Well that was a roller-coaster. The City of Zirdai is book two of Maria V Snyder's Archives of the Invisible Sword trilogy.

While this book kicked off a little slower than The Eyes of Tamburah, I actually ended up prefering the story! While the beginin was quite slow, one the action started it did not stop!

I loved that we got to know the supporting characters a bit more. In book one I felt like the only person we really got to know was Shyla and I kept getting lost in the story because I didn't know who anyone was. I found the story in The City of Zirdai much more enjoyable and easy to follow having a better idea of who everyone was!

It also made the betrayal so much more painful! Just when I thought I knew where the story was going, BOOM. PLOT TWIST! It is pretty rare for me to be as shocked as I was for some of these twist and turns and it really kept me guessing!

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any Maria V Snyder fan! Bring on The King of Koraha!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Australia for providing me with this eARC.

Wow. What a fascinating world. Once again Maria has created a world with depth and character that I can get lost in for a while. This book comes with all the twists and turns you can expect from Maria. However there were a couple of sections that almost moved too quickly and I had to reread to follow the leaps in logic or action sequences as characters sprang into action with little description explaining why, what or how. Overall I enjoyed this book and look forward to the final installment.

An addictive sequel that's filled with adventure, magic and sand

What it's about
This is the sequel to The Eyes of Tamburah, so if you haven't read book one yet then I recommend you stop reading now.

In this new fantasy series by Snyder we enter a world of sand, magic and conniving leaders. With Shyla having awoken the Eyes in the previous book, she's now lumped with all the responsibility of leading the Invisible Sword, hoping to overthrow the despots ruling Zirdai.

What I enjoyed
I find one of the best things about reading a Snyder book to be is her writing that really sucks you into the story and doesn't let you go until the very end.

The story itself is a whirlwind of adventure that is unputdownable as we follow Shyla's troublesome plight to make some changes for the good. With Rendor at her side as well as some other key characters, like Jayden and Mojag, we explore more hidden wonders of this fantastical world.

The easy-to-read style of writing makes this so refreshing to read if you just need a pick-me-up book to polish off in a few sittings. Plus nothing is ever simple when it comes to romance in a Snyder book. So get ready for some tumultuous times between Shyla and Rendor.

Whilst one main focus is on the growth of Shyla's character, I didn't find her to make leaps and bounds of progress, and she still has a long way to go with magical training. But I found the action of the story to make up for what we potentially lack in a character arc for the leading role. Sometimes I just want to slap some self-confidence into Shyla so she can start trusting herself and get on with things!

Final thoughts
A great continuance of a unique fantasy world, and I'm certainly very excited for book three to come out! I cannot wait to see what happens next because, of course, things left on a cliff-hanger.

Again, my fault for requesting this book before knowing it was a sequel. Anyway, I binged read the first book to get to this.

𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈 𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The City of Zirdai
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Maria V Synder
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Young Adult, fantasy
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

𝐆𝐔𝐒𝐇:
• Loved the setting and unique world-building (the underground city was fun to explore).
• Shyla, the protagonist, was fun to follow. I enjoyed witnessing her growth.
• Engaging writing style and good pacing

𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐏𝐄:
• Can be considered slow-paced for certain readers

𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫: fans of YA fantasy (especially desert settings), a fan of the author

𝐂𝐖: violence, death

Thank you to @NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 𝐌𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠: 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐣𝐨𝐲.𝐜𝐨𝐦.

Another great book with Shyla Sun-Kissed , a continuation of the first book The Eyes of Tamburah.

Again I loved the pace of this book and how the story evolves, how Shyla grows and becomes yet a stronger person. I love that some of the characters have come along with her in this new book and that this book explored more magic, more dilemmas and even a bit of romance.

Well written, this books draws you in and keeps you reading as there is always something happening. It is fantasy at it's best and a great sequel to the first book.

I'm a little conflicting on how to review this book because on the one hand, I took literally forever to read it. It took me a month and a half, and I know that it's not the book's fault, despite it topping in at over 500 pages, because I was having a really hard time finishing anything that wasn't an audiobook at the time.

I struggled to read the ARC, for reasons unknown to myself, but since Snyder is one of my favourite authors I knew I would be buying a hard copy anyway. And when I got the hard copy and could dedicate some serious time to it, the pages really flew  by, because it's very readable. The writing is not out of this world gorgeous, but it's easily digestible; it's got the interesting worldbuilding of the city build deep underground to protect citizens from a killing sun; it's got a romance I dig, because the two characters and just really into each other, respect each other, and dammit, they just want to snuggle, and that's really nice.

And I REALLY liked Rendor because he's basically a redeemed bad guy, and he's a big brooding barbarian with a heart of putty for Shyla, and those two things are legit like my CRACK I mean come on, he's basically my husband in fiction form. It's absolutely my favourite kind of love interest, even more than the brooding yet love-struck assassin.

