City of Last Chances is a story about revolution and rebellion against occupation in a fantastical setting, and is a book very interested in looking at who makes up rebel factions and how their aims and intents change the way they operate and fight back against invaders. Throughout the story you will see what these factions are willing to sacrifice to achieve their ends, and how individual actions, chance, and even selfish motivations can unknowingly combine to create a spark for something more. This is a structurally pretty hefty read, with many different POV changes and characters, multiple plot lines that intersect, and more to keep track of, but the book manages to deliver all this information to you without completely overwhelming you so long as you are paying attention to who is on screen during a given chapter.

I loved this book. I loved the characters and their motivations, loved the way the city felt like a complicated place with a deeply troubled and horrific history (there is some incredible worldbuilding here that applies to both within and without the city), and loved how every disparate faction and person's actions led to the climax of the book and the surprisingly realistic way that it ended. I felt like this took the idea of a revolution and put it very faithfully into a fantasy setting, it appeared to deeply consider the outcomes and scale of these actions, and I am very excited for more in this world. A very easy recommendation to fantasy fans who can handle POV shifts and a slow build in their books.

Tchaikovsky has a very unique writing style and you either love it or not. I am on the side of love! This book knocked it out of the park. If you are a fan of leveled characters and great worldbuilding, you will love this book. City of Last Chances is a novel about a city on the edge of a crisis. Ilmar, occupied by invaders, and home to half a dozen rebellious factions with their own aims and vision for a city freed. Also Ilmar, home to the Anchorwood, a dangerous nexus to other realms and home to the Reproach, which holds a different danger entirely.

The City of Last Chances did not hold my interest as much as I thought it would. There are a lot of characters, the writing style is complex and it was difficult to sympathise with every character. Whenever I have to force myself to read a book I lose interest and I just wasn't thrilled at all.

The book itself is interesting enough. There is plenty of ambition and familiarity but it was a difficult effort.

It was an interesting read, but it didn't quite do it for me. It felt too slow at times, compared to what I've been reading, and that threw it off. It wasn't a bad story, and the character's were fun at times, but the pacing could have been better.

As with all his books this is a thought provoking look at what would happen if women did go to war.
I tend to lose interest in the battles but am always engaged by his unique imaginative spin. Not my favourite of his books but he is a excellent writer.

First of all, I would like to thank the publisher for the digital ARC copy of the book. I was really happy when I received the notification of it in my email.
I had already read some books of the author in Italian, and I was curious about reading in English.
At the beginning of the book there is a sort of index that explains us the different Factions we will found in the next chapters, and this reveals as a help to orientate in what happens in the novel.
Then the story begins and deals with a city which wants to take revenge against its invaders. Ilmar wants to be independent again. A city on the of a rebellion.
The style of the author is complicated but mysterious and intriguing. Moreover the fantasy elements are tied to the plot and the city perfectly. I loved the fusion of magic and industry, how the factory owners have transformed the ancient art of demon summoning to power their own machines.
Probably the only problem of the narration is the fact that I couldn’t relate too much to the characters. They were too many to remember all of them.
Maybe the real protagonist was the city itself.
I suggest this book to people who enjoy fantasy with a political inflection in it.

Tchaikovsky is a solid bet. He's got a great imagination and writes well. This will sell well and receive lots of high ratings.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

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. Overall, this book is a hit for me.

I’d call Tchaikovsky one of my favorite authors so was shocked to find myself trudging through this. It took me a month to finish. My husband and I joked that it was a great sleep aid—I’d invariably find my eyes starting to get heavy after a few pages.

I’ve done quite a bit of reflection to figure out why I didn’t like this when I’ve liked so many of his other books, and I think, at the end of the day, I didn’t care about most of the characters. A new one was introduced practically every chapter even very late in the book, so there was no emotional impact when someone experienced something tragic or died. I don’t know how the same author who made spiders and octopi so relatable couldn’t do the same in a pretty standard fantasy setting, but I think it’s that we didn’t spend enough time with anyone.

There’s a lot to like about the world-building: a city is occupied by the Palleseen who are obsessed with Correct Thought and stamping out magic, except when it’s useful to them. The city borders the Anchorwood, a mysterious portal to other worlds. There are great concepts to explore: enslaved demons, warring crime factions, exploitation of the poor, a strong distrust of foreigners. And revolution is brewing. On paper, this should’ve been a five star book for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and AdAstra!

City of Last Chances is a novel about a city on the edge of a crisis. Ilmar, occupied by invaders, and home to half a dozen rebellious factions with their own aims and vision for a city freed. Also Ilmar, home to the Anchorwood, a dangerous nexus to other realms and home to the Reproach, which holds a different danger entirely.

This is a mosaic of a novel, refusing to focus on one character for too long before jumping to the next one. Some characters get more focus than others, like the pacifist priest of a god worshipped and seen by only himself, or the street tough finding new depths in the art of a rebellious student, but I found all the characters to have that spark that makes them compelling to read. The narrative darts smoothly from character to character, following the arc of events that lead the city to revolution.

