I'm considering adding "secondary world fantasy cities" to my list of "favourite genres that aren't really genres". Cities that go beyond just being a spot on the map surrounding whatever medieval-ish castle the kingdom's monarchs live in; cities with their own magic, with recognisable neighbourhoods, with immigration patterns and multifaceted politics and secrets known only to kids who pay attention (but don't spend enough time in school). From Bulikov to Sharakhai to Janloon, there's a ton of great epic fantasy whose urban settings are just as much characters as the people within them.

With that in mind, it's easy to see why the blurb of the Ingenious, a book about Exiles trapped in the city of Athanor. Unfortunately for them, Athanor operates on inequality and deeply creepy magic, and leaving is a far from certain proposition. Rather than staying in one place, it moves through space and time using that magic, apparently leaving a path of wholesale slaughter and destruction everywhere it goes. Brought into the city years ago, Isten and her group are Exiles from a land called Rukon, where they were on the verge of revolution against their emperor. Now, they're unable to leave the city let alone return to the land which rejected them. Isten herself has been raised up to be a saviour for her people, and is still looked to as a leader by the rest of the Exiles despite being an addict, a criminal and a general mess of a human.

Enter Alzen, an elite mage (or "Curious Man") who, even by the deeply creepy standards of the city, really pushes creepy to a new, murderous, self-serving level. Alzen realises that Isten can be manipulated to his own ends, which involve introducing widespread drug addiction into the city and then pulling people's souls out through a weird skin monster, all in pursuit of power. Although his partnership with Isten is initially reluctant, he quickly discovers that despite being a commoner and an outsider, Isten may have power of her own that complements his ambitions. In return, Alzen offers Isten a chance to refocus her people's efforts around improving their position within the city - where they are outsiders surviving on the criminal margins - albeit at the cost of her long-term plans for escape.

I see from Hinks' bibliography that his previous published fiction has been in the Warhammer universe; although my experience with that franchise is limited, I think I know enough to see the influences here. It's echoed in some of the plot beats, and in the grimdark elements of the setting, especially the ageless, quasi-religious aspects of the city's leadership. That said, the Ingenious definitely feels first and foremost like its own thing, though the worldbuilding is probably best described as serviceable: it gives Athanor depth and history, and the set-up of the Curious Men and the city's wandering nature adds a decent amount of novelty, but there's nothing that really leaps out upon reading. In theory, Athanor is full of various unique fantasy races, but these only turn up in passing, which feels like a missed opportunity. Instead, we get a laser focus on the two specific groups the novel comes into contact with - the exiles and the Curious Men - and while both do interact with (and sometimes murder) people from other groups in the city, the trials of the rest of this enormous city aren't explored outside a general "inequality is bad, overthrow tyrants" message that winds up being interchangeable for both Rukon and Athanor.

Likewise the personalities of the exiles, and their own troubles in the city - there's machinations around gang warfare, but none of the characters on either side were particularly memorable, and Isten spends so much time focused on running errands for Alzen that the elements with her family fade into the background at times. It doesn't help that it's hard, as a reader, to believe that Isten really wants to retrench as a drug lord: it's a trope that's so often used to distinguish "actually bad" criminals from "noble" ones, so it's a tall order to slot a sympathetic character in that role, and despite her many shortcomings Isten remains sympathetic throughout. The issue here is not so much the predictability of Isten's change of heart - the narrative wouldn't be at all satisfying without it - but my struggle to suspend my disbelief in what the character thinks she wants. It's a small niggle, but it was enough to underscore my indifference in these plot elements, which becomes a problem when we pivot back to the fate of the Exiles, and Isten's integrity as a leader, in the final act.

What the Ingenious does do well is managing its action and tension, particularly the relationship between Isten and Alzen, helped by the fact that the latter literally sits in the former's head for their missions together. Isten's growing understanding of how the city works outside her limited outsider perspective, coupled with the taste of power her deal with Alzen brings, makes for a solid character arc that kept me rooting for her even through the messiness and flirtations with drug-pushing supremacy. The action sequences are all well done - a highlight is the segment in which Isten disguises herself and sneaks onto a boat leaving the city, all while being mentally directed by Alzen and trying to avoid suspicion despite the fact that neither of them are very good at the subterfuge.

