This was a decidedly odd read that I weirdly really enjoyed.

It’s been a really long time since I read anything about a criminal underworld and this one really hit the spot. From the writing to the world building Adrian Tchaikovsky has as usual delivered.

The book covered some heavy social themes, poverty being key amongst them and it made for a heavy read. I spent the weekend after I finished reading the most lighthearted books just to balance it out.

I do think I’ll be buying a physical copy of this one.

Thank you to HOZ for providing me with a digital arc.

A veritable heap of characters - but each memorable, distinct, and even when flawed and unlikeable added to the story. And an impressive world build, with layers and history without feeling like a textbook!
This was a deep dive into the tensions, emotions, history and present of a city made of so many parts.

Rating 2.5 stars

City of Last Chances was too slow a pace, too many threads and characters which made it confusing at times, unnecessary romance thrown in to a couple of lines and an ending that was disappointing.

I enjoyed the idea of the occupiers wanting everything perfect and the mysterious Anchorwood forest which leads to other realms.

Whilst I wanted to reach the end and i did a month and a half after starting it, overall didn't do it for me. Though I do like the cover.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

This is my fourth book by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and my first of his fantasy books. I thoroughly enjoyed it! City of Last Chances has a lot I love in fantasy: multiple POVs, compelling world-building with complex political dynamics, characters who are ethically ambiguous at best, and and a significant element of strangeness. Tchaikovsky has created a great ensemble case of characters, perhaps none of whom are straightforwardly likeable but many of whom I was really interested in. This is absolutely a fantasy book, with elements of magic, fantastical technologies, and mysterious portals between worlds, but the institutions and factions moving against each other were what interested me most. The dynamics between the regime established by the colonizing Palleseen in Illmar — including, to name a few, the School of Correct Erudition, School of Correct Appreciation, and School of Correct Speech — as well as the resistance groups (Shrikes, Vultures, Herons) and workers’ organizations (the Siblingries) were the most compelling aspect of the story for me. Illmar itself also comes alive on the page, and the plot contained enough twists to keep my interest while unfolding gradually. Tchaikovsky has helpfully provided a list of characters and factions at the beginning of the book — this is the kind of fantasy that warrants this inclusion, with many characters and factions to keep track of. Definitely recommend.

Content warnings: murder, violence, death, gore (though not especially graphic), execution by hanging, colonization, police brutality, war, injury detail

*Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus / AdAstra for providing an ARC in exchange for this review*.

2.5 stars. The worldbuilding was intense, and I thought at times it was a bit chaotic to follow. It's ambitious to be sure, but I do not think it worked for me. It's also quite long, coming in at around 500 pages. I have to be honest and say that I was a bit bored.

A complex read set in a intriguing, very detailed world. Each chapter is from the pov from a different character. Halfway through the book it all starts coming together, but as a reader you really struggle to get there. Because the large cast of characters makes it in the beginning difficult to follow the plot. Overall an epic fantasy but not the easiest one to read.

I got this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was incredibly hard to read and retain information for me. I was disappointed in my reading experience because of it. It’s all my own personal taste though, the storyline and characters were fabulous, i just felt like I was reading a college course book where I needed to write essays afterwards

Picture a city under occupation and on the verge of revolution. Imagine the streets teeming with discontent and bubbling with anger. Delve into each shadowed alcove and underground lair to discern who will light the first match and set fire to the masses, urging them to overrule the Palleseen regime.

This book was one I had ridiculously high hopes for and may have had my expectations too highly placed. I remained impressed by the rich world that was developed and intrigued by the criminal workings, elite rule, and struggling masses within it. I did, however, feel a little distanced from many of the principal characters, for some reason, bonding more with their many plights than with their individual personalities. This did not ruin my overall enjoyment but I merely found it to be unlike the book I had predicted I would read.

No-one can doubt the sheer brilliance of this creation, however. It is a dark and lush tale, bubbling over with emotion and where each page is marked by some tragedy or is home to anger and resentment. I loved seeing how the individuals, from all walks of life, made this city their home and sought to transform it into something other than what is currently is.

