City of Ruin: Legends of the Red Sun: Book Two (Legends of the Red Sun 2) [Paperback]

This is the second book in the Legends of the Red Sun series and although it takes place chronologically after the first, it is very much a standalone novel. The major characters from the first book are picked up in City of Ruin and you are introduced to some new ones that are interesting and original creations. A minor point worth mentioning is that although plot threads from Nights of Villjamur are touched on, the majority of the focus is on current events. Previous events are nudged along but not resolved and in some ways they are replaced by more pressing concerns or put to one side and they might be explored later in subsequent novels.

The story moves from Villjamur to Villiren, a decaying and desperate city which is directly in the path of the approaching alien army. Commander Brynd has been sent there to save the Empire and Investigator Jeryd has fled to the city to start a new life, free from the corruption and political schemes that riddled Villjamur. Unfortunately they have both jumped from the proverbial frying pan into the fire as the city is in many ways much worse.

The main focus of the story is around Jeryd's investigation of strange disappearances in the city, and Brynd's attempt to fortify and defend the city from an invading army of creatures they don't understand and can't communicate with. Randur and the ousted Jamur sisters also feature but their story is less prominent in the first half the book. The other new main character is Malum, a gang leader who is incredibly tough and physically commanding, but is in many ways emotionally crippled and unable to relate to anyone. He is also a subversion of a familiar horror archetype, and this is just one of the many ingredients from other genres that Newton introduces to create a new kind of fantasy. He also subverts his own creations, taking something from Nights of Villjamur and turning it on its head, so this book is not one for those who don't like surprises or atypical fantasy.

More space in City of Ruin is given to Commander Brynd, the albino Commander, and there is an in depth exploration of his lifestyle and the effects it can have on his job. In the story many people cannot tolerate his sexuality, from a moral and religious standpoint, and this issue comes to a head with some unexpected results.

Like Nights of Villjamur, City of Ruin is as much a story about the city and the people living there as it is about the war and the coming Ice Age. Both of these are pressing concerns on the minds of everyone, and major events in the book are shaped around these issues, but a lot of space is given to explore relationships as they affect the characters' ability to do their job. Inspector Jeryd is a favourite character of mine, despite the fact that he is not the best investigator in the world, but he does have this dogged approach that made me think of Peter Faulk's Columbo, only he isn't quite as sharp. In some ways I think this allows Newton to hide some clues in plain sight and it's almost as if he uses Jeryd's bumbling nature as a distraction. Because we amble along with Jeryd, stumbling into dead bodies and coming across new evidence by chance, we're not looking really paying attention to what's there.

There are some strong female characters in the book and they stand shoulder to shoulder with the men when events go from bad to worse. I was pleased to see they were not painted as emotionally retarded figures, because as tough as any of the characters are amidst the slaughter, we also see their frailties, and the women in the story are not immune either. I can't say too much more without spoilers, but I will say by the end of the book I was very attached to a minor character that had irritated me for the most part, which was a surprising turnaround.

As I mentioned earlier this fantasy series is not typical and sprinkled throughout are ideas and concepts from other genres, art, history and possibly what I interpreted as coming from the real world. Even in the first book we knew that the current society was built on the ruins of a much older and advanced civilisation and this is explored in more detail in the latter part of the book. New weird elements creep into the book and at one point something happens which almost strays into science fiction, which for me personally felt out of place, but other readers might not mind it at all.

Although the story is brutal, violent and bloody at times it also explores a number of real world issues such as discrimination, sexuality, corruption and politics, and it touches on religion. None of it is overt and forced, and characters do not suddenly break the fourth wall to stop and point out the issues. With the city on the brink of destruction, both from the ice and the invaders, the story is also about how different people react in their final days. For those who want to lose themselves and forget the world exists beyond their pleasure, places exist where they can indulge in as many fantasies as their coin allows. Others find they can't stand idly by and when faced with oblivion they spit in the eye of fate and brace themselves for a fight. All of the events and characters give the city of Villiren a very unique feel and Newton has done a great job of making it very distinct and different to Villjamur.

There are a lot of ideas packed into this book and it's very inventive. On the whole I didn't mind most of what was introduced as it enriched the world and added more texture and layers. However, I felt that the focus of the book was not as tight as the first in some ways and a couple of the minor events seemed contrived to manoeuvre characters into place rather than something that developed organically.

Overall it was a very entertaining and enjoyable read and I believe Newton has a vivid imagination which he puts to good use. He also doesn't strike me as someone who will write the same kind of book twice and this novel was more challenging than the first, in terms of scope and because it very surprising on more than one occasion. I suspect he will continue to push boundaries and stretch himself as a writer, so if you are looking for a new breed of fantasy book containing a wide variety of unusual elements, pick up Nights of Villjamur and City of Ruin.