All in all, this is a solidly crafted read which could easily fill a spare evening; fans of dark but not entirely amoral fiction, of well-built fantasy cities, and of the kind of elite vs. underdog political machinations found in books like Bradley P. Beaulieu's Song of Shattered Sands, should find elements here that appeal. While I missed the opportunity to have really dug down into the genuinely diverse fantasy city that's glimpsed in the background of this narrative, when it comes to the action and plotting I think The Ingenious does what it sets out to do, and that's more than good enough.

The Ingenious is a wild and fantastic story. It takes place in the weirdest and most colourful city I have ever heard of and it's about magic, drug addiction, mysteries and murder - so all the fun stuff.

The description of the book sounded perfect to me and in the end, the book just wasn't, but that might be as I'm not as much into epic fantasy as I used to be.

This story is set in Athanor, a city sent flowing through space and which is a mosaic of different cultures, races, cities, and so on. The city is ruled by alchemists and their leader, the Old King and while they just focus on their work and live in riches the rest of the city is dying. Isten and her friends/acquaintances/people-who-don't-quite-hate-her try to survive in this world and fight for some sort of power.

They certainly aren't your heroes in shining armour, especially Isten is quite the opposite of that, but they are fascinating and real and make the most terrible decisions. Those people were my favourite part of this book, even though I expected way more banter.

Plot-wise this story wasn't very easy to understand, there are a lot of people, groups and places and it turns out alchemy isn't my favourite type of magic, but it was still cool to read about this entirely different kind of sorcery and how it affects the city and its population.