I was disappointed in City of Last Chances as it seemed to be a re-hashing of some of Mr. Tchaikovsky 's other works.

Many Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the digital review copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
Tchaikovsky’s writing is so immersive, you feel like you step into another world and are swept away by a hundred different stories, each vying for attention, and while this is exhilarating it can also be incredibly confusing. There are so many complex characters, each with different backstories, different views, and different religions that it can be hard to keep up. This really took away from the main plot of the book for me, that by 75% I had no idea what was happening, and this is a long book. I’m not going to say I enjoyed this book very much because honestly, it felt like pulling teeth at one point, but I’m glad that I finished it.

The city of Ilmar is alive. The occupying forces of the Palleseen have bolstered the number of inhabitants, adding another weight to strain the people within. The list of forces exerting pressure on the people of Ilmar is ever growing. The suffocating grip of the criminal underground, the lurking madness of the lost district, the local natives of the forests nearby, the rebellion pushing back from within, all just waiting for a single spark.

Politics, magic, criminals, rebellions, creatures, this book has it all. In “City of Last Chances” we get to see many points of view, with a seemingly endless cast of characters from a multitude of backgrounds. And all in a world rich with history, traditions, culture clashes with the occupiers, and magical lore.

But in all this it becomes less and less clear where it is all headed. I never quite found my flow with this book, to the point I felt it was more of a grind than a journey. The writing is incredible but it’s such a deep and complex world that it took every ounce of concentration to get through a single page.
Any other book and I would have quit, but Tchaikovsky writes in such detail that I felt I was cheating myself if I didn’t at least try to absorb it all. Because of these conflicting feelings I am torn with how to rate it. The writing was astounding and the world with its detailed characters gives it 5/5. But my personal enjoyment was low and I felt it was a trial to get through which lowers it to a 3/5 if I am being generous.

I am now at a point where I think I might have outgrown my love for fantasy and science fiction. However, right when I think that I stumble into something that is just amazing, something like T.J. Klune's newest book: In the Lives of Puppets. I felt I was in for that exact sort of treat when I opened and started reading City of Last Chances. However, in the end, I just never connected with this story. I like the use of different perspectives to tell the story but found that I just didn't like these characters., even when they would show up in later chapters. Tchaikovsky knows how to build a world like few others, filled with monsters and general weirdness that are brought to life with beautiful prose. Because of this, I think my dislike is purely a component of my reading choices changing. This is a book that many will (rightfully so) love, I just find that it is no longer my cup of tea.

That Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of the most relevant scifi and fantasy authors of our time there is no doubt. But in every book he releases the bar gets higher and his quality gets to a new level. It is astounding that he can keep writing so many books, and all of them being so damn good. I was completely in awe with this one, the worldbuilding, the lovely characters and the great pacing. Also, the cover is absolutely gorgeus.

This book was wonderful! I loved the characters, deeply flawed and unlikeable as most of them are, and the pacing was perfect. I especially loved watching all of the characters weave through each other's lives so seamlessly. Even with such a huge cast, nothing felt forced. I do wish the magic system was explained more, especially since there seemed to be so many different systems at work. I would love to see more books set in this world - the author has really set up a potential universe here and I really hope this isn't a standalone.

This book really has it all: political intrigue, rebellion, demon summoning, rogues trying to out-rogue each other, complex characters & webs of affiliation, even cranky old gods. I really, really enjoyed this book.

This was long, a lot of book. During the earlier parts I did think it could have been tightened up a lot, to keep the action going at a slightly faster pace, and to keep the reader's attention. Or this reader, anyway, as I do like action.
However, later on in the book I was much more happy with the pace, and as we knew the characters, motivations and surroundings, things seemed to keep my attention better. Good marks for originality - some great ideas - but I thought it could have been 100 pages less and still just as good.
I know this author does often produce long books, which is his right, but some just seem longer than others!

