City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky – Book Review
Adrian Tchaikovsky returns to fantasy writing with his new novel City of Last Chances, released today, 8th December 2022. In this epic novel he introduces us to the city of Ilmar, a city under the yoke of an invading force. The Palleseen occupiers claim to want to better the lives of the inhabitants of the city, but from the underbelly of society, through students, to the highest and richest echelons, the people of Ilmar have other ideas.
This new novel is Tchaikovsky tackling many of the issues of inequality and injustice we see in society today, through the lens of magic, mystery and murder. He mixes ideas of class war and unionisation with demons shackled to the whims of man, magic talismans of great (and low) power, and a mysterious cluster of trees called the Anchorwood that permit select travellers to use pathways that only appear in the light of the full moon.
City of Long Shadows
The characters are what make this novel for me. The carnival of colour that Tchaikovsky brings to the page with his writing is, frankly, magical. Each chapter brings us a different perspective, and we flit from lovable rogue to lapsed priest, starry eyed student to merciless killer, returning to pick up threads from one or another to successfully weave a beautiful tapestry. There are character descriptions so vivid that you know each individual. One character in particular evokes a visceral response in me so great that even thinking their name now causes my gorge to rise. Read City of Last Chances and you’ll find out exactly who I mean.
While some readers may be put off by the size of the Dramatis Personae at the start of the book, or the various factions listed before we even hit chapter one, please listen to me when I say that it is wholly worth the time to read City of Last Chances. Despite the apparent size of the cast, each named individual is fully-formed and you can easily fall in love – or hate – with any number of them.
City of Bad Decisions
This is more than a simple fantasy novel. Tchaikovsky brings us plotlines of rebellion, desperation, and politics, strewn liberally around the magic and mystery that permeate the buildings and streets of Ilmar. There are levels to City of Last Chances that every reader can dive in to, whether they are here for the romance, the murder, or the beauty of Tchaikovsky’s writing. At it’s simplest this is a tale of people trying to find home, whether the one they came from or one they need to create for themselves, but there is so much more that you can find in these pages.
While I am determined to stay spoiler free, as this masterpiece deserves, the denouement of the novel is everything I could have asked for. The disparate trails that Tchaikovsky has been laying throughout the almost 500 pages of the novel are pulled together and wrapped up nicely, giving each character their time to shine and a (not necessarily happy) ending.
City of Last Chances
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s breadth of language, and the fluidity and poetry with which he wields words, leave me staggered with every new book he releases – and he writes fast, and often. Whether the epic space opera of the Children of Time series, the world-spanning fantasy of the Echoes of the Fall, his prose is always strong and emotive, and City of Last Chances is no exception to this rule. I stood on the streets of Ilmar with the characters, I flew across the rooftops of the city as we travelled from one location to another. I plotted and schemed and marched. I cannot wait to do it all again, and again, as I am sure this novel will only get better with a return visit.
While Tchaikovsky is famed for his series, and the world-building here would certainly end itself to more stories in these worlds, as a standalone novel it does superbly. Which is not to say that I don’t want more, as I certainly do want to visit Ilmar again, and the Anchorwood, and maybe even Allor or Divinate or Lor or… well, you get the idea. Whether you enjoy swords and sorcery novels, or want political intrigue and backstabbing, City of Last Chances is a novel that is well worth picking up.