A combination of magic, witch-craft, medieval warfare and science fiction all rolled into one. As one review says its `challenging' and certainly thought provoking too. All that said, I loved both the story and the characters. Really clever stuff.

For centuries, the traditional greeting between strangers and passing acquaintances across the length and breadth of the Boreal archipelago has been a respectful utterance of "Sele of Jamur," but the time of the Jamur empire has passed, and it did not go quietly into the good night. The Emperor is dead - long live the new Emperor, Urtica, a power-hungry former councilor whose machinations have driven the rightful heirs into exile; a door has opened to another world from which pour countless legions of alien creatures with dark designs on the denizens of a city already on brought to its knees by crime and corruption. Brynd Lathraea, Commander of the Night Guard, arrives in Villiren to organise a last-ditch defense against an impossible force only to find its populace unmoved by their impending extinction, while Inquisitor Rumex Jeryd, another newcomer, finds himself caught up in a disturbing serial murder investigation. But because people don't know what to say to one another, who to trust, no-one's saying anything, and the bodies start to pile up. It is a time of unrest, a time of war... and the end has only just begun.

Nearly a year to the day since Nights of Villjamur, rising star Mark Charan Newton returns to the world he painted so memorably in the first book of The Legends of the Red Sun with a sequel which outdoes that breakthrough fantasy in almost every sense. And that's saying something. We're talking about a book which attracted great acclaim from all comers here; an author whose fledgling efforts have seen him compared with a who's-who of genre greats. An unfortunately contrived last act somewhat dampened my own enthusiasm for Nights of Villjamur: an overabundance of convenient twists and characters acting against the internal logic Newton had established for them meant that I came away from it thinking... good, yes, absolutely - but truly great? Not quite.

Nevertheless, you have to allow for a little awkwardness in the opening acts of such grand sagas as The Legends of the Red Sun promises to be, and whatever its failings, Nights of Villjamur hinted at some incredible things to come. City of Ruin, I'm pleased to say, delivers on near enough every one of its predecessor's promises. Its characters act in character for the duration; their dialogue is snappier and significantly smoother; the action is bigger, better and more satisfying by all accounts; and the grand scheme of this ambitious quintet is revealed at last, to tremendous effect.

The first lesson City of Ruin teaches readers is to expect the unexpected. Though far from its only flourish, the titular setting of Nights of Villjamur was surely its greatest strength: a grand and subversive imperial capital alive with spectacle and intrigue. Having constructed such a fantastic canvas for the epic movements of The Legends of the Red Sun to take place upon, you might presume Newton would return to Villjamur in City of Ruin, yet the action herein takes place in another location entirely: a seething city on the very fringes of the Empire's grasp where gangs rule the roost. In and of itself, Villiren is not quite the equal of Villjamur, but the author broadens his focus still further to take in the larger landscape of the Boreal archipelago, and together with the crumbling city, the world is a more vibrant and fascinating place than before. Indeed, it is a dying earth, a motif only alluded to in Nights of Villjamur which pushes through the crowded irens and bustling frontlines to the fore in book two.

You get the distinct sense, in fact, that Newton has let loose his imagination in City of Ruin. From a cave-monster made of coins to a floating island a la Hayao Miyazaki through a great behemoth on the battlefield amalgamated from fallen bodies, the set-pieces here seem weirder and more wonderful than any in book one of The Legends of the Red Sun. Newton has spoken of how his creative wings were clipped during the composition of Nights of Villjamur, and commercially speaking I suppose the restraint makes a certain amount of sense. Herein, however, having achieved that mainstream success, he spreads them far and wide, and it's a joy to behold. City of Ruin is darker, harder and more dramatic than its predecessor. Those issues Newton had to tiptoe around before he addresses head-on this time, and it's a breath of fresh air to see a genre that so often shies away from the genuinely relevant questions of our age in favour of counterpoints abstracted by imagination deal with the likes of homophobia, domestic abuse, corruption and poverty.

City of Ruin is a big book of big ideas and big issues. It's fun and it's frank, difficult yet easy to swallow. It takes all the good of Nights of Villjamur and makes it great, whilst relegating the majority of that novel's problems to the farthest margins. There's still little clunk from time to time - a "dead corpse" is the worst expository offender, and a few allusions to the work of Jack Vance and China Mieville are so blunt as to take you out of the experience - but overwhelmingly, book two of The Legends of the Red Sun is a roundly more rewarding and polished endeavour than its predecessor. City of Ruin stands as a sterling example of modern epic fantasy with a twist of the new old weird that realises the incredible potential of Mark Charan Newton's earlier work with style, panache and glorious imagination.