The Ingenious was still very interesting though and I definitely enjoyed where this story went, even though there were a few rather slow paced stretches and it could have been more concise.

~~~ 3.5 Stars ~~~

When I first read this book's synopsis I was SO excited I immediately bumped it up to the top of my TBR. I was elated to the point that I tore right in and boy was I.... confused!?! It started off as a slow to percolate, wildly innovative, confusing at first (and second) glance read that was hard to visualize... not a good sign. The characters and world building were both exotic.... maybe too much so?? Both were so unique that I had no idea what was going on for a span in the beginning. NOW, that may have been a ME defect but I definitely think it's something to mention in the review because, on the off chance that you are experiencing the same mental disconnect, I am here to encourage you to trooper on. If you are on the DNF fence then I want to let you know it's going to be okay...better than okay. I really enjoyed how everything came together in the end, it was extremely satisfying. I'm glad I stuck with it because the last 20% was really good. It was total HD- surround sound- mental movie immersion!

The MC, Isten, was an unlikely heroine. She was a character with many vices and little prospect/desire to change. She fought her destiny at every turn and was a hot mess! Her past, present and possible futures were constantly stewing in a messy mixture of substance abuse and self destructive behavior. Every decision she made was clouded and without knowing what she was truly running from/towards, it was hard to fully get behind her BUT by the 70(ish)% mark I was a fan... a comrade, a loyal backer of her wildly effective ways. By the 80% mark I was reading at the edge of my seat... ummm bed... and couldn't put the kindle down until I knew how things wrapped up. In the end Isten was a force to be reckoned with and also in need of some taming. Puthnok seemed like the perfect person for the job. Speaking of the tertiary characters, they were robust, rich and relatable... except you Alzen, you little self-aggrandizing, murderous maggot! Him I was glad to see get his comeuppance.

Overall, the writing was enjoyable. Its quality kept me motivated to push on when I was confused, slightly bored, and seriously considering throwing in the DNF embroidered towel. I'm quite pleased that I saw it through to its satisfying end.

Great addition to the Fantasy genre!

*** I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***

79 points/100 (4 stars/5)

Review:

Wow, I liked this. I really, really liked this. The Ingenious reminds me of so, so many other stories I have read. Yet it is unique to Darius Hinks. I was drawn into the story itself, which isn't always easy for me to do. I am typically a character reader, I get drawn into the characters themselves. Yet, in The Ingenious, it was the story that got to me. The characters were just secondary. 

I'll state right up front: I could not get into the start of this book. I felt like I was being tossed into the deep end, and someone was holding me under the water and yelling at me to stay afloat. The world, the characters, the feel of the book was all tossed at me at once. I swear, in the first beginning bit, it felt like there were a hundred characters to memorize. It made it really difficult to read. However, by a few chapters in, I fell into the story and stayed there. I didn't want to leave for anything. 

The world is great, and I loved all the descriptions of everything (even if it did seem a bit verbose in the beginning). Everything is so fantastical while also being down to earth in a nitty gritty way. The society is completely fucked up. The whole book, we find more and more about the society that just turns my stomach. Everything we learned, I wanted to know more about. What I like so much about the world is how dark it is. I love how the society is structured for maximum pain. I like how corrupted the magic we see is. I also like how, by the end, we know very little on how the world actually functions. It isn't a case of the author not explaining, it is a function of who our main character is. 

I always hate when people describe a book like something else that is super popular, yet I'm going to do it anyway. The Ingenious has a little part of every book in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere. It is like Hinks took the parts he loved from the Cosmere and put them back together again. And it worked. I have no idea if Darius Hinks has ever even read a single book by Sanderson. Yet this is the way it feels, only it feels like Darius Hinks made it his own story. As much as I have tried to ditch this idea in my mind since I first thought it, I keep coming back to it. The Ingenious is great because it takes something I have already loved, and reimagines it. 

Isten is our primary character, and she is really fun to read about. I never really connected with her like I typically do, yet I really enjoyed reading about her. Isten is a contradiction of a character. At the start of the book, we find her trying to reconnect with her old friends, trying to give life yet another go, yet she has mostly given up on life, content to wallow in her drug of choice instead. She wants to stay out of things, but she also keeps coming back to fight again and again. Some indefinable part of Isten knows what she has to do, even if she doesn't want to think it, doesn't want to believe it.

Isten is also heavily addicted to a drug called cinnabar. I always enjoy reading about drug addict characters. They always add something to a character's traits that I really enjoy. Mostly the despair. I like to read about the despair characters go through. Yet Isten isn't the only one. Almost everyone in this city is addicted to some drug or another. It makes life where they live easier. It also adds a really great dynamic to the story.

There really aren't as many people in the story as it appeared there were going to be in the beginning. Most of them just aren't full characters, just mentions. There for an appearance or two. Isten's ragtag band of potential political uprisers are interesting, but they kind of annoyed me at the same time. Their ideas are fine, their actions suck. Yet, it wouldn't be the story it is if everyone was good. It wouldn't be the story it is if everyone was competent. The Ingenious is a story of desperation, not competency. 

