Follow up to The City which you must read first. Stella Gemmell was always involved in her late husband’s writing so there is an obvious link and influence to David Gemmell. But she has a more intense and deeper style where David was (to me) all about big, tortured and noble heroic characters.
The city is recovering from the bloodshed and consequences of the rebellion and now face a new crisis. A vast army is on its way to wipe everyone out, and this is not a city or environment that will easily pull together against a common foe.
It’s a theme (but with more intrigue and politics than usual) that we have seen many times but this is blessed with intelligent writing and complex characters.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

The emperor is dead…long live the emperor!
The fervent hope of the victorious rebels and the survivors of the uprising that liberated the City from tyranny is that the accession of Archange to the imperial throne will usher in a new era of freedom, peace and stability. If only that were so...
As the City struggles to return to something resembling normal life after the devastation brought on by the rebellion, word arises of a massive army gathering to the north. No one knows where it has come from or who leads it, but it soon becomes apparent that its sole purpose is to destroy the City and annihilate all - man, woman and child - who live within its battered walls. And while warriors go forth to fight and die on the battlefield in defence of their homeland and all that they believe in, bitter family feuds and ancient rivalries, political and personal betrayals, and mindless murder surface within the palaces and corridors of power: it seems the City is under siege - from both without and within...

*3.5 stars*

It has been a while since I read the first book in this series, The City. And, as it turns out, that was a bit of a problem for me.

But let's look at what was good about this book. This is probably a better book than the first - the magic, the battles, the dialogue - all far superior than the first book. But what I really did love about both books was the prose itself. Like honey on the tip of your tongue, it is sweet and slides down your throat easily and is extremely tasty. Stella Gemmell is an absolute wordsmith.

On the downside, this book was written like the reader had just finished book 1 and knew exactly who everyone was, where everything is etc. And I didn't. Some kind of refresher for a few pages would have been useful - not too much to ask for in a near-600 page book...
Also, the timelines were weird. Some parts of this book took place BEFORE or at the same time as the previous book. And that was seriously hard work. That really took away any sense of continuity, breaking any suspense that had been built.

I do, however, recommend this series, if for nothing more than Gemmell's beautiful prose. That alone is worth the price of admission.


Paul
ARH

I just didn’t really enjoy this to the point got a third of the way through and decided that there wasn’t anything that was happening to keep me reading.