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veronica87 's review for:
The Hidden City
by Michelle West
At Rath’s age, the past was a bitter terrain, and the elements that loomed large cast sharp shadows along the thin edge between history and story. He could not be certain which of the two drove him; the facts – for he prided himself on rationality – or the emotions those facts evoked; the certain sense that he had made his choice, and must abide by it, or make a lie of the whole of his adult life, or the gnawing uncertainty that the choice itself was suspect, that pride, with its bright and bitter edge, held him now, cutting him and strengthening him, always with cost.
I picked up this book out of the dollar bin clearance rack at a used bookstore on a total whim and I’m glad I did. I’d never heard of the series or the author and it was only later when I got home and did some research that I realized that I was, in fact, familiar with the author. I just knew her under the name [a:Michelle Sagara|7031278|Michelle Sagara|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1365192047p2/7031278.jpg], the name under which she writes the Chronicles of Elantra series. Now, I read the first book in that series years ago and didn’t care for it enough to continue with it. I liked this book quite a bit, however, so I do plan to continue this one for the foreseeable future.
It’s a prequel I guess, of sorts, to the author’s Sun Sword series. According to the author, the first three books in the House War series take place before the Sun Sword series, even though they were published after the Sun Sword series was completed. So, it’s the old quandary of what reading order to follow: publication order vs chronological order. Me? I’m all about reading chronologically whenever possible.
No lesson ever went one way; lessons were not like rivers, flowing toward the ocean. They were, like his sword, a thing of two edges. He was learning, once again, to live in the world.
This is the story of Ararath Handernesse, Rath for short. Though his age is never specifically stated, I gather that he’s somewhere in the upper range of “middle age”. He’s a man who has turned his back on his past and who now earns a living in the poorer parts of the city finding and selling antiquities. His reasons for walking away from his former life are not immediately known but they are hinted at just enough to make the reader want to know more and the slowly peeled back layers make for satisfying discovery. When his path crosses that of Jewel ‘Jay’ Markess, a ten-year-old orphan eking out a living on the street, Rath is, against his better judgement, intrigued enough to take her in. As anyone who has ever had children can attest, once kids enter the scene, one’s life is never the same. So it is with Rath, who finds that Jewel functions as an oftentimes uncomfortable mirror for him and his life’s choices, both past and current.
This is also Jewel’s story and if she never comes across like a ten-year-old child – and she definitely does not (more like a 30-year-old) – there are subtle hints in the narrative that imply there are reasons why this is so. Generally speaking, when reading fantasy books that start a major protagonist off as a child I tend to not like the coming-of-age portion of the story very much. Here, however, I found myself quite interested and invested in Jewel and her choices. Perhaps part of that is, again, the fact that she never comes across like a true child but I also just respected her sheer practicality and her quiet strength. She’s not a fighter and she neither enjoys nor looks forward to inflicting violence, even when she knows it’s necessary. She’s, so far anyway, shaping up to be the type of heroine who demonstrates the myriad other ways that a female character can be strong that don’t necessarily involve being a weapons master or an expert in martial arts.
This isn’t an action heavy book though there are some fight sequences and some tense moments. What the story does do, and does quite well in my humble opinion, is examine the psyches of both Rath and Jewel, in addition to a few of the other secondary characters. I always appreciate those deeper dives into what makes the characters tick, to better understand why they do the things they do, and why they make the choices they make. In this manner, this book is definitely more of a character driven story rather than an action or a plot driven one.
That said, this book is clearly setting up a longer plot arc as Rath and Jewel find themselves bumping up against darker forces that appear to be marshalling on the peripheries of their society. We get some tantalizing tidbits about the history of the culture and the land that just beg to be expanded upon so hopefully additional installments will continue to add to the world building started here. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book, both the writing style and the characters kept me engaged from start to finish and I absolutely want to see where they all go from here. I’m especially hoping I get to meet one character in particular who, although mentioned several times, never made an appearance.
This was the better way: to find joy, to find the single beam of light in the darkness; to see it, know it, absorb it. To know that it was just as real as the bad things; that the bad did not destroy all good.
I picked up this book out of the dollar bin clearance rack at a used bookstore on a total whim and I’m glad I did. I’d never heard of the series or the author and it was only later when I got home and did some research that I realized that I was, in fact, familiar with the author. I just knew her under the name [a:Michelle Sagara|7031278|Michelle Sagara|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1365192047p2/7031278.jpg], the name under which she writes the Chronicles of Elantra series. Now, I read the first book in that series years ago and didn’t care for it enough to continue with it. I liked this book quite a bit, however, so I do plan to continue this one for the foreseeable future.
It’s a prequel I guess, of sorts, to the author’s Sun Sword series. According to the author, the first three books in the House War series take place before the Sun Sword series, even though they were published after the Sun Sword series was completed. So, it’s the old quandary of what reading order to follow: publication order vs chronological order. Me? I’m all about reading chronologically whenever possible.
No lesson ever went one way; lessons were not like rivers, flowing toward the ocean. They were, like his sword, a thing of two edges. He was learning, once again, to live in the world.
This is the story of Ararath Handernesse, Rath for short. Though his age is never specifically stated, I gather that he’s somewhere in the upper range of “middle age”. He’s a man who has turned his back on his past and who now earns a living in the poorer parts of the city finding and selling antiquities. His reasons for walking away from his former life are not immediately known but they are hinted at just enough to make the reader want to know more and the slowly peeled back layers make for satisfying discovery. When his path crosses that of Jewel ‘Jay’ Markess, a ten-year-old orphan eking out a living on the street, Rath is, against his better judgement, intrigued enough to take her in. As anyone who has ever had children can attest, once kids enter the scene, one’s life is never the same. So it is with Rath, who finds that Jewel functions as an oftentimes uncomfortable mirror for him and his life’s choices, both past and current.
This is also Jewel’s story and if she never comes across like a ten-year-old child – and she definitely does not (more like a 30-year-old) – there are subtle hints in the narrative that imply there are reasons why this is so. Generally speaking, when reading fantasy books that start a major protagonist off as a child I tend to not like the coming-of-age portion of the story very much. Here, however, I found myself quite interested and invested in Jewel and her choices. Perhaps part of that is, again, the fact that she never comes across like a true child but I also just respected her sheer practicality and her quiet strength. She’s not a fighter and she neither enjoys nor looks forward to inflicting violence, even when she knows it’s necessary. She’s, so far anyway, shaping up to be the type of heroine who demonstrates the myriad other ways that a female character can be strong that don’t necessarily involve being a weapons master or an expert in martial arts.
This isn’t an action heavy book though there are some fight sequences and some tense moments. What the story does do, and does quite well in my humble opinion, is examine the psyches of both Rath and Jewel, in addition to a few of the other secondary characters. I always appreciate those deeper dives into what makes the characters tick, to better understand why they do the things they do, and why they make the choices they make. In this manner, this book is definitely more of a character driven story rather than an action or a plot driven one.
That said, this book is clearly setting up a longer plot arc as Rath and Jewel find themselves bumping up against darker forces that appear to be marshalling on the peripheries of their society. We get some tantalizing tidbits about the history of the culture and the land that just beg to be expanded upon so hopefully additional installments will continue to add to the world building started here. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book, both the writing style and the characters kept me engaged from start to finish and I absolutely want to see where they all go from here. I’m especially hoping I get to meet one character in particular who, although mentioned several times, never made an appearance.
This was the better way: to find joy, to find the single beam of light in the darkness; to see it, know it, absorb it. To know that it was just as real as the bad things; that the bad did not destroy all good.