City of Last Chances (The Tyrant Philosophers)

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However, please don't be put off by my experience, it may just be a case of the wrong timing for this kind of book. But something — possibly the number of them, possibly the structure which had me shifting from one to the other, maybe their own often guarded nature — created a sense of distance. Well, Tchaikovsky fantasy is a real heavy duty fair and if you’re only familiar with his sci-fi then this is a great entry point into another side of his writing.

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His people, the Allor, live in a segregated and poverty stricken corner of the city, judged with suspicion by Ilmari and Palleseen alike, but also. The City of Last Chances flew straight to the top of my favourite reads of the year and did it in style. As City of Last Chances progresses, we're updated regarding the potential revolution that is stirring underneath the surface: who will light the fuse, will the Palleseen military be prepared, what will the consequences be and what part will the supernatural elements of the city play?

Tchaikovsky (Children of Ruin) examines alternate dimensions and speculative evolution in this tropey, entertaining sci-fi adventure that’s both outrageously bizarre and utterly convincing. The ending was pretty satisfying but again, this one just didn't grab my attention the way so many of Tchaikovsky's books have done in the past and subsequently it hampered my enjoyment a little and I have to give this book a lesser star rating as a result.So long as they act within their purview and extend their power to willing converts, however, a god's own strength does not seem to matter too much when preforming miracles. A strange story with some wonderful ideas and characters, flawed (though not all readers will concur) by being slightly too self-consciously ironic for its own good - it's certainly not a parody, but the author is very aware of playing up tropes, and with such a long book it was treading very close to the line. But sometimes cities are where the tensions arise; where people debate are they actually free and then the elements of the machine are more like dominoes all carefully lined up and awaiting a nudge.

The “underdog uprising” always lies on the horizon of promise, but the way in which everyone has their own agenda here — as groups and/or as individuals — constantly interferes with any attempt at serious revolution, as well as allowing room for thoughtful exploration of serious topics such as labor-owner conflict, the refugee experience, fascism, colonialism, the desperation of poverty, and more.

Clarke Award winner Tchaikovsky (Children of Time) takes readers inside the mind of a weaponized bioengineered animal in this imaginative triumph, the first in a series. When he's not writing, reading, reviewing, or teaching, he can usually be found with his wife and son on the frisbee golf course or the ultimate frisbee field. It tells the story of Ilmar, a city chafing under the occupation of an invading Palleseen force for the last three years. Yasnic’s life is constrained not only by poverty but by a detailed and inflexible set of divine commandments and his innate meek­ness.