This book is unlike anything I’ve read and I’m still not quite sure what I think of it. It was an incredibly slow read, but I did enjoy it. The writing is very dense, but the style is unique. It was very interesting to see this complex plot play out through the eyes of so many characters and in so many little moments.

It was a little hard to keep track of all the characters and I was surprised at how many perspectives we read from. In the first 25%, there were no repeat chapter perspectives. The characters show up in other chapters and it was interesting to see them through the other characters' eyes.

I’m very interested in checking out Tchaikovsky’s other works.

Thank you to NetGalley, Head of Zeus/AdAstra Books, and Adrian Tchaikovsky for an e-arc of City of Last Chances in exchange for an honest review.

"Thank you Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

"City of Last Chances" by Adrian Tchaikovsky follows many characters in the city of Ilmar that has been colonized by a "superior race" who have outlawed old religion for new religion.

I would give "City of Last Chances" by Adrian Tchaikovsky a 3-star review because, 1; the cover is gorgeous 2; the premise is interesting 3; I think how each chapter is a new character perspective works really well with the story line but 4; I just couldn't get into this one

City of Lost Chances was one of my most anticipated NetGalley approvals. I love Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time and Children of Ruin and I was so looking forward to jumping into fantasy. This book explores a world on the brink of government overthrow, caught in turmoil with occupation and censure.

Unfortunately the detailed and extensive exploration of politics didn’t thrill me the same way an exploration of science did. I really struggled to become immersed in the story with all the jumping around between characters and ultimately couldn’t make it until the end.

I’m one of those that was bored out of my mind in Kings Landing and lived for Danaeyrs, Arya, and John Snow storylines in A Song of Ice and Fire, so I probably would have realized this wasn’t for me if I had looked more closely! If you prefer historical fiction and politics especially surrounding political unrest, this is for you!

This book has a pretty unique structure, whereby you follow many different perspectives in this city, from different woks of life. This added an additional layer of depth, but also made things quite dense and took time getting used to.
Tchaikovsky's writing style is great here, and there are some emotional moments that really connected with me….⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My thanks to Head of Zeus - Ad Astra for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘City of Last Chances’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

While I have a number of Tchaikovsky’s science fiction novels and novellas, I hadn’t to date read any of his works of fantasy. So, I was excited to read his latest, heralded as his ‘triumphant return to fantasy’.

It is a long, complex novel in which Tchaikovsky creates a portrait of an occupied city on the verge of revolution. For the past three years Ilmar, known as the City of Last Chances, has been under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation. Ilmar’s diverse population also has to contend with the influence of a powerful criminal underworld, the oppressive hold of its factory owners, and the crippling legacy of poverty. For good measure there’s also an ancient curse on the city.

There has always been a darkness to Ilmar as at its heart is the Anchorwood, a primeval grove of trees, where when the moon is full a portal opens to strange and distant shores. Some say that Ilmar is the worst place in the world and the gateway to a thousand worse places.

I was grateful for Tchaikovsky’s opening lists of the factions of Ilmar and the Palleseen Occupation as well as a handy Dramatis Personae.

As always Tchaikovsky’s world building was excellent though the movement between its multiple character viewpoints, the competing political factions, and the often dense prose did demand a close reading. It wasn’t a novel to zip through.

Amidst the dark fantasy were flashes of humour, including some bawdy moments. I also enjoyed the portrayal of the various gods, including some insect ones. Tchaikovsky really seems to like bugs.

Overall, an intriguing, intelligent political fantasy that proved a satisfying and immersive reading experience.

Fans of Daniel Abraham or Anthony Ryan will love visiting Ilmar, under occupation, where dangerous and contagious magic runs riot at the edges and underground and where the invaders seek to control the people of the city and their beliefs. Every single character draws you in, makes you feel for them, see things from their perspective - you want them all to win, even the ones you don't like! I really hope there is a book 2 because I can't wait to see what happens.

I think there is a theory that while science fiction is a literature focussed on change and development, fantasy is, rather, focussed on restoring what has been lost. "Space: the Final Frontier" vs "Return of the King", or something like that, with a good outcome seen either as transformative progress, or regression to The Golden Age.

In his new novel City of Last Chances, Adrian Tchaikovsky creates a whole world poised on the knife edge between these alternatives. He introduces us to Ilmar, also known as the City of Bad Decisions, a place with the reputation of being a last refuge for the unlucky, the stateless, the desperate. (I'm reminded of the nickname for Oxford, "City of Lost Causes"). There are rumours of a way out - a gateway out of misery - but the price of passage is high, leaving most of the malcontents, runaways and displaced populations stuck in Ilmar, their unique and disparate cultures decaying on that great compost heap of a town.