I am sorry to say that this is a rare miss for me from this author. If you’ve followed me for any amount of time you know that I love Tchaikovsky, but I had to DNF this book around 40%. The writing style is just so esoteric, and it lacks the accessibility (albeit complex) that his other works have. It reads very much like 1800s Russian literature, and that is just not my thing. I’m still giving the book 3 stars; just because it didn’t work for me doesn’t mean I think it’s a bad book.

Thank you to NetGalley & Head of Zeus for this advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

4.5 stars.
Oppression. Political intrigue. Colonization. Religion. Poverty. Bigotry. Magic. Demons. Worker's rights. Crime. Revolution. Wrongful incarceration. These are all a part of this story by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Ilmar has been under occupation by neighbouring Pallasand. The Palleseen, or Pals as they are colloquially known, have a mania for perfection, and after “perfecting” themselves, feel every other nation needs perfecting, too, and began a crusade, expanding outwards to neighbouring countries. They destroyed Allorwen, sending scores of refugees into Ilmar before rolling into Ilmar itself.

Tchaikovsky kicks off the story with the death of a corrupt Pal official as he and his party are making their way through the Anchorwood, a portal to lands beyond Ilmar that require a magical ward and an Indweller to open the way. At the same time, there is a gathering for a high stakes game in the bar beside the Anchorwood; the game breaks up immediately when it's discovered the corrupt official is murdered in the wood, and that his magical ward was stolen by one of the now fleeing gamblers. The theft, news of the party’s deaths, and subsequent scattering of players sets off the simmering tensions of Ilmar against the occupying Paleseen and existing bigotry against all foreigners and refugees in the city.

The arrest of a professor at the university and the frantic search for the missing ward by both the Palleseen and the various gamblers sets off the simmering tensions in the city: 1) Students in the university want to make stories and rousing words of professors a reality and take an actual stand against their oppressors. 2) The Ilmar factory workers are getting increasingly fed up, while the wealthy families of the city are scared the workers will become violent (after they’ve been oppressing them for years.) All these situations begin snowballing into bigger calamities, haphazard plots, barricades, arrests, shootings and deaths.


Though it’s been many years since I last read any Russian lit, this story felt like a big, sprawling Russian epic to me. The pervasive sense of futility, and a certain melancholic and fatalistic acceptance of the oppression and accompanying black humour felt so familiar to me.

In this big novel, Tchaikovsky follows the gamblers, students, criminals, a factory foreman, a couple of Palleseen officials, and a priest who literally has a small god plaguing him, showing how their places in the city make them pivotal or puts them in the wrong place at the wrong time, as Ilmar begins fighting back against the Palleseen. In addition to the dark situation all the characters find themselves in, there is also humour, and sudden violent death. I thought I'd find it hard to get through this book when I started, but found myself loving the characters and their many ways to oppose the oppressive regime of the Pals.

I felt like there was much more story that could be told by the time I finished, but also felt that the ending was satisfying,

Thank you to Netgalley and to Head of Zeus for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This story unfolds via multiple viewpoints, with italicised inserts in semi-omniscient point of view. So as the situation within the city steadily deteriorates, while we follow the fortunes of a handful of its citizens from various walks of life, there are also short sections covering a number of characters who only make fleeting appearances and then are gone, not to return. It takes significant technical skill to successfully pull off this type of structure without either losing the reader’s interest or sympathy. Fortunately, Tchaikovsky has that skill – to the extent that I was hooked throughout, even though this is far from my favourite narrative style.

What makes it work is that Ilmar is a fascinating society. In many ways, it’s all too familiar for those of us who studied the likes of Manchester and London during the Industrial Revolution, with the same wretched working conditions for far too many of the population. Then Tchaikovsky adds a twist that demons are also enslaved within factories by the kings of the Underworld, contracted to use their mighty strength and stamina to power the machines that are turning out uniforms for the invading soldiers. For Ilmar is also a city under occupation by a totalitarian regime that is obsessed with bringing Perfection to an imperfect world. And of course, the only way to do that is to conquer all those imperfect states and corral their culture, religion and way of life to the striving for Perfection, right down to altering their language.

