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A review by jamesnotlatimer
Moon's Artifice by Tom Lloyd
4.0
I'm torn with this one, so I'll only give it a short review. On one hand, the worldbuilding is deep and different and drip-fed so that you immediately get the sense of the scale of the world and very few common reference points to hang it on (no generic fantasy here), so that was great. And on the other hand, you have a plot that promises to take you on a whirlwind journey through the vast city at the heart of this complex world, meeting all sorts of interesting types and solving some great mystery. Unfortunately, despite having all the right components the plot just didn't do it for me, and I think a lot of that had to do with the weight of this very dense world dragging it down.
As a result, this suffered in comparison to the somewhat-similar [b:City of Stairs|20174424|City of Stairs (City of Stairs, #1)|Robert Jackson Bennett|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394545220s/20174424.jpg|28030792] (which is brilliant and outshines most things), which had as much complexity but delivered it without losing its pace and verve. Key to that could have been the choice of characters and perspective. I suppose I really could have done with reading this almost exclusively from Narin's perspective, more like the detective story it seemed to promise from the blurb and set-up. But then, maybe that's just me--it's still a very good, book. "Accomplished" is what the cover review says, and that seems the best way to describe it--all the right elements but it just didn't captivate like I hoped.
As a result, this suffered in comparison to the somewhat-similar [b:City of Stairs|20174424|City of Stairs (City of Stairs, #1)|Robert Jackson Bennett|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394545220s/20174424.jpg|28030792] (which is brilliant and outshines most things), which had as much complexity but delivered it without losing its pace and verve. Key to that could have been the choice of characters and perspective. I suppose I really could have done with reading this almost exclusively from Narin's perspective, more like the detective story it seemed to promise from the blurb and set-up. But then, maybe that's just me--it's still a very good, book. "Accomplished" is what the cover review says, and that seems the best way to describe it--all the right elements but it just didn't captivate like I hoped.