The Ilmari themselves have their own problems, though, now being ruled by the Palleseen, who, recently invaded, hanged the Old Duke, made Ilmar part of their Sway, and set out imposing their ideas of perfection. (The Palleseen idea is a thing called 'The Perfecture', a glorious model society which all nations should want to be part of - those that won't sign up are clearly backwards, disruptive and sorely need to be brought to help).

The participants in this story are many and varied; among them are refugees who have settled in Ilmar (some after escaping from the Pels); factions among the Ilmari - most of whom are notionally part of a 'resistance', something Tchaikovsky shines a rather merciless spotlight on; and the Pels themselves. There are also hints of darker, older powers perhaps best alone. That gives a great many viewpoints including - to mention just a few - the last remaining believer in God; a man who's stepped out of another world where he was prepped for a merciless war, but who's lost his wife and is set only on finding here; an idealistic student radical; a foot soldier for the criminal gangs; a union organiser who's seen and suffered; and an cynical old academic who gives a nod to revolution in his classes while cutting deals with the Pels in the shadows.

That last is something of a theme here. The disparate rebel factions - students, aristocrats, thieves' syndicates and smugglers - have quite different views about how to free themselves from the Pels' yoke, and when a seemingly innocuous incident blows up into riot and uprising, nobody has a plan, or much of an idea how to proceed (apart from raking off all they can in the chaos). That unfolding response, and countermoves by the occupiers, forms the texture of this story, together with desperate attempts, by a number of the characters, to track down the missing artefact that sparked everything off. That's important, because an avenger seems to be hunting down all those who may have secured the treasure. The decisions made here, by everyone, will determine who lives and who dies as the flame of revolution spreads...

City of Last Chances is a weighty and absorbing book, one I'd place far, far away from the run of fantasy or SF. Tchaikovsky clearly isn't buying into that simplistic binary that I mentioned at the start. The past of Ilmar isn't a desirable state to be brought back, but no future looks bright either. Better perhaps to remain on that knife edge, maintaining a complex relationship with the Pels. But that takes a lot of work and has a cost. Perhaps it's easier just to bring out the banners from the days gone by?

Nor will you find heroes or villains here. More or less everyone is - as in real life - out for themselves (I'd exclude from that idealistic student Lemya) or at least heavily conflicted. Take that union leader, for example, Father Orvechin. He's focussed on improvements in the conditions of his workers and, in the longer term, perhaps the overthrow of the Pels. But the factory owners who oppress his people are native aristos, not Pels, and the factories are kept turning by demons who are themselves enslaved, oppressed workers - workers that Orvechin is willing to see kept in their bonds, because they're not his people, though he knows that one day this will haunt him.

This whole sense of Ilmar as a nest of collaboration, compromise and negotiation with power, and that maybe that is just about the best things can be, is revisited and reworked throughout the book. The Pels themselves are split into different blocs who are willing to cuts deals when it suits them. The aristocrats ('Armigers') desire one future, the siblingries (unions and workers' guilds) another. At times they cooperate, at others they don't. The same goes for the other actors here. Picture a giant game of repeated Prisoners' Dilemma, played out in real time, with magic, lost deities and demons thrown in too, and you get some idea of the complexity and fascination of this book.

That may make the story sound academic or dry, but it's really not. It's passionate, urgent and angry. Tchaikovsky's central theme of compromise and collusion is shot through it, pulling against and reinforcing individual motivation is countless ways, different for every character.While there are so many of these that one can't really anoint any as the focus, they are all intricately, convincingly realised and the business they are about gloriously integrated with the setting and the wider history that is sketched. There was only one point at which a particular strand seemed to me to jar - when a mysterious assassin, otherwise not included in the story, played a part on behalf of unknown employers whom we never hear any more about. Apart from that very brief interlude though, this book was a marvellous symphony of clashing goals, missing information and immediate danger that had me hooked throughout. I would strongly recommend it.

An epic fantasy with interesting characters and good pacing!

I enjoyed the worldbuilding as this is my first fantasy novel by this author. I did like the plot and how well rounded it was. Overall, a fun read but did pick up about halfway through!

Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for an e-arc!