Then, there is the guy on the other side. Phrater Alzen is one of the Elite. He has all the power, and he wants more. He is researching a new time of alchymia. I loved him more than I should have, for how evil he is. I really wanted to see more out of him, because I liked him so much. For what he does over the course of the book. I hate all of the elites, but at least Alzen is honest about his intentions. Their actions have made the society the way it is - awful. 

Hope is a crazy thing. Everything I hoped for out of this book, I didn't get. Not a single thing. Yet, I'm happier this way. I'm happy I didn't get what I wanted. It is a much better story than if I got what I desired. If what I wanted to happen happened, I wouldn't have liked this nearly as much.

I don't know if this is planned as the start to a series. If it isn't, it is a great standalone. If it is, I am looking forward to the next installment, and would read it right away.

I received a copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Darius Hinks, Angry Robot, and Netgalley for providing this copy for review!

Llegué a leer The Ingenious de pura casualidad, ya que no conocía al autor ni tenía referencias sobre su obra, pero a veces lees libros por intuición, por salir de tu zona de confort a ver qué te encuentras

Lo que me encontré en este caso fue una historia fantástica con una ambientación muy atractiva aunque no exenta de fallos. Hay una gran descompensación entre el interés de la ciudad en la que se desarrolla todo, Athanor, y la propia narración. Mientras que las descripciones de una ciudad en perpetuo movimiento con tintes barrocos de crecimiento casi orgánico son realmente espectaculares, la historia en sí no deja de ser un conato de rebelión ante el poder establecido.

La imaginación de Darius Hinks se desborda al describir los barrios que conforman Athanor, que son literalmente arrancados de su emplazamiento original para unirse al sistema en perpetuo movimiento que constituye la ciudad. Con estas adquisiciones llegan también los habitantes correspondientes, dando lugar a una amalgama de culturas y seres variopintos que podrían haber dado muchísimo juego, pero que no se aprovecha.

Hay cierto punto sádico en cómo el autor se recrea en los síntomas más evidentes de la adicción a las drogas promulgada y facilitada por el poder, que para mantener a las masas idiotizadas (además de otras motivaciones más oscuras) inundan las barriadas humildes de estupefacientes baratos.

En cuanto a los personajes, resulta extremadamente difícil empatizar con ellos, pues sus acciones son erráticas y eminentemente egoístas. Se acaba dando importancia a un personaje bastante secundario que casi casi pasa desapercibido durante el 90% de la novela, lo que parece un fallo de planificación o que el autor jugaba con las cartas demasiado ocultas.

La magia es potente pero está reservada solo a unos pocos estudiosos que sufren de ombliguismo extremo y que no son capaces de ver las amenazas que se ciernen sobre ellos, obcecados en una vida de estudio constante del Arte que apenas da frutos.

The Ingenious no es una lectura fácil pero si disfrutas de un libro donde la ambientación es la pieza clave, quizá sea para ti.

"The Ingenious" was a very good surprise ! I was a little anxious about this read because, if the book's presentation appealed to me, I was afraid it'd be very dark, as fantasy tends to be, with graphic violence à gogo.
But fortunately my fears were unfounded: if the town of Athanor where lives the heroine, Isten, is for a huge part of it a pit of injustice and misery, and if the story tells about deaths and violence, nothing is unbearable, no gratuitous scenes of torture and death are offered to the supposedly avid reader!
A great read for people like me, who like imaginative fantasy books but don't stand reading about atrocity.

The world imagined by the author is original and fun to discover along the story. The atmosphere is meticulously depicted (maybe a little to much on the grim side, as the descriptions about piss, vomit, rats, decrepitude, blood, filth are omnipresent) and makes for a credible and comfortable read.

Despite the world's complexity (Athanor is a very special magical town and we won't fully understand how much it is before the half of the book), the story is well written and easy to follow; not strenuous effort is demanded to remember complicated details (another frequent flaw of many fantasy books).

The characters are good, and the heroine is very likeable. Her psychology is coherent with her history of a chosen one who didn't ask to be chosen as such, and who struggles to cope with her unbearable responsibilities and the consequences of that burden - her addiction to alcohol and drugs.

Magic is central in this book, but never explained in details, as "magicians" are the reigning people in this world, superior men who despise all commoners. Magic is described as a kind of an alchemy, powerful and mysterious, with beautiful metallic devices which give a slight steampunk vibe to the book.

A very good read, satisfying and intriguing!

I was looking forward to this book based on the description. However, it is just not my cup of tea. I think I will try it again...just in case I was having an off day!

Isten is the hope of the Exiles, a ragtag bunch of rebels forced to flee their tyrant king. They have fled to Athanor, a floating city that relocates at the will of its aloof, magic-wielding ruling class, the Phraters. Her people want her to lead them home somehow, but Isten just wants to help them survive in a city of gross inequality. Battling past mistakes, self-doubt and addictions, she will enter unthinkable alliances in an attempt to lift her people to the top of the criminal food chain.

Darius Hinks’ The Ingenious is a book that has a steep learning curve but is well worth the effort. Both the setting and the characters have depth and creativity so you find yourself scrabbling initially to grasp what’s going on but, once you get into the flow, the story hooks into you. As you learn more about the power dynamics of Athanor and delve more deeply into Isten’s past, motivations and relationships, the more you want to see this flawed antagonist overcome and succeed.

