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A review by liacooper
String City by Graham Edwards
4.0
3.75 rounded up to 4*
I received an ARC copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This novel was both exactly what I expected and also quite surprising. It follows the turbulent ups and downs of our protagonist, a stringwalker private detective working String City, as his city faces the apocalypse. From the first page the style evokes the spare narrative style of Hammett's Maltese Falcon or Cain's Double Indemnity. The worldbuilding is...well...weird but also seems totally normal because it's so fundamental to the universe that it exists within.
we've got Titans, we've got Thanes, we've got sentient sewer sludge, undead angels, kingfishers, spiders, sort of vampires, alternate realities, weather gods, and hungry ghosts. this world is jam packed full of just about every weird myth or folk type character you could wish for, all of it co-existing alongside one another.
Told in 7 parts, the structure of the novel is particularly interesting because the chapters are excessively short. This both works for and against the book. For the first 70-100 pgs i really struggled to get into it simply because of these short chapters. A chapter break is a signal to the reader that they can rest here, and theres a natural tendency to end my reading session at the end of the chapter. this becomes a problem when chapters are only 2-4 pgs. I found myself unconsciously setting the book down almost as soon as i started reading it. I also found that the plot really began to pick up in Part 2 with the addition of several side characters who helped buoy up the protagonist's narrative. Once i hit this part of the story, i flew through the last 300 or so pages.
unsettling and interesting, and i think the readers it clicks with in just the right way will enjoy it immensely. I think this book will shine for that specific cross section of noir fans who also love weird SFF/speculative fiction.
I received an ARC copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This novel was both exactly what I expected and also quite surprising. It follows the turbulent ups and downs of our protagonist, a stringwalker private detective working String City, as his city faces the apocalypse. From the first page the style evokes the spare narrative style of Hammett's Maltese Falcon or Cain's Double Indemnity. The worldbuilding is...well...weird but also seems totally normal because it's so fundamental to the universe that it exists within.
we've got Titans, we've got Thanes, we've got sentient sewer sludge, undead angels, kingfishers, spiders, sort of vampires, alternate realities, weather gods, and hungry ghosts. this world is jam packed full of just about every weird myth or folk type character you could wish for, all of it co-existing alongside one another.
Told in 7 parts, the structure of the novel is particularly interesting because the chapters are excessively short. This both works for and against the book. For the first 70-100 pgs i really struggled to get into it simply because of these short chapters. A chapter break is a signal to the reader that they can rest here, and theres a natural tendency to end my reading session at the end of the chapter. this becomes a problem when chapters are only 2-4 pgs. I found myself unconsciously setting the book down almost as soon as i started reading it. I also found that the plot really began to pick up in Part 2 with the addition of several side characters who helped buoy up the protagonist's narrative. Once i hit this part of the story, i flew through the last 300 or so pages.
unsettling and interesting, and i think the readers it clicks with in just the right way will enjoy it immensely. I think this book will shine for that specific cross section of noir fans who also love weird SFF/speculative fiction.