I couldn't put this one down. It starts out as a young-con-man-makes-good story that develops into a complicated caper/revenge novel.
I liked the fantasy world, here centering around a watery Venice-like city of islands amidst leftover technology from a higher-tech predecessor race.
There's one goofy element: sharks. A prominent sport in the city is having women in armor fight sharks with hand weapons while standing on small platforms just above the water. This is not played for laughs, and does not detract from the story at all. Sounds pretty goofy though.
I like how the author doesn't inject too much exposition about the world until the latter part of the book. You don't get the detail until you really care, and I think it also then serves to delay the ending and heighten the tension.
The ending would be my one quibble. I didn't think the final conflict was as clever as it might've been.
Man, I still need to finish this novel. When I decided to get ready to resume my novel, the time I spent outlining and writing and researching (as well as my efforts at drawing) really took away from my fiction reading and now I have just five days to finish the book.
ReplyDeleteThey are ordering a copy for me at my local bookstore, so I will get to read it eventually, but it is tough to put down.