3.5 Stars

Getting a debut novel to publication is a long process for an author and I try to be sensitive to that fact. Finding a debut with a fresh take is always a plus. But sometimes the execution of a good idea seems elusive. Having great editorial direction can lead an author to a better story but that, too, is a hard thing to find. In the past year I've read more than a few debut novels in which better editorial direction might have taken a potentially great book and smoothed pacing issues, removed inconsistencies, and built more compelling characters. This is one such book.

In City of Broken Magic we have a novel magic system, of amulets trapping spirits, and sweepers (who in spite of the blurb, are possessed of some magical abilities) who dispose of dangerous monsters who emerge from broken amulets, or who can even prevent those monsters from escaping them. The only time I've read anything similar is in Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus series. World-building like this is a treat, but we have to have characters who make us enjoy this world, and a story arc that is paced to keep us well engaged. Bolender almost has us there, but I just never warmed to Laura Kramer, a young woman apprenticed to sweeper Clae (a man with a dubious family history), and I found the manner in which Clae's other apprentice sweeper, Okane, joins the band to be awkward and rather implausible. The characters felt a bit flat and I didn't feel very engaged in their battles. The overall story arc, which features a world in which the powers that be lie and cover up the ongoing presence of these monsters, minimizing an ugly reality, claiming that sweepers and monsters are a cipher in their society, is a great storyline to explore, especially in the era of claims of fake news and media/social media distortions of truth. Thus, I'd definitely pick up the next book in the series to see where Bolender goes with this story. I just hope that she gets editorial direction worthy of this story's potential.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from Tor via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

“Your instincts are good. Follow them.”

So, this book reminds me of “Fantastic Beasts and where to find them”, the movie. I don’t know why, I don’t know how. I know that I liked it a lot.
There is a world that could be described as a 20th century setting, with trains and bicycles and guns. There are women at work, in important jobs, as political leaders. But there is also the judgement of people about women’s life, women’s jobs, women’s marriage. Laura is the main protagonist: after reading a book about magic sweepers she decided to become one of them. She asked to the Sweeper leader of her City (the city is called Amicae) to accept her as apprentice. So she became one of them. The problem is that there are few people who know about their existence. In this world the cities are “created” by magic, but not in all the cities the civil population knows about who control the magic, as the sweepers. Magic and amulets control mobsters, monsters and felins. Out of the city the wild nature is very powerful, and it’s attracted by magic people.
I like that the main character is about 20 year old, it seems more realistic and reliable. I like her relationship with her “boss” and with the other apprentice. I like that the book ends with a lot of question. But what I I like the most is the magic system: it fascinated me, it captured me. It was like magic became energy and energy became power. The power, however, must be catalyzed with amulets and magic objects. Oh, I like this theme of the book.
An other interesting experience in this novel was to understand the world building. There are a lot of city with a lot of differences: it was hard to understand everything, but I liked it even more.

City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender

Pros: unique magic and monster system, interesting characters

Cons: pacing issues, slow opening

The city of Amicae is built as a 6 tiered structure with an outer wall. It citizens believe the wall keeps magical infestations at bay but that’s a lie. Infestations from broken or improperly cared for amulets happen all the time, and when they do the cops call in the experts: the Sinclair Sweepers.

Laura is Clae Sinclair’s only apprentice in the dangerous work. She wants to prove she has worth as a person in a society that sees her as more of a walking womb. When they acquire a second apprentice and infestations start to increase, she gets her chance.

It took me a while to get into this. First because the world started out feeling very medieval fantasy despite its bicycles and robots. The worldbuilding was alternately slow and full of info dumps in the opening chapters.

Clae is acerbic and rude and while I liked him, he takes some getting used to. For the most part I liked Larua, though I was surprised by her age when it was finally revealed, as I ended up picturing her younger given how she treats Okane.

As a master teaching a trade, Clae’s a mixed bag. On one hand he does teach weapons and technique, but I was astonished by how little Laura knew about kin and its creation. As the main weapon against infestations, I would have thought learning how to make kin would be vital to a sweeper’s job.