I just love a big brute who is gentle and kind to his lady. They make me weak in the knees.

However the book also kind of suffers from middle book syndrome. What's the plot? Basically Shyla runs around and solves everyone's problems. It's incredibly fast paced: it feels like Shyla bounces around solving problem after problem, her magical powers increasing to the point of near-invulnerability (and I've spoken before about how Snyder characters tend to become overpowered to the point where everything is just so easy for them, and that's even the exact reason Yelena [spoiler]lost her magic in the second half of the Chronicles of Ixia[/spoiler]). She constantly pushes herself to near exhaustion because absolutely everything is a priority and only she can solve all of the problems: but the issue is that she also solves them really easily, often just by thinking of something that no one else in the history of ever has been able to think. It's also the same issue I had with Ara in Sentinels of the Galaxy, in that she solved her problems just by happening to think the right thing.

While I felt like The Eyes of Tamburah was kind of different to other Snyder fantasies because it didn't really focus so much on the magic, in this book, it's all about magic all the time. In the previous book, you could feasible even argue for most of it that magic was just a myth: well, in this book, it's front and centre and the characters use it all the time. It's like Book 1, no magic: Book 2, only magic. In City of Zirdai, magic uses YOU.

I also had a problem with Shyla learning to use her magic consisting of, "So I can do this thing, maybe that means I can also do the complete opposite." If Shyla thinks it, then she can do it. Why she hasn't tried to fly yet, I don't know. Oh wait, she actually did that already in Book 1.


While the plot was a little haphazard, there were a few twists, and I was really pleased to see that there was no cliffhanger at the end of this book.  I appreciate authors who do this, because sometimes other authors write cliffhangers that consist of simply cutting off the story too early and not actually providing the audience with a satisfying ending, with the aim of selling the next book. In The City of Zirdai, everything was wrapped up very neatly under the story arch of this book, but there are more adventures yet to come in the next. I definitely appreciate that.

Ohhhh, but guys, the thing is that while I was reading it, I was REALLY enjoying it, because that's what Maria Snyder does to me, and really, that's what you want in a book! So by no means was this perfect (except Rendor, HELLO!), but I did really genuinely enjoy it, and I'm really looking forward to Shyla conquering the world in Book 3: The King of Koraha.

The very long awaited sequel to The Eyes of Tamburah is finally here! In this instalment, Shyla is safely ensconced with some people who believed in her and wanted to make changes in the city, as she does. People are suffering and it is time to shake up those in power; problem is they are hidden away and very poor in resources. And it seems, there is also a mole...

I loved the strong female protagonists written by this author. They are all always such empowering and inspiring characters; definitely kick-ass ones! Shyla grew to be such a one in this novel. The romance is always so lovely with male protagonists who are protective but totally supportive of her having to fight her own battles.

What really got me in this novel is the big twist in the middle of it. I mean, I don't know who feel betrayed most, Shyla or ME! Indeed, Maria V. Snyder lives up to her villainous author reputation. My heart hasn't recovered yet even as the ending offers such beautiful healing. There's something else in the air though... book 3 is coming and as this particular issue appears settled in this book, I'm not quite sure what will be in book 3 but I'm excited for it.

My thanks to Harlequin Australia for ecopy of book via NetGalley in exchange of my honest thoughts

The City of Zirdai picks up after the events of The Eyes of Tamburah and BOY did they pick up. Maria V Snyder did a wonderful job of keeping me on the edge of my seat but buckled in enough to not feel like I was going to go over the edge.

Shyla's growth throughout her journey was immense and I was so impressed with her during the book. I don't want to comment too much on the romance in the book, as this is fraught with a few plot events and I don't want to spoil anything in this book.

I absolutely loved Mojag and Gurice. Their interactions throughout this book with Shyla were some of the highlights of the experience and I hope we continue to see more of them in book 3.

*I was provided an ebook from NetGalley along with a physical copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, however I ended up purchasing the audiobook on release date and read from a mixture of the three.

I loved the Eyes of Tamburah but sadly The City of Zirdai fell short for me.

*SPOILER ALERT*

There are so many characters that get a name and maybe a profession, but that's it. None of the side characters or villains felt fleshed out enough or had motives that were believable. The first 60% were extremely slow paced and repetitive with hardly any action.

We already knew they have water shortages. We already knew people get tortured and sold out. It feels we're only following Shyla around collecting torques, trying to be a good leader and dealing with her relationship problems. Too much talking and thinking and not enough showing.

Jayden made the most sense to me of all of the characters, redemption arc aside at the end.
I didn't feel a thing when people got killed or died.

After some twists the villains conveniently kill each other off or fall down a cliff at the end.
I get that this is a YA novel and you don't necessarily want to dirty the hands of your MCs, but I felt a bit cheated of justice/revenge, especially when Shyla's main goal was to kill the water prince herself since the beginning.