I loved the subtle merging of magic and industry - like how the factory owners have commodified the ancient art of demon summoning to power their machines, or how the Palleseen occupiers appropriate and break down unique magics to create standardised power sources for their weapons and other devices. This is a cynical story, where the selfishness of factions and individuals threatens to break the rebellion before it even starts. But there are glimmers of hope. Individual choices of selflessness that seem small in the face of larger events can do more good than you’d expect.

It’s a denser novel than some of Tchaikovsky’s other works, but I found it a rewarding read, and would love to see more in the setting. I highly recommend this book to those who love books where the city feels like a character.

I loved this book - I’m making all my friends preorder it, and preordering it myself after writing this. Spoilers ahead!

What I liked:
- The switching perspectives at the beginning were excellent, each character’s voice and worldview were so distinct and each showed a different side of Ilmar. Any idea of a character’s ideals and personality and flaws will inevitably be overturned at the next perspective switch, which sets a solid foundation for the rest of the story - unlike Shantrov’s paintings, there is no single person who can decide the outcome. Nothing and nobody is guaranteed.
- The juxtaposition between the mythical and reality was always spot-on. From the Reproach’s endless ball, to Pallesand’s idea of the Divine City, to Shantrov’s paintings and Lemya’s poetry, contrasting the constant infighting hamstringing both the resistance and the Palleseen Sway. Yuslav’s God’s desire to help and stop harm coming up cold against the impossibility of putting it into practice. Lofty ideals running into roadblocks like having to eat tomorrow, or fear of death, or trying to come out on top after the Pals have been driven out.
And yet, you can easily imagine how those myths might come about. Tales about Ruslav are already being told.
- There’s always a sense that there’s more going on, that we’ve just been looking at a small snapshot and the world is bigger that anyone in the story knows.
- The book is relentless in tearing down any ideas you might have had about the story going in, but it never veers into hopelessly grim and despite everything, you always still feel like the city is worth fighting for.

The book reminds me thematically of Ninefox Gambit and Traitor Baru Cormorant, and I think people who liked those books would also like City of Last Chances.

A sophisticated novel with many characters, dense writing style and complexity. I found it difficult to immerse myself in the story or sympathize with characters.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book. After about 30% I gave up. I have recently read Dogs of War and Bear Head, enjoying both immensely however, with City of Last Chance I found the multiple POVs did not seem to push the story along and having to keep referring to the glossary at the beginning is no way to read a book. There were times that I felt this was a writing exercise from Adrian Tchaikovsky to try something different.
It has not put me off reading more of Adrian Tchaikovsky's but this one was not for me.

This is one of those books ideally suited to the people who spend their lives bemoaning the fact that everyone seems to write trilogies or longer, as it's a standalone fantasy novel (albeit one that's solid enough to use as a doorstop if so desired). As is often the case, I'm left in that place where I can see that this is also a book some people will absolutely adore as there's lots that's good about it, but it just didn't 100% work for me.

The basic premise of City of Last Chances is that it's a story of a place which has been colonised but is still dreaming of the days before, with various degrees of fervour. The most interesting part for me was the relics of the former gods - for example, there's one priest who can literally see what's left of the god he serves, a god which has the power to bring people back from the dead but whose healing is hedged about by all sorts of conditions. Some characters, it has to be said, are significantly more interesting than others, while there were some where I found myself skipping onwards as I didn't particularly care what happened to them.

There's a lot going on in this book, with different perspectives on events from the points of view of a large number of characters and, for me anyway, this was both good and bad. At times, as I was reading it, it felt as though I wasn't making any progress through it at all and that was a bit dispiriting, to say the least. There's solid world-building and some good character work but it was all a bit too heavy going for my liking in the end.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.

I'll start by saying that I am a long time Tchaikovsky fan and that I've always been impressed by his range. He writes over a number of different genres and each book has a very unique premise. City of Last Chances is no different! This is set in Ilmar - a city being crushed under a heavy occupation, a criminal underworld and an ancient curse. And hey, there's some portal fantasy for good measure! I loved the premise and adored the world-building, particularly in the early stages of the novel. I also thought the ending was fantastic (in true Tchaikovskey fashion). It should be said that this is definitely a book you need to dedicate some time to when reading as there are a lot of characters & plot threads to keep track off. Overall a great read for fantasy lovers!

Adrian Tchaikovsky does it again!

'City of Last Chances' reminds me a lot of one of his other recent-ish stand-alone SFF novels, 'Cage of Souls'. Partly because I SLIGHTLY struggled with them both, in terms of not having any characters I could really feel for, and the overwhelmingly grim dystopia the story is set in.

That said, an undercurrent of 'readability' still runs through this book, and regardless of character and plot, it's the author's sheer dazzling imagination that, as always, had me coming back. There are, as there always are in his novels, some completely brilliant premises, all well-oiled cogs in the machine of the narrative.

Tchaikovsky and/or SSF newbies may want to start with something else from his extensive backlist, but this is otherwise another memorable outing from a master writer.

(With thanks to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)

Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my favorite authors and I read everything he writes. Add to that the stunning cover of City of Last Chances and see me drooling over it. The publisher was kind enough to accept my request for a ARC and I started reading it immediately.