In addition to the conquered aristocrats that in theory are running much of the city much of time, despite the occupation – there is also a powerful underclass of criminal gangs that are constantly fighting for supremacy. And one of the places where that battle particularly plays out is in the deserted areas of the city, where not even the occupying Palleseens venture called The Reproach. Ilmar was originally built far too close to a vast forest where vicious, enchanted beings live and the then ruling family made a dynastic pact with the denizens of this wood, which turned them dangerously peculiar. So they were slaughtered in favour of the Duke. But instead of doing the decent thing and fading decorously into the history books, the court of the ruling family is still… alive. And anyone wandering in the wrong part of the woods at the wrong time is apt to be subsumed into their court, to dance until they die, while inhabited by the consciousness of ancient, aristocratic family members.

This could so easily have been a rather charming, fey read. It isn’t. This world is peopled by folks eking out a living in a dangerous society, who have survived by putting themselves first. The powerplays amongst those running the city are all about personal advancement over the wellbeing of those they are responsible for – the Palleseens aren’t too fussy about killing Ilmar’s citizens, anyway. So don’t expect a cast of characters who are either wholly good or bad – everyone is doing the best they can to stay alive, except for a handful carried away by the old stories of glory, who want to see the end of the current occupation. I found it a riveting read, that – despite the grim situation and casual violence – isn’t remotely dreary. I suspect Tchaikovsky’s vivid descriptions, strong control of his narrative drive and flashes of dark humour has a lot to do with that.

As ever when completing one of Tchaikovsky’s books, I came away from this one thinking a lot about the themes of social injustice, the nature of good and evil and what it takes to live a decent life in difficult times. Highly recommended for those who enjoy their fantasy layered with social commentary amidst a vibrantly depicted society. While I obtained an audiobook arc of City of Last Chances from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
10/10

If you are in the market for a superbly written, complex and intricately woven standalone fantasy, with a large cast of stand-out characters, world-building that is metered out at a brilliant pace and a plot that will keep you effortlessly intrigued throughout, then this will be one to read.

The book focuses on the city of Ilmar, where there's always been a darkness. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse. Something, some bad decision or poor chance, will lead to the downfall of Ilmar.

Unlike Tchaikovsky's sci-fi offerings, it took me a little while get fully invested with the happenings in City of Last Chances. There are a few odd happenings, and the city is full of strange and often unlikable characters in a decidedly unpleasant city. All waiting for a tiny spark that'll set off a chain of disasters. Despite that, it's a nice change of pace to a lot of fantasy books, as there's no hero. No one to really root for. You're waiting for a disaster thinking that it's not undeserved.

The story touches on a lot of subjects. Colonialism and oppression. Exploitation and subjugation. Naive youths and calculating greedy adults. You aren't going to get the well-deserved feel-good moments or comeuppance for all the bad people. It's fantasy, but there's a touch of realism in knowing that not everything will turn out okay. There's not always a good guy. Sometimes, there are just bad people making bad choices, and it'll all come crashing down.

If you're a fan of books having big payoffs, then City of Last Chances probably isn't the book for you. You're right in the middle of it people looking out for their own interests or going for the lesser of evils when it comes to choices. They're not all flawed characters, but they're certainly not good. Greyish, I suppose you'd say. Characters are often shown in unflattering ways, and the constantly changing POVs make the story a hard follow at times. But the further you're dragged into the world, the more you're taken in and can weave the POVs together.

City of Last Chances is an ambitious book epic fantasy book that contains many quality elements and memorable characters. Some aren't memorable, but I'm not entirely sure that they are all meant to be memorable. It's not all about the characters, so not all the attention should be on them. It's about the city, too. The ending is satisfying, and as this is a standalone epic fantasy, it all wraps up in a rewarding manner. I'm not sure I need more, so I'm happy to see it wrapped up as it was.