I loved the monsters and how the sweepers fight them. It’s very original. I also liked that another city is visited and there’s some information on how the various cities operate and that sweepers use different tactics and that they share ideas through meetings and letters.

The last half of the book was quite fun and the pacing was much better as the tension worked up to the climax.

While it’s a bit uneven, it’s a good debut and I’m curious to see what’s next.

The first book in the Chronicles of Amicae by Mirah Bolender, City of Broken Magic,  is a fun and exciting read full of enough action and intrigue to keep you on the edge of your seat all night long.

I stumbled across City of Broken Magic a couple months ago on a list of upcoming new releases where it was described as a story about a magical bomb disposal squad, but for corrupt and out of control magic instead of explosives. While there is a lot more depth to the story, I think that description gets the basic premise of the story pretty well and I can honestly say that the book was as weird and amazing as it sounds. I did not want to stop reading once I had started and did not want it to actually end, despite wanting to know the conclusion to the story.

I could go on for days about everything that I thought was great about City of Broken Magic -- it's one of the more well-written books I've read this year with fantastic worldbuilding and full of believable characters who are easy to love. I have to say though that my favorite part about this book was how weird it can be at times and how different it is from anything else I've read lately. It feels like the author took the best aspects of all my favorite subgenres of fantasy like urban fantasy, steampunk, epic fantasy, and dystopian fantasy and mixed them all together into something completely new.

I enjoyed every moment spent reading City of Broken Magic and was sad for it to end, and I would happily recommend it to anyone looking for something new and exciting to read. I only just finished it in the last week or so but I already know I'm going to buy the audiobook as soon as it's available so t hat I can experience the story again in a brand new format. I'm already looking forward to seeing what Mirah Bolender has in store for us with the next book.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Clae is a professional Sweeper, who gets rid of infestations of nasty beasts who eat magic. Laura is his apprentice, being trained to save the world. More and more infestations with so few Sweepers. Sweepers are non magical humans who act like bomb diffusers. The beasts are smart and once they awake, it's a problem to kill them. Who will stop this before everyone dies? I liked Clae who was arrogant, but knew his business. Laura is young and her immaturity shows. I liked this book, but didn't love it. I received this book from Net Galley and Tor Publishing for a honest review. The opinions expressed are my own.

I hoped to like this book more than I did but I just couldn't get into it. It was really slow and I was wondering what the actual plot was. From the summary I knew it was about magic and the (deadly) infections it could create, with sweepers, the only one who could do something against it. But also from the summary, I thought Laura, our main character, was the only one left when she actually wasn't. She is only an apprentice for the moment and we follow her and her boss, Clae, plus another apprentice joining them later for the story.

I really liked the relationships between these three characters, to be honest it's the only thing that helped me to keep reading the book. I couldn't understand a lot of the words and just the universe and there wasn't always an explanation so it was troublesome, all the while I was lost with the world and I think it's one because of that I couldn't get into the story.

The last 10-15% did leave me more interested than everything else happening before so I'm leaving the book with a slightly better opinion. And it left us with some little questions or ideas of where the plot could go next in the series.

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

city of broken magic (Mirah Bolender)

Title: city of broken magic

Author: Mirah Bolender

Publisher: Macmillian-Tor/Forge

Publication Date: TODAY!! (paperback/e-book)

ISBN: 978-1250169273

Source: NetGalley

I was excited about this book when I heard about it.  The hook - a group of monsters that eat magic and everything else that they can get a hold of.  The only thing standing in the way are a group called sweepers.  These sweepers are described on Amazon as "bomb squad that defuses magic weapons."  The blurb claims that sweepers are non-magical beings and that a sweeper named Laura is all that stands between the city and annihilation.  Part of the problem with this book is that the blurb and this descriptions are NOT what the book is about.  Laura is not the last sweeper left standing.  The sweepers are not non-magical.  The sweepers do not feel like a bomb squad at all.