The Ingenious is a real three-dimensional story. It has history and future as well as being a really good read. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Razor by J. Barton Mitchell
Review by malrubius
The Razor is the new science fiction novel by J. Barton Mitchell, author of the acclaimed YA sci-fi series The Conquered Earth. This one’s not YA, but it won’t cause you any adult discomfort either. It’s the story of four people—three prisoners and one doctor—on the prison mining planet 11-H37. As in most good science fiction, the setting plays an instrumental role in the plot. In this one the setting is the Razor, a thin line on the 11-H37 between the Cindersphere, the burnt hemispheric wasteland that always faces the planet’s star and the Shadowsphere, the frozen hemispheric wasteland that never faces its star. The overlapping area between these two spheres manages to have an atmosphere similar to our own earth. Prisoners on the planet use high-tech machinery to mine xytrillium, the most powerful fuel in the galaxy. When something goes wrong with the planet’s main space station, all the staff and guards evacuate leaving the prisoners there to die. Can the four heroes save themselves? Well, we don’t really find out, but that doesn’t prevent The Razor from being a wicked fast-paced, action-packed read that, although not perfect, is a helluva ride from start to finish.
The Razor has four main characters. Foremost among them is Flynn, a genius engineer and former employee of Maas-Dorian, the company with mining rights to the planet. He has been sent to 11-H37 for murder. The other main male character is Maddox, a former ranger-guard on the planet, also imprisoned for murder. There are also two main female characters. Key is a longtime prisoner and total baddass. And Raelyn is a doctor in the Razor’s medical facility. I mention the characters’ genders because they will inevitably get involved in predictably normative love relationships, which is the one element of The Razor that I found as cheesy as a stuffed–crust pizza. There’s nothing wrong with it overall, I guess, but the coincidence that the main characters are all beautiful and neatly self-divide into obvious couples made me sceptical of the novel’s grim sincerity. Nevertheless, it didn’t ruin the novel for me. It has, as they say, other qualities. Here are some of them:
The Razor reads at warp speed. Despite being a hefty 400 pages, it is written with short sentences, short paragraphs, and short character interactions that race along as fast as your eyes can absorb them. This technique, in this particular book, is very effective. The story moves very quickly, and as it does the writing gets choppier and more frantic in a good way, creating a very tense atmosphere. Mitchell wastes no words in pushing the plot along to its ultimate fiery finish. By the time the characters are desperate to escape, and the heat is out of control, and the creatively imagined monsters are after them, and the thousands of other prisoners want to kill them, and they want to kill the other prisoners, and one crazy lady might kill them all, it’s like a train wreck you can’t peel your eyes from.
Likewise, the setting of The Razor is extremely well executed. Although the characters never make it to the Shadowsphere, the Razor area is nicely described and believable enough, and the Cindersphere is brutally well realized. Readers will feel the love that Mitchell put into this setting. Everything is fucking hot as hell, and Mitchell shows it by having his characters stuck out there at various times (in specially designed suits of course) with complications trying to get in and out of their giant mining rovers and supply carriers. Not to mention a giant firestorm that is rapidly approaching. And because the setting is so fundamental to the characters’ reasons for being there in the first place, for their reasons to get the hell out of there, presumably for the anomaly that creates xytrillium, and for other atmospheric problems that prevent movement to and from 11-H37, it is a major highlight of the novel and no doubt why the novel is named for its setting. I must say here, though, that I am not a scientist, so I cannot say that any of this setting could actually happen. For example, 11-H37 revolves around its star but does not rotate, as such. Is it possible for a planet to always have the same hemisphere face its star? Who knows? And if you do know, don’t tell me and ruin it.
The action scenes in The Razor are brutal, fast-paced, tense, and exciting. Mitchell really knows how to pace the action to make it feel real. Each mini-climax builds from a tense creepiness to all-out mayhem in way that relentlessly pulls the reader into the maelstrom. Whether the conflict is between characters, the characters and the blistering environment, the characters and the other prisoners, or the characters and the original inhabitants of 11-H37, it is extremely well paced and described with stripped down language that has a certain menacing brutality of its own. If anything in The Razor should please grimdark fans, it should be the nearly constant barrage of action and violence, none of it gratuitous, all in support of the conflict that forms the backbone of the story. It’s good stuff.
So is it grimdark? I had my doubts at first. In the beginning Flynn really seems like a goody-two-shoes who has been victimized, but by the end, he begins to question what is right and what is wrong. He must balance a couple of enticing, selfish interests with the interests of his friends and the world at large. Key also factors in the grimdarkness of the story since she has lived a life of irredeemable badness, and even Flynn’s love for her can’t change that. Even though the four main characters, and at least one other secondary character, seem to be trying to do the right thing, the ending of the book is inconclusive, and its openness definitely leaves room for an ultimately full-fledged grimdark ending of the series that I expect to follow.
Whether it spawns a series or not, though, I think readers of grim sci-fi will definitely enjoy The Razor despite its slightly corny romance subplots. I recommend picking it up if grimdark sci-fi is your thing.
The Razor by J. Barton Mitchell is scheduled for publication on 27 November 2018 by Tor Books.