Altogether I'm sad I didn't enjoy it as much as the first book in the novel, because I loved the world building and desert 🏜️ treasure hunt feel of it.

Thank you Harper Collins Australia 🦘 and netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, due to illness and recurring medical issues, I have been unable to read and review this book. It looks incredible though, and I give my best wishes to Ms Snyder and the team at Harlequin Australia for a successful publishing season!

Thank you Harlequin Australia and Netgalley for an ARC for my honest review.
This is book 2 in The Archives of the Invisible Sword with book 1 being The Eyes of Tamburah. I absolutely loved this book. I read it in one sitting and I loved every second. Maria V Snyder has written a fantastic book that is captivating. I am really looking forward to reading more.

Another beautiful installment of this series which had me gripped from the very beginning. I just love the desert setting and how this world is full of people of colour. I was on the edge of my seat from the very beginning!

I received an e-ARC from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really want to rave about how much I enjoyed this, but I don't want to venture too far into spoiler territory, so I'm going to keep this review short and sweet.

The City of Zirdai was a fun, action-packed sequel to The Eyes of Tamburah. Told with Maria V. Snyder's signature style, the writing is completely addictive. I loved finding out more about the world, and the magic system.
I was happy that the romance didn't overtake the book, because I sometimes feel like it takes away from the plot.
There was also plenty of character development. This is where Snyder excels - she always manages to balance plot, character, and worldbuilding.

Highly recommend, and looking forward to the next instalment in the series (because damn, that cliffhanger!)

Maria V. Snyder is one of my favourite authors and this book just solidified that! The magic, the world, the characters. Everything was so captivating, as a second book, this didn't suffer from the second book syndrome. it was just as impactful as the first book!

If you're looking for a new favourite series this just might be the one!

Well, another Maria V Snyder book and another amazing read.

I have read every single book Maria has ever published and I have loved each and every one. I would buy her shopping list if I could, such is my love for her books and writing.

The City Of Zirdai (thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an electronic copy in exchange for an honest review) is a great follow up from The Eyes Of Tamburah and a novel filled with unique plots, exciting action and interesting characters.

Maria's novels always have an immense amount of action and absolutely zero 'filler', and The City Of Zirdai is no exception. So much action happens and so many exciting twists and turns occur, that I raced through this book as I usually do all of her novels. This series is so unique and so different to the majority of Young Adult novels out there today, that it creates a very exciting and intriguing feel to it when reading.

The magic system is fun and continually evolving, the pacing us fantastic and allows the reader to never be bored, the characters are changing and developing page by page, and the romance is sweet and very much a side event to the action, mystery and plot.

As someone who loves a good amount of romance in my fantasy novels, I felt there was slightly too little in this one for my tastes, however I know many people who this would be perfect as they don't like too much. I will say, though, that the first book in this series has a lot more romance and the enemies to lovers trope with the two main characters is great fun to read.

As is usual from Maria V Snyder, readers are left with a bit of a cliff-hanger at the end of the book to make us want the next instalment right away, but with enough cohesion and finalisation to feel happy with the ending.

4.25 stars

I love everything I‘ve ever read by Maria V Snyder, but I think this series is my favourite. The world that she has created is richly imagined, and nicely different to many standard fantasy world-building tropes.
As usual, Snyder’s writing style is engaging and the plot moves along at a good pace. City of Zirdai is a solid ‘book two’, with wonderful character development and an expansion of the world, and the stakes. Our protagonist, Shyla Sun-Kissed, is also well written. I love following her journey, both in terms of the plot and how she develops as a character. She’s trying her best, but still makes mistakes, she loves and wants and feels the weight of her burdens, and... gosh she really needs a nice relaxing holiday!
All in all, I highly recommend this series for anyone who loves fantasy YA!

I confess I finished this book a bit over a week ago, but have been procrastinating on writing a review. Thanks/sorry to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

The City of Zirdai is the second in a planned trilogy by Ms Snyder. The series is set in a really fascinating world where the surface is largely uninhabitable for periods of the day (which is measured in angles, a pretty neat device) when the sun is at it's peak. Life is lived underground and cities have dozens of levels, with the wealthiest parts of society living lowest down - protected from the heat and closer to the water source. Unsurprisingly, water is a precious commodity in this environment and is ruthlessly controlled by the Water Prince. Who is, not a spoiler, a bit of a despot.