The positive things that made me finish the book were:

I loved the characters in this book.  The main character, Laura, was intelligent, daring, snarky, and caring.  This type of character always floats me boat.  I also liked her teacher, Clae, and the other apprentice.  I even liked the side characters like Morgan, Laura's aunt who cares about her niece but just doesn't understand anything about her.
I liked the weird monsters and how they manifested.  I loved the opening scene told from the monster's point of view.  I wanted to know more about the monsters and how they worked.
While those things keep me reading, the world-building and plot made it harder and harder to finish the book.  Unfortunately, there were major issues that made this an unlikable read for me.

The Monsters - Well this be the entire reason I wanted to read this book.  I love me some fierce fighting of nasty beasties.  Sadly the fighting was lackluster.  There never seemed to be any real tactics for fighting or finding them.  The two responses seemed to be throwing bombs at them and running away from them.  Luck not strategy seemed to decide every encounter.
The  Magic - This was one of those books where ye be thrown into the magic system and have to learn as ye go.  There are cool hints to how the magic is used.  The main basis for magic use is amulets.  I liked the idea that these amulets are highly regulated.  They have to be cataloged, recharged, and recycled.  However, they also made no sense.  For example, if ye use them as an assassination technique there be no guarantee that the target would die.  Like why try to kill a rich man by putting one in the kitchen - a place he would never go in?  Plus to use one like that means that the city might be destroyed.  Dumb.
Info-Dumping - I don't mind learning the world structure or rules as the story progresses.  I do hate info-dumping.  In this story, the plot abruptly stops so that Laura can give lessons to the other apprentice (a former slave) in history, magic use, politics, etc.  And it is furtively done while her teacher is out.  I didn't find the history or piecemeal magic explanations to be anything but boring and nonsensical.
The Training - This is one of those books where the teacher withholds vital information.  There is only the teacher and two students protecting the entire city.  If the teacher dies then the city is screwed.  So why wouldn't there be an open exchange of knowledge?  Makes no sense.  His method of teaching is mostly to learn on the job.  No wonder he lost eight former apprentices.  They spend a ton of time sitting in the shop waiting for clients or police to inform them of monster attacks.  Shouldn't that time be spent training or investigating?  Also the teacher, Clae, makes the point multiple times that book learning is pointless.  Then DO something.
The Social Structure-  Much of this book is spent focused on how Laura is not in the norm because she doesn't want to get married or wear dresses.  And yet the police chief is a woman.  A major politician is a woman.  A investigative journalist is a woman.  Lots of seekers in other cities are women.  These facts go against the author's own premise of the society.
Diversity - I support diversity in literature.  Yet this book seems set in a "normative" society.  Heterosexual relationships.  Standard gender roles.  Monogamy.  Then randomly, Clae and his student have an awkward conversation about past relationships.  There is a random lesbian relationship thrown in.  In the context of the story, this seemed tossed in to fill a check box and to help set up a future romantic relationship between teacher and student.  I was not a fan.
Plot - There really wasn't a cohesive story line or decent explanations for events.  It felt like the author had filler around the couple of scenes she wanted to write.  This book felt more like a very rough first draft that needed massive editing and rewrites.  This concept should have the reader on edge instead of trying to make sense of what is happening most of the time.
Fun concepts here.  I wish this one would have focused on the monster battles and how the monster fighting community works!  Shame because I wanted to like this one.  Unfortunately it must walk the plank!  Arrrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you Macmillian-Tor/Forge!

Goodreads has this to say about the novel:

Five hundred years ago, magi created a weapon they couldn’t control. An infestation that ate magic—and anything else it came into contact with. Enemies and allies were equally filling.

Only an elite team of non-magical humans, known as sweepers, can defuse and dispose of infestations before they spread. Most die before they finish training.

Laura, a new team member, has stayed alive longer than most. Now, she’s the last—and only—sweeper standing between the city and a massive infestation.