I’ve enjoyed Adrian Tchaikovsky’s science fiction books so I was keen to see how his fantasy compared to this and was happy my request was approved by NetGalley for the arc of City Of Last Chances.
I received a copy of this book for a free and unbiased opinion.
This is a hard review to write. I didn’t really love the book as much as I thought I would ( although I didn’t dislike the book as much as I thought I would after I finished it either).
So, I’ll focus on the good first. The world-building is truly epic and expansive- The city of Ilmar and the surrounding cities( especially the city that has a fixed population and any child that doesn't meet the grade are evicted!) are the true core of the story. Ilmar is the place for people who have nowhere else to go and the writing captures it perfectly. The descriptions of the city and its people just highlight the last chance saloon of this city.
The city is occupied and the tensions between invaders imposing their culture and religion over the occupied people of Ilmar are beautifully described and ring true.

But there are far too many characters in the book and by the end, I couldn’t keep track of them and couldn’t really have a sense of them or their purpose, I found it hard to keep track of the plot and just felt a little lost by the end,
While I imagine fans of epic fantasy with plenty of characters and great world-building will love this book, it just wasn’t for me.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite authors so I was thrilled to be approved for this book. It's the first fantasy I have read by him and it won't be the last. Admittedly there were a lot of characters and factions to keep track of, but once I was about a third of the way in it all started to become familiar. As with the author's science fiction books, settings and world building are brilliant. I could really visualise what I was reading and I could certainly feel the general oppressiveness and unease that was so pervasive. The one thing I struggled with was feeling a connection with the characters. But I still greatly enjoyed the story and the writing, as usual, is lovely to read.

City of Last Chances was the first fantasy novel I’ve read by Tchaikovsky after falling in love with his science fiction. In a similar way to his other books, I was engrossed by his writing style and the world building, but occasionally struggled to follow events.

We enter a world of conflict, where unrest brews between residents and an invading force. Multiple narrators give us a thorough understanding of what’s going on: students dreaming of revolution; a professor putting his reputation first; shrewd businessmen; a priest with a God only he can see; factory workers… We’re introduced to all elements of this world.

The multiple characters work to establish the setting, but comes with a cost. The switch in narrators means it takes longer to appreciate the full picture of events. There’s a lot going on: an invading force; gods; a woodland that’s also a portal; and a city of the undead. For the first third of the book, it feels like trying to play catch up.

But once you get your head around it, you’re in for a heck of a ride. There’s growing tension, a fast-paced plot - despite the length of the book - and escalating danger from all directions. If you like impossible odds with characters that you root for from the beginning, then you’re going to love this.

City of Last Chances is a high-end fantasy, not for those wanting to dabble. If you’re ready for an epic adventure, this is the book for you.

CHARACTERS
🔲 mary-sue party
🔲 mostly 2D
🔲 great main cast, forgettable side characters
🔲 well-written
✅ complex and fascinating
🔲 hard to believe they are fictional

PLOT
🔲 you've already heard this exact story a thousand times
🔲 nothing memorable
✅ gripping
🔲 exceptional
🔲 mind=blown

WORLDBUILDING
🔲 takes place in our world
🔲 incoherent
🔲 OK
🔲 nicely detailed
✅ meticulous
🔲 even the last tree in the forest has its own story

ATMOSPHERE
🔲 nonexistent
🔲 fine
🔲 immersive
✅ you forget you are reading a book

PACING
🔲 dragging
✅ inconsistent
🔲 picks up with time
🔲 page-turner
🔲 impossible to put down

A fascinating story but goodness was it slow.

I have a hard time reviewing this book because while I think it was incredibly unique, it was still my least favourite read by the author so far.

Let's start with the good. Tchaikovsky's character work is still superb and honestly, considering how many different POVs this book deals with in so few pages it's truly impressive he managed to make them all so different and real. At times it felt like I was reading about the history of some foreign city and not fictional characters, which is especially amazing since the book wasn't that long.

Closely relating to this, the world-building was extraordinary, it gave the much-needed background to the characters and the story between them. I would love to read some novellas set in this world focusing on the different cultures and times in history.

My main problem with this novel was its pacing. The author tried something different with the narration style where (at the start in particular) the point of view jumped between a bunch of cast members without much connection. While I really liked the idea theoretically, after all, you need a lot of people to really describe the atmosphere of a whole city, it didn't really work for me. The story felt disjointed at times and the plot barely progressed. It got better towards the end when I was familiar with all the characters, but it took me a very long time to get through this book because of this.

