Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Standard ingredients, plus extras, surprisingly gripping rsult, 29 Jun 2008
This book has me slightly puzzled, because now I've managed to escape from its clutches and stop checking for... no, to tell you what it made me scared of would be a spoiler... anyway, now I've got "out" of it, it's hard to analyse what made it so gripping.
We have an ancient man-made (er, sentient-made) space city, all luxury on top and slums in the sewers/recycling mechanism. Nothing new there, standard cliche of either SF or fantasy. Tribe culture in the underworld - check. Gritty references to food and water from recycling - check. Of our two heros, one is a youngster in the underworld who has recently lost his protector, the other is a wealthy newcomer to the entire world who can therefore receive explanations that also explain things to the reader. Check, check. (Though I notice that many of these things are cliches I'm more used to meeting in fantasy than in SF). There are other cliches later on, too, mainly about alien powers and what the climax consists of, but I'll refrain from spoilers.
The Angels of the title are state-sponsored assassins. Now, that's new. This is a democracy by assassination: for a politician, failing is a very bad idea. You may "win" the vote to be Removed. We get a look at the concept from the viewpoint of victim, of assassin, and of audience. It's well-thought out, it's different, and the consequences have been thought through.
What else is different? Well, that young hero is a male prostitute - by choice. For once, this subject gets treated in a refreshingly non-hysterical fashion.
I think what gripped me, though, was the characterisation. Both heroes, and many of the other characters, are sympathetic people. They're not idiots, but they do have human flaws. The action keeps moving at a good pace, enough to stop me putting the book down without getting breathless. Because they feel real, the threats seem real, and because much of the background is undemanding, familiar, stuff, you don't get distracted by it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Real Fun on the Run, 7 Jul 2008
New author Jaine Fenn really doesn't pull punches in her dark look at the future of mankind in this tale where Dark City meets Bladerunner and one of the cheapest commodities is life.
Well written with an almost classical class of characters the reader is treated to a story within a story as the characters each struggle to find their own way in this dangerous world only to end up discovering that through cooperation do they stand any chance of success as the tale builds up to a climatic finish that no one will see coming. This really is Science Fiction at its best with risks that only a new author will take allowing the reader to see a world in vivid colour against the backdrop of a power struggle for societies elite using the denizens of the undercity as pawns in a masterful game of political court chess where even a pawn can become King. If you're looking for something different to many books out there, this one truly does stand on its own two feet and will more than entertain.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A promising debut., 25 May 2009
Khesh City is a place of two halves, in a society with a history. It's one of the three government centres in an uneasy alliance of human societies that exist some time after the ending of the dominance of humainty by the alien Sidhe (hint; it's pronounced 'Shee', as in 'Banshee'). Only the Sidhe aren't as defeated as everyone would like to think, and when a singer arrives in Khesh City with more than performances on her mind, the City's semi-despotic ruler conscripts one of the underworld's rent-boys to aid one of his own Angel assassins in uncovering a plot that could doom them all.
This book is definitely one for grown-ups, including as it does a prostitute main character, and numerous passages you wouldn't want your child or granny to read. But in my view that's made for a bold debut. This book could have been written in a sanitised form, and wouldn't have had half as much integrity. I like a sci-fi story that treats its reader like an adult, and refuses to have its hands tied by the desire to please everyone - it's an easy trap for a genre book to fall into, and I admire Fenn for having boldly begun her career with her integrity intact. Word on the grapevine is that Fenn has secured a three book deal, and the hardback edition of the sequel to this book is about to hit the stores as I type.
The only reservation I have with this book is that it's quite obviously the first in a series. Self-contained though the story may be to an extent, it loses some of its impact for me by being an obvious 'first book' in a (presumed) trilogy. Having said that, I do intend to buy the next book, so obviously I'm able to get past that.
My hope also is that Fenn matures as writer as ther series moves on - this book, for all it's boldness, is a 'first book' in another way too. The storyline plods on occasion, and does take a while to warm up. The reader has to stick with it for some time before working out the setting (who the Angels are, who the Sidhe are, and how everyone has ended up in Khesh City in the first place). It's good, but could possibly have done with a bit more detail. Read it, and judge for yourself.
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