City of Light by: Keri Arthur** 2 out of 5 stars Review by: Stacy Palm wanted to adore this book. Seriously, I went into it wanting to see the badass female soldier kicking some evil creatures back to where they belong, and at first I was really intrigued. The beginning involved a lot of wonderfully creative world building. The atmosphere was setup as a desolate post apocalyptic world where everyone is fighting for survival. The living environments for the various characters from the underground training center to the cramped outlaw cities were vivid and jumped off the page. Unfortunately, that is where the creativity ended for me because the characters did not hold up to their surroundings. The idea of some of the characters (dechet, earth witch, etc..) seemed as though they should have captured my attention, but for me they never quite came alive. Our main character, Tiger or Tig for short, was simply too powerful, too swoony, and too flat; let me expand those thoughts without spoilers. Tiger is a dechet, a super powerful soldier created solely to destroy specifically engineered "rangers." If you can think of a skill a the deadliest soldier would relish, she most likely has it. Secondly, the swoon quality (or disquality.) How does our heroine badass target those engineered "rangers" she was created to destroy? She was genetically altered to be completely beside herself with irresistible lust when in the near vicinity of the deadly foe. Are you kidding me??? Seriously, you give us a setup for a great heroine and then make her a blushing schoolgirl even in the midst of battle! I was very disappointed by this needless to say. If it was her desire for the ranger that was meaning to provide depth to this character it backfired because I had no attachment to this character. Very few of the characters actually had the feel that they were people with backgrounds, experiences, and emotions that made them whole. They were non-dimensional and did nothing to propel the story to the next level. Which is so unfortunate because I read the skill of creation in the world building. So I'm really not sure if this is something specific to me as a reader or if this is generally felt by many readers. All I can do as a reviewer, is provide you with what I felt were the pros and cons of the books I read. I do know that not every book speaks to every reader, and this may very well be the case with this book. With the wealth of Urban Fantasy books available today there are many that will completely rock your world. This however, is not one of them in my opinion. |
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July 2020
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