I'm still a big fan of Tchaikovsky and after this stand-alone, I can't wait to get into his fantasy series! 😊

Not sure why but this one is not grabbing me. The world building is fine, if overly complex, but the characters are not grabbing me. Calling this one at around 50 pages and may come back to later to try again.

This book honestly stands out a bit from all the other fantasy I've read this year, because of its structure and because of the ambitious and fascinating world the author created, but I think the execution didn't entirely work for me.

The first 40-50% feel like a collection of short stories all set in the same universe. Sure, there's some kind of red thread connecting them, but on the surface the stories don't seem related at all. We're introduced to a big cast of characters throughout these stories, and it isn't until we get further into the book that the connections begin to appear. I thought the second half was a lot better than the first, probably because I could see the plot and where everything was leading. That said, structuring the book this way allowed the author to show as many different parts of Ilmar, the titular city, that we maybe wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Ilmar makes for a great setting. It feels like any big city—a mish-mash of cultures and districts, and everyone is suffering under occupational rule. There are different refugee groups, gangs, religions being practiced in secret, and an oppressive regime trying to normalize it all so that everyone follows their standards. But even though there are different factions all supposedly working against the occupiers, the city isn't on the brink of revolution, until, suddenly, it is.

And if that doesn't sound complex enough, there's also the Reproach, a section of the city that will possess anyone who enters it long enough, and a forest that acts as a gateway to other worlds. I found Ilmar extremely compelling, but I also think the author maybe tried to do too much. Because the setting is so vast, it's difficult to focus on specific characters, which means I had less emotional attachment to the people I was supposed to care about. I do think this improves after we're done getting introduced to everything this world has to offer, however, and there were definitely characters that I cared about by the end. The story didn't unfold the way I expected it to, and the way it did might not satisfy everyone, but I think that is what sets it apart for me.

Interesting and original fantasy novel, well worth a look.

Difficult to describe, this fantasy novel deals - as the title suggests - with a city of different characters and races brought together under the occupation of an enemy force. The characters are well-developed and are the most important part of the story as they meet and plan in an atmosphere of magical objects, supernatural creatures and monsters. There's plenty of action, murder and mayhem. It's an entertaining experience and I will look into reading other works by this author. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Este es uno de esos casos donde la historia podría haber durado un puñado de páginas más, incluso haber sido una bilogía, y seguramente hubiera tenido sentido. Ilmar, la ciudad donde transcurre todos los acontecimientos de este libro se convierte en un personaje más de una narración de por sí compleja dado el gran número de nombres propios que aparecen y las acciones que todos ellos van tomando desde las primeras páginas.

Ilmar se encuentra bajo el yugo de unos invasores cuyo régimen tiránico tiene a la ciudadanía recluida y donde expresarse en contra de la norma significa acabar colgado de una soga. Esto también implica que la magia está perseguida y todo aquello para lo que se usa debe ser autorizado, igual que su aprendizaje. En el borde de Ilmar también hay una zona boscosa con un portal a otras realidades por las que se cuelan criaturas que pueden causar malentendidos y, por consiguiente, una guerra civil. Uno de esos sucesos inicia esta novela.

Al contrario de lo que me ha sucedido con la mayoría de las novelas de Tchaikovsky esta es una obra que me ha exigido gran atención durante buena parte de su lectura. Los puntos de vista son múltiples y variados, muy distintos entre sí, que van y vienen en ocasiones con un lapso importante. Sean mercaderes, magos, sacerdotes, refugiados, guerreros, etc. todos tienen sus intereses preconcebidos en esta disputa por el poder de la ciudad.

Por todo ello, mi lectura ha tenido muchos altibajos y en varias ocasiones tuve que retroceder un poco para situarme, algo apoyado por una escritura algo más cargada de lo habitual en sus novelas. La manera de enfocar la historia y las decisiones políticas intrínsecas a mucho de lo que aquí ocurre me ha recordado a la trilogía de La Era de la Locura de Joe Abercrombie, con la ventaja de que este utilizaba tres libros para algo que Tchaikovsky ha preferido meter en uno solo.

No puedo decir que vaya a ser mi novela favorita del autor, pero, aun con eso, sigue siendo un gran regreso a la fantasía por su parte. Un libro que pide paciencia en aras de la recompensa final.