To visit the author’s website go to:

Mirah Bolender - Author

To buy the novel go to:

city of broken magic - Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

Here's an intriguing new fantasy world in which relatively isolated cities all have magical bomb squads (Sweepers) who fight off voracious infestations that eat magic, and anything else they encounter along the way. Though the story meanders more than I like, it's worth persisting with this unusual, and action-packed fantasy.

City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender is an action packed magical ride of monsters and mobsters.
Laura Kramer is a Sweeper apprentice working hard to keep her city safe from the magical infestations that are killing residents. Her boss and Head Sweeper, Clae Sinclair, grew up in a Sweeper family and has been battling manifestations his entire life. Together they make up the entire Sweeper force of the city of Amicae and work alongside the police department in an uneasy alliance.
When Laura and Clae are hired by the wealthy wife of a notorious mob family, they find more than malevolent amulets. They find a mysterious young man enslaved by the Sullivans who appears to have magical abilities. Clae, ever clever, rescues the young man under the guise of payment in exchange for ridding the Sullivan house of evil amulets. Now the young man, Okane, is free from the torture and enslavement of the Sullivans and free to begin training as a Sweeper apprentice.
Now a team of three, the Sweepers have a ritual to prepare for, a city to protect, and evil manifestations getting their way.

This book was so good! It’s fast paced, full of action, and the characters are fantastic. Clae is prickly and unsociable but as the story goes on, you completely understand why. There is more than one skeleton in his closet and a long line of deceased Sweeper apprentices. With mysterious parts of his shop completely off limits and a quest for lasagna, he has the mysterious boss persona down. Laura is young, smart, and wants only to prove her worth. Growing up unwanted by her parents, she is raised by her single aunt and lives in one of the poorer parts of town. Longing to learn more about the world outside her walled city, she snatches up scraps of movie posters found along streets and alley walls. And Okane. Poor Okane. Born with magical abilities and tortured his whole life by the Sullivans, he lives his life in fear of everything.
I really enjoyed the city of Amicae. It’s one of several cities mentioned in the book but is the setting for the bulk of the book. The city is contained by high walls that the residents believe keep them safe by preventing evil magical infestations. Unfortunately for the residents, that is completely false. There is a complex system of magic and amulets that can be both helpful and harmful depending on their creation. It takes place 500 years ago but I don’t think it ever tells where that 500 years ago was-and it doesn’t matter. You get dropped into this amazing world and everything fits perfectly.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

City of Broken Magic is the first book in a new fantasy series the follows a small team of sweepers, people who have the job of protecting their world against runaway magic out to destroy the world. The premise sounded intriguing enough, but unfortunately is a bit misleading. Laura isn't the only sweeper left. There was a lot of terminology thrown around and good explanations weren't given about what these terms were. The world building was a bit confusing with all the different layers. I got about halfway through this book before I made the decision not to finish it. Even though things were happening, I just felt like things weren't really moving forward in terms of the character development and plot. I do believe the concept of the amulets and the runaway magic was intriguing, but the delivery needed a bit of work.

3.5, rounded up to 4 stars. City of Broken Magic combines elements of several fantasy/SF subgenres, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Laura is a young woman who refuses to be shoehorned into a traditional female role. She takes a job as an apprentice "Sweeper," a member of a team of monster exterminators. Her coworkers are her employer, Clae, the last member of a family who have served as Sweepers for the city of Amicae for generations, and Okane, a young man with some magical talent of his own that Laura and Clae rescue from what appears to be slavery in the home of a wealthy family. The politicians have insisted to the citizens that there is no monster problem, blaming infestations on the Mob; since there is no "problem," there is no need to fund additional Sweepers, so three people are responsible for defending the city against hostile magic. There are some portions of the book what could have used tighter editing to make the situation a bit more clear, but overall, this was a fast, fun read by a debut novelist. Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for the advance reading copy.

City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender is the first book in the Chronicles of Amicae fantasy series. The series is set in a world somewhat similar to ours however society and the use of magic are certainly different.

For the last five hundred years sweepers have been cleaning up after a weapon that was created and went out of control. When magical amulets run out or are broken creatures are unleashed that feed upon whatever is in their path whether it was the enemy or alley.