This book continues the story of Shayla and her experiences with learning about her emerging talents and the challenges of running an organisation. They quest to deal with the injustices rampant in Zirdai. And that's all I can say about this book. I love the setting, but the plot and characters don't live up to the world Ms Snyder has created. I could not tell you what really happened in the plot, or why. Also, I struggled to remember any of the characters, and there are a lot. None stood out as fully formed, even Shayla our heroine was largely two dimensional. Not a real spoiler, but someone dies towards the end in what was clearly intended to be a sad and meaningful moment, but I could not for the life of me remember who they were. I felt that way about pretty much all of the characters. Shayla frequently mentioned her missing friend, Banqui, but again, could not remember who he was from the first book and just felt a little irritated when he was mentioned.

Despite the slightly harsh words above, I will read the third in the series. I like the setting so much that I hope the other issues can be pulled together for the final chapter of the story. Whatever that story is.

I did not enjoy The City of Zirdai overall. There were parts of the book I enjoyed, but I think the book was conceived far more as book two in a series, than as a story in its own right.
The characters in this novel often seemed poorly motivated. The society of the Invisible Sword could have been a high point of the book—I’m a big fan of the found family trope and I think the Invisible Sword could have been that. However, perhaps because I didn’t know the characters already, I found their interactions to be surface level and unrealistic.
Shyla was not an interesting main character, and I thought her motivations were usually weak. Her relationships never rang true, and her emotional struggles were difficult to empathise with. The magic and spiritual system of the world was hazy and at times, overly convenient, again undermining the tension of the book and ability for the plot to matter.
Jayden was a well-written character, and I thought the friction he had with Shyla was believable and interesting. I also liked his interactions with Mojag, and thought their interactions were heart-warming. Rendor’s character arc was also interesting, and I wish he and Jayden had had more to do with the plot.
Some of the social issues covered in the book could have been interesting and thought provoking, done correctly, but instead the guards and priests that served as supporting antagonists never seemed believable as real people. The priestess and the prince likewise weren’t fleshed out very much in this novel, and as I have not read book one, you may struggle to see them as compelling antagonists. This made the abuses of power, bias towards the ‘sun kissed’ (the issue of having what seems to be a blond girl get discriminated against for her hair colour is something I don’t even want to get into) and struggles to form a functioning government instead seem like flimsy reasons to progress the plot.
There were quite a few twists that were genuinely unexpected towards the end of the book, but as I had no real investment in the characters or seeing their goals met, I didn’t really care. The book was slow at times, and even when the plot was fast-paced, I found myself getting bored and having to struggle to want to continue. I have no doubt that I would have enjoyed this book more had I read book one, but judged on its own merits, I do not think The City of Zirdai holds up.
If you are interested in reading Maria V Snyder’s work, I very much enjoyed her Study novels, and her Healer series was also one I enjoyed. If you read The Eyes of Tamburah and enjoyed it, chances are you’ll appreciate learning what happens to the characters in The City of Zirdai.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange of a fair review.

Yet another extremely well written title by MVS, where world building, character development and the story itself combine to make for an immersive, thoroughly enjoyable reader experience.

In this title we see Shyla establishing her leadership of the Invisible Swords, expanding their operations and continuing in her quest to free the people of the city of Zirdai from its corrupt rulers.

ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

What a wild ride! That was quite a sequel I must admit and so much better than The Eyes of Tamburah. Although this book was much slower than the first one, it was totally worth it in the end with an ending like that!

The book follows the events of its predecessor where we see Shyla take on the responsibility of being the leader of the Invisible Sword. We see her developing her powers and fighting for justice and the freedom of her people. For the first 300-or-so pages I found that these scenes where we learn more about Shyla's capabilities with the eyes to be very dragged out. Sure we do see a lot of betrayal, a lot of loyalties shown and some new friendships but I just wanted the real action to begin. That action didn't come until much later in the story but it was definitely worth the wait.

I thought there was more character development in general and Shyla seemed to be less power-hungry than the was alluded to in The Eyes of Tamburah. Although I understood the fact that she was trying to save her people, the eye stabbing in the first book (while important to the narrative) did make me believe she was doing it for power rather than to save her world. In City of Zirdai that scene was mentioned a lot but Shyla seemed to be less power-driven and proven herself more as a leader.

In terms of romance, I still wasn't fully convinced on the relationship between Shyla and Rendor (especially since I was shipping her with Jayden the whole time). I reckon that with due time I might like him but maybe with another book he might grow on me indefinitely. I just need a bit more convincing.

With the whole story structure, I found that (as mentioned previously) it was pretty slow to begin with and I wasn't entirely invested in the story at that point. Past page 350 it started to become more fast paced and I started enjoying myself a whole lot more as the plot was coming together. I was very happy with how it all tied up and thought it was a pretty good conclusion to a great duology.

All in all, I enjoyed this book. It was so much better than The Eyes of Tamburah and I found myself really enjoying how the story came together at the end.

ACTUAL RATING: 3 STARS

CITY OF ZIRDAI: https://www.amazon.com.au/City-Zirdai-Archives-Invisible-Sword-ebook/dp/B083G7481X