Ilmar. City on the edge of … well, on the edge of a very strange forest. So much of what the city is comes from that proximity. Those desperate enough come there hoping to find a way through the trees to another place. Because, while most of the time it looks like a small copse through which you can see the other side, every now and then going into the woods will take you… elsewhere. That is, if you don’t get brutally killed by the forest guardians. You’ve bought a genuine ward to see you safe, of course?

Ilmar is also where the refugees came as each of their lands was taken over by the Palleseen, a nation obsessed with ‘perfection’ and determined to impose it on everyone else. So many fled to Ilmar, but now Ilmar too is occupied.

So it is against the strict rules and policing thereof that a disparate set of characters set about achieving their own aims. From rogues to scholars, priests and immigrants with mystical powers, this is a book with a huge cast. However, even as we follow each of their stories, separately and intertwined, the book isn’t really about them.

Is it about the city itself? Yes, and no. Certainly, the setting is fairly contained and yet encompasses as many social tiers as any city, plus a huge dollop of magic in various forms. Machinery is run by demons. Strange, masked figures come out of the woods. Artefacts from the old regime are melted down to extract their magic, used mainly for weapons for the occupying forces. And oh yeah, there’s just this whole section of the city that you Do Not Enter, because it’s… well, haunted is putting far too little emphasis on the weirdness. There’s a LOT going on, and your enjoyment will hinge greatly on how much you’re willing to accept the ‘melting pot’ of it all.

I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews about this one already, and mostly it seems that people were expecting epic fantasy and instead get quite a (geographically) contained tale that’s more about political manoeuvring than sword fights and monsters – although there are some of those, too. I can see how some would be disappointed not to see huge battles of magic, but rather a more realistic (urm, sort of!) scale of petty rebellions and everyone trying to eke out a life without being arrested for breaking some rule or other.

But, personally, I loved the contrast between the mundane – rules, regulations, power struggles between various factions – and the absolutely fantastical. This is a city seething with magic on all sides, topped with yet more brought in by every nation’s refugees, and then stamped down by the invading forces. That’s a powder-keg waiting to happen – in more ways than one! Viva la revolution?

Overall, this rewards just a little patience, and a bit of attention to the myriad threads. Or perhaps I want to say it’s a more mature read, choosing to focus on a level of ‘realism’ on top of the fantastical. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed it, even while I’m disappointed that there’s not more of it all.

Ilmar is a city seething with tensions, set in fantastical world where magic exists and has been harnessed in different ways. The city has been under occupation by the Palleseen for the past three years. Ilmarians of all walks of life, criminal thugs, priests of nearly forgotten faiths, students and their wealthy families or bar keepers are all chafing under the occupation as they try to live their day to day lives, some focused on resistance, others just on surviving. A large multi-cultural city that is also at a nexus of worlds. The event that sets off the plot of the novel, is a Palleseen expedition setting off to enter the Anchorwood, a small grove of trees that is sometimes just that, and at other times a portal to other places.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Last Chances is the story of one consequential gambling game held in a secret backroom of a bar, that causes a crises for all of the players and the city of Illmar. It begins with what feels like a daunting cast of characters all listed for the reader's reference. Fortunately, I found I did not need to reference this, as the earlier chapters tend to be focused on a single character at a time, giving us time to get to know them, their priorities, and an idea of their motivations and goals. All of them come off with some degree of depth, and we do see them grow or change based on the events. The heavily hinted event does come to pass, but concluded in ways that I did no expect.

In the world of Illmar demons can be contracted to labor in the industrial factories. One of the main weapons is a baton that can fire magical energy. Charms and wards can assist or bar as the user or creator needs. As a city with a long history, there is a cursed portion known at the Reproach that steals the minds of those who enter, but is full of abandoned wealth that the brave or desperate search. Artifacts or even former gods can be converted to magical energy that can be turned into the charms or simple magical chalk.

A story of crisis, centered on a mystery. Tchaikovsky presents a well realized world that will hopefully be revisited.

I'm a fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky and I love how he develops complex world and intriguing characters.
I fell in love with the cover and then I fell in love with this fascinating fantasy novel and the well plotted world.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a master storyteller and delivered a great story that i strongly recommend as it's well plotted and entertaining.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

Ugh.

When I first started this I thought I was in for a four or five star read. Unfortunately things unraveled at times. Then come come together. Un-ravel. Come together. Etc etc etc.

I quite like books with multiple POVs, but they usually book best in series where you get to know the characters and their stories, they don’t work so well in stand-alones and this is a good example of that.

When the sorry did come together I really enjoyed it, maybe it’s a book to come back to and re-read at a later time.