Laura has convinced head sweeper Clae to take her on as his apprentice and teach her the way of the sweepers. It’s uncommon for women to be in the work force so Laura has to work twice are hard to prove herself in the dangerous trade where most apprentices are killed before they complete the training.

As one can tell from my rating this one just wasn’t for me and that was unfortunate because the magic use and world seemed to be creative. The thing that got me with this book was it was definitely not fast paced as advertised. For example, the book starts off with an infestation that takes the first two chapters to battle and at only 27 chapters in a 400 or so page book this was quite some time. It’s actually taken me three days to get to the end which is so out of the ordinary for me as I kept losing interest and putting it back down. Perhaps those that enjoy a slower build would like the world more than myself though but I will have to pass one continuing with the series.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

En Netgalley he conseguido auténticas joyas y esta novela, que mezcla una conquista de un país isleño por parte de Occidente con un ambiente opresivo al estilo de Ataque a los Titanes. Eso en cuanto a la construcción del mundo, porque el foco de la historia realmente está en la protagonista y cómo va descubriendo distintos secretos del mundo, sin dejar de ser lo más corriente dentro de su mundo.

Se trata de una novela cuya trama no está centrada en plan "pues ahora vamos a descubrir X" sino que nos va dando detalles de la vida de la protagonista y la lleva de una situación tensa a otra porque ese es el trabajo que ha elegido. Los secundarios que la rodean se encargan de mostrarnos una sociedad donde hay racismo, donde los empresarios buscan sus beneficios aunque destruyan la ciudad y donde los mandatarios quieren esconder la magnitud de los problemas a sus conciudadanos. Obviamente, todo esto puede verse como un reflejo claro de lo que tenemos en la actualidad, y va con comentario, ya que la protagonista y la mayoría de secundarios están situados al margen de la sociedad por su trabajo, aunque sin ellos la sociedad se hundiría.

La idea inicial que nos presentan es potente: hay una ciudad donde hay plagas de monstruos y unos exterminadores, de los que solo quedan dos, un maestro y su alumna, que se encargan de limpiar en todas partes. Les llaman los militares, la policía y les llevan amuletos mágicos a su despacho para que los limpien en la Amuletería. Y, sin embargo, el gobierno dice que las plagas no ocurren en su ciudad y que eso solo pasa en las otras ciudades y en el campo. La estética de al ciudad es bastante desastrada, por lo menos los barrios bajos que nos muestran principalmente, mientras que lo poco que nos muestran de las zonas altas es bastante siglo XIX, incluyendo casas con semiesclavos a los que vapulear y donde se mata a las mujeres por atreverse a tener opinión propia. No nos olvidemos, por supuesto, del nivel de racismo contra los indígenas de las islas, que en este primer libro tampoco veremos tanto, pero que prepara el terreno para lo que ocurrirá casi de seguro en los siguientes libros.

Es interesante cómo juega con un estilo de narración en la que la protagonista sabe ciertas cosas que el lector no, pero también descubre otras al mismo tiempo. De este modo, el lector se encuentra con una sensación más cercana y cuando hay giros, y vaya si los hay, es muy difícil esperárselos. Es interesante también ver cómo emplea las herramientas para que vayas haciéndote una idea de lo complicado que es el trabajo al que se enfrentan. Por otro lado, uede resultar complicado adentrarse en esta novela si no tienes unos conocimientos buenos de inglés, ya que el lenguaje empleado te pide que tengas claro lo que significan las palabras para ver cómo les ha dado un giro extra. Las descripciones son largas pero no farragosas, sino simplemente emplean el tiempo necesario para que te hagas una composición de lugar lo más adecuada posible.

