The Herons, river smugglers who bring weapons into the city from the surrounding country, and who get refugees out. Pyrrhic Victory: The rebellion ultimately turns out to be one of these for the Pals. They succeed in putting down the students' revolt and the Siblingries' march, but they lose a lot of their men to the students, the Siblingries and the Reproach with little chance of getting replacements in the near future, the factories that produce materials for their war efforts are going to be out of commission for a long while, and the wider resistance movement of Telmark still exists. Dirty Coward: For all his talk of Ilmari history and freedom, Ivarn Ostragar turns out to be one, and as soon as his life and position are threatened by an actual revolt he tries to flee the city. Perhaps my favourite character dynamic was Yasnic and … God. Yes, you read that right. God used to be worshipped everywhere in Ilmar yet his followers are dwindling to the point where God can only be seen by his high priest, Yasnic. Following him has rules. Very strict rules. But if you think a cranky old man perching himself on Yasnic’s shoulder and demanding fealty is the strangest character quirk in the novel, you really have another thing coming. Tchaikovsky’s characters are wondrous. The shifting perspectives blend in the mystical Ilmari melting pot and I was always wanting to read more.

They’re nothing but hollow men. They believe in nothing, they fight for nothing. Their whole perfection is a nothing! If we show them that we will not be erased, I KNOW that they will break. The Turncoats will cast off their uniforms. The people, the Armigers, all the birds, maestro! All of them. But it has to start somewhere. Someone has got to tell them NO, while there still IS someone. Or else we’re less and less until we’re gone!” RUSLAV (Ruslav in Love Again, Ruslav's Master's Voice, Jem's Reasons for Leaving, Hospitality of the Varatsins, Ruslav in the Teeth, Nihilostes Loses A Convert, Chains, Price of Rope, Wings, The Bitter Sisters, The Dousing, Resurrections, Another Round). If you are in the market for a superbly written, complex and intricately woven standalone fantasy, with a large cast of stand-out characters, world-building that is metered out at a brilliant pace and a plot that will keep you effortlessly intrigued throughout, then this will be one to read.

Voter's Packets

We ARE Struggling Together: Almost every one of the city various resistance factions hates the other groups, even though the Pals oppress all of them-the Siblingries dislike the Armiger families for being their long-time industrial overseers, the Armigers hate the Vultures for being criminals who would bring chaos to Ilmar if they came out ahead in a revolt, and everyone sees the Gownhall students as a bunch of inevitably doomed, naïve fools. Ahoy there mateys! I enjoyed this novel even if I have no idea what the point of it was. The story takes place in a city called Ilmar otherwise known as The City of Last Chances. It is a city in turmoil. Foreign occupiers with the goal of "Perfection" are in control everywhere except the Anchorwood. This wood has a door that opens up to other dimensions? I am not sure how or why it works. There are resistance factions in Ilmar but none work together.

Portal Crossroad World: The Anchorwood becomes one on nights when the moon is full. Travelling through it is extremely dangerous due to the monsters that live there, so unless you're an extremely capable fighter (such as Hellgram), a traveler will need powerful, rare protective charms to pass through.The titular City of Last Chances is the city of Ilmar, a disparate and dangerous place where the local population are occupied by the Pallseen, a nation of serial invaders intent on unifying the world into conformity by insidiously replacing language and customs, and eradicating the history and culture of each land that they touch. Hoyst; the Palleseen hangman. A secondary character, one we only see a couple of times, but one of the best in my opinion. He sells to those that are deemed criminals a personalised noose, and shaves them to their preference before they swing. The Empire: The Palleseen Sway is a vast colonial empire, stretching over at least four countries (the Pallesand Archipelago, Allorwen, Telmark, and Nihilostes' homeland), and is the method by which the Palleseen seek to perfect the world by extinguishing religion, magic, and the cultures and languages of conquered peoples.

The plot is complicated but not overly so, and takes some unexpected twists and turns even beyond the way you’re never sure what someone will do thanks to the aforementioned tensions and ambitions. It does move slowly, especially during the first half or so of the novel, partially because so many characters need to be introduced, and the structure — multiple points of view moving serially one to the other — slows pace a bit as well thanks to the sheer number. I confess at times I felt I was making little forward progress, though I never considered giving up. Finally for the positives, the prose is sharp and vivid and a good match for the fertile creativity of the plot and world-building. The Ilmari intolerance for their occupiers sparks with every tighten of the thumbscrew and surely the sparks will ignite soon. Body Surf: The reason why no-one ever kills an Indweller. The other Indwellers will demand compensation through someone else, preferably the slain Indweller's killer, wearing the dead Indweller's mask, which causes the Indweller's spirit to possess the new body. Ilmar has been under occupation by neighbouring Pallasand. The Palleseen, or Pals as they are colloquially known, have a mania for perfection, and after “perfecting” themselves, feel every other nation needs perfecting, too, and began a crusade, expanding outwards to neighbouring countries. They destroyed Allorwen, sending scores of refugees into Ilmar before rolling into Ilmar itself. To those that know Adrian's work a little better - yes, there are bugs and insects scattered intermittently throughout the story. I would be worried if there wasn't at this point.Indeed, while the world may be richly unique in its aspect, there’s also a joyous familiarity in the smartly exercised plot devices. There’s a Macguffin, a collection of unlikely heroes and a totalitarian state. All of which set the scene for a good solid dose of SFF.

Oppression. Political intrigue. Colonization. Religion. Poverty. Bigotry. Magic. Demons. Worker's rights. Crime. Revolution. Wrongful incarceration. These are all a part of this story by Adrian Tchaikovsky. City of Last Chancesis a somewhat complex book. It tells the story of Ilmar, a city chafing under the occupation of an invading Palleseen force for the last three years. A city of many factions, for the occupation, against it, neutral and just... otherwise engaged. A city of various magics, both familiar and strange. A city of mysteries. A city of immigrants and occupiers and rich and poor and workers and feudal overlords and scholars and priests and gods and all manner of people in between... and all of whom are connected by threads of politics and obligation and camaraderie and rivalry and the shared experience of being in this city, at this time, under this regime. Unfortunately, the City of Last Chances didn’t captivate me. It’s a sophisticated novel with many characters, a dense writing style, and complex intrigue. I found it difficult to immerse myself in the story or sympathize with its numerous protagonists. Things do fall into place at the end, but I had to force myself to read the book. And that's never a good sign.Up till the very end, I had no idea how this was all going to wrap up, but when I had completed the last chapter, I felt very satisfied. The unpredictable nature of the City and the vast array of characters meant that there were so many directions the story could have taken, but Tchaikovsky balanced endings for all fittingly, bringing disparate elements into relevance and throwing some unexpected surprises in for good measure. This is also true of the WWI-esque hellscape of a world that Hellgram comes from, where "the Great War" has entirely subsumed all of society.