy and it might truly cost him his life.
Let's start with the world-building: the book's description compares it/mentions Sanderson's Mistborn novels and oh dear ... The Pale City fell rather flat. The overall world-building is basically "Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt as one state in a fantasy setting and with necromancy", which would have been cool because you can do a lot with necromancy. It just fell flat for me because a) the world-building is info dumping through Gaius' inner monologue, which I hate as a tool to introduce your reader into your world, and b) it feels incomplete. I always got the feeling that something is missing in the world-building. It feels very superficial at times and partly contradicting. The contradictions might be done on purpose to create plot points in the following two books. Given the fact that the story itself is a murder mystery/detective story that spans around 30 hours, it might explain why parts felt so superficial because the story is very fast-paced. I can understand why there's an urgency to the murder mystery due to the conspiracy but I wish the author would have used 50 pages more to be in-depth with chapters. Also: the use of Ancient Roman and Ancient Egypt as a base ends up with points like: coffee, fireworks, denarii, phoenix statues, ... -- which raises the question if the story plays on Earth/an alternative version.
Concerning the characters: Gaius is black, short and built like a boxer (though he lacks physical prowess as it wasn't part of his education), which is very different from the average white 6", dark-haired male lead who's built like a bodybuilder with chiselled muscles and a jawline to cut through butter. It's a nice change and I wished I could continue with positive aspects about him but the man is stupid. Yes, he's described as intelligent and gets offered multiple times a job in the government but technically, he's stupid. He charges into everything (including the questioning of the murder suspects) and isn't even subtle about it. It got rather quickly on my nerves. Thankfully, he only survives because a) he's clearly favoured by luck and b) his enemies are just as stupid (and by far too arrogant). Unfortunately, the side characters are just flat and underdeveloped. There are a total of five named female characters (three major side characters and two minor side characters); the rest are men. The three major side characters are the villain, the ex-wife, and the potential love interest and their importance is pretty much in this order. The ex-wife and the potential love interest only appear if they can help the hero in a way, which I found icky as they don't really have an agenda otherwise. The potential love interest gets a bit more story at the end but it's still rather superficial then. A general issue of all characters: their ages. Aside from two old characters, the author never mentions the characters' names. They feel very adult but Amazon categories the book as 15 - 18 (aka YA), so it's rather confusing.
The writing style feels a bit stilted as well and I think it might be a side effect of getting the plot into a specific amount of pages. My university essays can suffer from a similar effect if I have to shorten them to be within a word limit.
Let's start with the world-building: the book's description compares it/mentions Sanderson's Mistborn novels and oh dear ... The Pale City fell rather flat. The overall world-building is basically "Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt as one state in a fantasy setting and with necromancy", which would have been cool because you can do a lot with necromancy. It just fell flat for me because a) the world-building is info dumping through Gaius' inner monologue, which I hate as a tool to introduce your reader into your world, and b) it feels incomplete. I always got the feeling that something is missing in the world-building. It feels very superficial at times and partly contradicting. The contradictions might be done on purpose to create plot points in the following two books. Given the fact that the story itself is a murder mystery/detective story that spans around 30 hours, it might explain why parts felt so superficial because the story is very fast-paced. I can understand why there's an urgency to the murder mystery due to the conspiracy but I wish the author would have used 50 pages more to be in-depth with chapters. Also: the use of Ancient Roman and Ancient Egypt as a base ends up with points like: coffee, fireworks, denarii, phoenix statues, ... -- which raises the question if the story plays on Earth/an alternative version.
Concerning the characters: Gaius is black, short and built like a boxer (though he lacks physical prowess as it wasn't part of his education), which is very different from the average white 6", dark-haired male lead who's built like a bodybuilder with chiselled muscles and a jawline to cut through butter. It's a nice change and I wished I could continue with positive aspects about him but the man is stupid. Yes, he's described as intelligent and gets offered multiple times a job in the government but technically, he's stupid. He charges into everything (including the questioning of the murder suspects) and isn't even subtle about it. It got rather quickly on my nerves. Thankfully, he only survives because a) he's clearly favoured by luck and b) his enemies are just as stupid (and by far too arrogant). Unfortunately, the side characters are just flat and underdeveloped. There are a total of five named female characters (three major side characters and two minor side characters); the rest are men. The three major side characters are the villain, the ex-wife, and the potential love interest and their importance is pretty much in this order. The ex-wife and the potential love interest only appear if they can help the hero in a way, which I found icky as they don't really have an agenda otherwise. The potential love interest gets a bit more story at the end but it's still rather superficial then. A general issue of all characters: their ages. Aside from two old characters, the author never mentions the characters' names. They feel very adult but Amazon categories the book as 15 - 18 (aka YA), so it's rather confusing.
The writing style feels a bit stilted as well and I think it might be a side effect of getting the plot into a specific amount of pages. My university essays can suffer from a similar effect if I have to shorten them to be within a word limit.