Los personajes son el punto más interesante de la novela, y eso es decir bastante ya que el escenario y los detalles sociales son muy fuertes, ya que consigue la autora que empatices con todos y que, cuando todo va mal, porque es inevitable que todo vaya mal, te sientas golpeado por un camión. Y, sin embargo, mantienes la esperanza de que, con todas sus decisiones y todo su esfuerzo, al final conseguirán que vaya bien. La verdad es que tengo muchas ganas de ver cómo evolucionan a partir del punto en el que se quedan en esta novela. Y sí, hay un punto muy feminista en la protagonista y cómo se siente infravalorada por parte de la sociedad (representada tanto en su amigo de la infancia como en su tía) que intenta que se corte las alas para entrar en el pequeño hueco que quieren que ocupe.

En definitiva, es una novela un tanto lenta y complicada de coger, pero que da una sensación realmente cálida en muchos momentos y que se esfuerza por que el lector vaya más allá de lo que está mostrando. Con un final abiertísimo que pide continuaciones, se queda una buena novela para adentrarse en el mundo (y sufrir esperando las siguientes partes).

This was another that sounded so exciting, then just never got off the ground for me... A magical bomb squad - I figured non-stop action with some drama thrown in to connect the pieces. Instead I found a rather plodding tale that I couldn't get into, populated by pedantic characters I couldn't relate to enough to get past the first few chapters. Even the beast couldn't hold my attention... This one just didn't do it for me at all.

I didn’t intend to pick City of Broken Magic up until a bit closer to its release date, but you know how it goes. I needed something to read on the plane, and then by the pool while on vacation and this particular ebook was more convenient than the actual books I brought with me. It was utterly addictive and I’m glad I came across a Waiting on Wednesday post featuring this book and then put in my own request for an eGalley. I didn’t want to put it down (or move) and ended up getting a little too much sun as a result. Woops…

All that babbling aside, City of Broken Magic was a stellar book on several different levels. First of all, the synopsis should be enough to make anyone curious enough to pick it up. Once I actually cracked this one open it totally grabbed ahold of my imagination! This is set in a world with the beginning of modernization and due to the fact that some ladies like our Sweeper in training, Laura, are beginning to wear pants rather than dresses, I’d put it somewhere around the 1920s. Laura is apprenticed to Clae Sinclair, head sweeper of Amicae and also the only legit sweeper (some work for the mobs). He’s quite young for the role but he has the personality of a crotchety old man and happens to be a pretty good teacher, though Laura is also a natural talent. Their job is to stop magical infestations from taking root in broken amulets and eating people. These infestations are like semi-sentient jello with a hunger that only hands (and other parts) can satisfy. Oddly, the citizens of Amicae are misled about the actual role of the sweepers and the severity of the infestations in their lovely city. In a nutshell, it’s all about maintaining appearances and politics and it results in the Sweepers being understaffed and the infestation problem increasing.

The story takes us on quite a journey with Laura. She’s trying to excel at her chosen (and dangerous) career path, navigate the expanding role of women in society, and not get absorbed by a magical jello or murdered by a gang boss. I liked Laura and the fact that she wasn’t some Mary Sue character who was suddenly perfect at everything. She was learning, had been for months prior to the opening of the story and while she was talented and clever, she wasn’t perfect and needed help sometimes. Clae was also quite likable – I got “Sherlock before he met Watson” vibes from him. He was a bit prickly and awkward, but ultimately one of the best Sweepers ever and he stuck up for his employees and his position as Head Sweeper. Okane, our third major character, is rescued from what is essentially slavery by Clae when he goes on a Sweeper job. Okane is naturally gifted with a bit of magic, which would make him an excellent Sweeper if Clae could train him to not freeze when he comes face to face with even the smallest infestations. He was a likable character and he grew so much throughout the course of this single book.

City of Broken Magic was just as awesome as I hoped it would be when I stumbled across that Waiting on Wednesday post, if not more so! I think it has the potential to be phenomenal series and the ending left me bereft, knowing I probably have to wait a whole year until the sequel is released. I liked that Laura rejected everyone’s opinion that she should have a nice, safe desk job instead of doing what she always dreamed of despite its risks. I think this issue was dealt with realistically and she ended up getting the most support from her gruff, seemingly cold boss rather than her fairly weak Aunt, who thought it would somehow jeopardize her marriage prospects. Bah! This was an action packed book that was well paced and evoked some serious emotions, particularly towards the end. Authors just love to twist your emotions up and then end the book!!

3,5 stars

I am going to start off with saying that the official synopsis is misleading. It talks about an elite team. It’s not. It says Laura is the last one standing, she’s not. It talks about sweepers being non-magic humans. They aren’t. I feel like the synopsis is trying to sell this book to be a lot more epic than it really is. It’s not. Having said that, I don’t think this is a bad book either. It is just that I see so much wasted potential.
Laura is an apprentice to the head sweeper Clae. At the moment of starting this book they are the only sweepers of their city. As sweepers they have to diffuse amulets that have become infested. Their job is made harder by the fact that the council is selling to their people that they are safe between the walls of their city and that infestations rarely happen. It is why their team is so small and why training is mostly during actual situations. The increase of infestations is worrying. How are they going to be able to handle it with just the two of them? And how can they make the city see that they aren’t safe at all?
The whole idea of having to diffuse amulets that have become infested is such an interesting and original idea. But it lacks a little in the world building. The problem I have is that the world building was very confusing. And for a good portion I was just kind of going with it. When they get the new apprentice we suddenly get a chapter full of info dump on things we hadn’t gotten. But that didn’t make it anymore clear and it was hard to grasp what kin was or how the pitts, where they put the diffused amulets, exactly did. I still can’t tell you. And I don’t have a good idea of all the rings of the city.
There are also bits that don’t make sense. How Clae never told Laura why the tree they visited was important. And I am still fuzzy on the whole of the city not knowing that they still have so many infestations in the city, ones that aren’t just placed by the mobs. It just doesn’t make sense for them to believe that when the city’s nearby still have to deal with it. Other cities make fun of them for it.
On the other hand I did enjoy the characters for the most part. Laura was great to follow. She is very determined to make it in the job as sweeper in a society that would still rather see woman married and taking care of kids or as a receptionist. The fact that she wears pants is scandalous of course. She doesn’t let herself get side tracked by romance (though there is some potential there). She just doesn’t want to get forced into a life that society expects her to have and be unhappy. She has seen how they have treated her aunt (who she lives with).
The one thing I didn’t like about her was how she got jealous of their new apprentice. Akane came to them after a job they worked, where he was a slave. Slavery is not suppose to be a thing anymore but when you have money that apparently doesn’t matter. Akane is very different from Laura. He takes this chance at apprenticeship because it is what Clae offers and what else is he going to do? He doesn’t have anything. He is very fearful and clearly heavily impacted by his life as a slave. Finding his way in a job that offers so many new things, danger and with a boss that perhaps isn’t quite so empathic is so hard. I felt for him. I don’t think Clae did right by him.
Clae is the head sweeper. The prodigy if you will. Or so he is shown at the start. He is brass, rude and won’t negotiate. But as the story continues we discover things from his family and his past that clearly shaped him to be who he is.
Overall I still think this book is worth a read. The world building isn’t as strong as it should be with this setting. But the idea and characters are still great to read about. For now it seems to be a standalone but I am expecting there to be a sequel. While major things were wrapped up, there are still some things left that I think Laura and Akane will want to deal with.

Interesting set-up. There are bicycles, cars and dress styles reminiscent of the early 20th century. Steampunk, but not quite. The city itself comes across as a version of Minas Tirith, with added technology. Radios and telephones make an appearance, powered by amulets imbued with magic. The magic system is something I have not come across before, although the skills the Sweepers gain through use of the amulets made me think of Brandon Sanderson‘s Stormlight Archives and the Surgebinding used there.

Women are supposed to be wives, wear dresses and are considered whores the moment they do not comply. Nonetheless our heroine runs around in trousers and learns a trade. There is a bit of a wild mish-mash of ideas and concepts going on.

Promising start, but pretty much from the beginning there was no suspense for me. I did not dislike the writing, but it definitely did not do it for me. I had to make myself pick up the book every single time.

I started some heavy skimming about seven chapters into the book, around the time they picked up Okane. What a disappointing character. When he first showed up, I thought „Oh, interesting, some hidden plot and mysterious forces...“. However, he turned into some mopey, inarticulate teenager.

DNF at 52%. The book felt very episodic up to that point. Every other chapter or so there is a gradually worse and more powerful monster to be vanquished. I suppose in the last chapter there will be a dungeon master level infestation and—I had the odd peek at the chapters in the second half of the book—the crucial and predictable reveal. It‘s ok, I suppose, but nothing new or exciting.

I received this free e-copy from Macmillan-Tor/Forge via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender. The City of Amicae has a problem, magic is integral but when it runs out or gets broken, monsters pop up. These are the monsters in the dark that will eat you and your neighbors. They need to me swept up and gotten rid of, and that's where the sweepers come in....

This book was a lovely surprise! I was somewhat worried in the beginning, as classical fantasy tends to bore me rather easily these days... But "City of broken magic" has some real personality and some excellent characters, and consequently my reading was great!

To begin with the minor flaws. They're all of the same trend, about some rather confusing points: nothing really problematic, just small ideas you keep wondering about in the back of your mind. Some explanations come rather too late for instance; the town which seemed smaller for me than it must be, as another exemple, Also that I thought for a while that Amicae was absolutely cut from other towns, except for controlled commerce, and was surprised to see that comings and goings were authorized, that trips were perfectly possible, if uncommon. So, nothing big really. In fact the most annoying point is the book's presentation, which is half false, implying that there are Mages using magic (they aren't really, magic comes from a mineral which can infused some objects and give them magical energy, so using magic is up to anybody wealthy enough to buy magic infused amulets) and also that the heroine will have to fight all alone - false again. In fact the truth is much more interesting and I don't understand why this presentation is so wrong! Well, let's hope that some changes will be made before publishing date...

Now that this small matter of vagueness is set, lets talk about the good things!

I liked the author imagination and the world building. And if it's sometimes a little fuzzy around the edges it's quite counterbalanced by its personality and originality. One could easily imagine some kind of nice developments in this world, and I hope there will be!

The action, which evolves by spurts (as most of the job is about waiting, preparing and tiding) is quite good, reminding me often about the excellent series "Lockwood and co" by Jonathan Stroud. A mix of thorough preparations, specialised magical weapons, courage, quick thinking, mutual assistance and sheer luck.

What I liked most in this book, which is a sensitive point for me, is characters' development, which was. The main characters were real persons, eluding all the stereotypes and clichés so frequently encountered in so many books, people with  background stories which were actually affecting them along the story. I especially liked the heroine, Laura, a very normal person, likeable, competent and courageous but always in a credible kind of way. She may be petty sometimes, but is never unkind and tries to better a nicer person - she's young and still maturing.

Indeed one of the main theme is about self-affirmation, especially when the entourage, even persons well-meant, trie to prevent you to do what you want with your own life. The relationship between Laura and her aunt is especially subtle in this way.

In a general manner, characters are never caricatured, being slowly nuanced. Good characters make half of a good read for me, and as the story was also very good...  the book was a hit for me! I really hope that the sequel will be out soon - a sequel clearly implied by the end of the story which, if neatly wrapped up, suggests some nice future developments.

"City of Broken Magic" is a book I recommend to all readers who like stories with personality and credible characters, with no gratuitous violence, stories about friendship and family ties, stories which don't yield to the pressure of genres' diktats. It's a debut novel, and it shows a little bit, that's true. But I will take anytime a good and personal story, even greenish, rather than a perfectly controlled conventional bland one!

3.5. I had a little bit of trouble following this story. I love a good fantasy, paranormal with a twist but for some reason this was hard to get in to some parts of it. Laura found herself in the middle of death, mystery and monsters. The man that showed her everything she knew was not easy to get along with but what happens when he is no longer in the picture. Thank you Netgalley for giving the chance to read this book.