Unfortunately, City of Last Chances didn't captivate me. It's a sophisticated novel with many characters, a dense writing style and complex intrigue. I found it difficult to immerse myself in the story or fsymphatize with characters. Things do fall into place at the end, but in truth I had to force myself to read the book.

I'm not sure what to say. It's an interesting book, unlike most fantasy being published these days. On the other hand, it's dense difficult to get into, and I'm not sure if the effort to get through it is fully justified or if I would recommend it to everyone. Fans of challenging and complex narratives should definitely give it a try, though.

I read an ARC copy of City of Last Chances from NetGalley and Head of Zeus publishing. Thank you for this opportunity.

That said, this is one of those books that I’m scrambling to find positive things to say.

This is a book about a city on the edge of revolution. It is currently occupied by one group, but several others are fighting to take over or take back the power they lost. There are small players that find themselves pulled into the big picture, and also stories of those trying to move the people scrambling as things both move forward, but often not as they first imagined that it would. There are many players, many different wants and needs. All of them hate each other, and once they get what they want, they’ll go back to stabbing each other in the back and hating each other openly.

And it’s all too much.

Yes, it’s a me thing.

This book has a market. It’s magic and politics, and deep lore, but to me, it was like a Dungeon Master setting up his world with the characters setting up their history inside of the city and each other before they all got together and really started their adventure, and I didn’t want that, I wanted to start reading about after the adventurers had gotten together so I could experience the world through their exploration, maybe that way it would be more coherent and the characters would actually feel like they had growth instead of the forced bit of “what” they did get.

I don’t know. It was just too many different characters that the story bounced around for me to keep track of and try to figure out who I was supposed to care about in the long run, and in the end, I didn’t really care what was happening to the city or any of the individuals.

his is the second book by Tchaikovsky that I have read (the first being a SciFi story) and this author is quickly becoming a favorite that I will buy on sight. To start with, being a logophile, the story here was a veritable playground of obscure english vocabulary within a context that often used the 4th or 5th definition to give the reader an exotic feel within just inventing new words. This all facilitates some of the best world-building that has ever come my way, creating a dark, gritty foundation that was extremely easy to visualize and enter into. The only downside here was that the rich prose was so complex that it slowed down my reading speed quite a bit, although that also enabled me to better enjoy the beauty of it all. Definitely a fan here. For those having trouble keeping track of everything, there is a gloss in the front.

The world is an interesting dystopia with an occupying force dedicated to the rational perfection of their world, by force if necessary (aka an authoritarian society). The City is a crossroads of sorts, with the soldiers of the perfect trying to control a diverse population previously under the thrall of magic and miracles while expanding through a mystical forest to dimensions unknown (although the beasts within are very dangerous and should not be taken for granted). Close by is the Reproach, a ruined part of the old city barely contained by sigils and wards to keep ghosts of long dead nobles from driving men mad. Wondering amongst all of this are priests and forgotten gods, sorcerers and demons (who power the factories of the Hammer districts), prideful academics keeping the flame of resistance alive, and typical street toughs (who rule the Gutter districts) and a rather eclectic collection of immigrants and refugees .. giving the world a feeling of depth rarely encountered in a single book and left me wanting more.

There are a lot of POV characters in this story; and that is usually a bad thing, but the author makes this work better than most. Each character seemed to be fairly unique with something that actually added to the story when they were appropriately introduced … weaving in and out of the main plot so skillfully that each switch felt natural … and I enjoyed most of them … even the bad guys. All of the motivations seemed reasonable and even somewhat predictable within the evolving chaos of the story (most of the action are the characters reacting to what just happened prior). The interactions between them all kept me guessing on where the story was headed all the way to the end with several notable mysteries and surprises. This works well with all of the political intrigue that is front loaded, but the action does pick up with some character weeding towards the end (not a big deal as you don’t really spend enough time with any of them to get attached).

I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#CityOfLastChances #NetGalley.

I was super excited to read this book after reading that amazing synopsis, I mean this sounded like a book that would be right up my alley. Portals to different worlds, a tyrannical regime and occupying force, a dark and magical setting, all of the things that I really enjoy in a fantasy read to be honest. And to top it off, one of my favorite authors as the writer of the story? Yes, you could say I was pretty excited to sit down with this book.

And for about the first 50 pages or so my excitement was truly rewarded as the book sets up all of the main conflict and the mystery of the Anchorwood quite tantalizingly. And Tchaikovsky's elegant prose carried the narrative beautifully as it always does. It was just after this point though that I began to have a difficult time concentrating on all of the different storylines as the chapters begin to jump back and forth across a number of different characters. I found myself wanting to read more but becoming slightly frustrated at having to continually refer to the glossary to see who the people were in each chapter and which of the numerous factions they belonged to.

And yet I couldn't deny that the story also had me sucked in because I wanted to find out what was behind the mystery of the Anchorwood and the lore/history of the enigmatic city of Ilmar. The Palleseen were also a very intriguing enemy force that believes every facet of society from magic, to arts, to education, and to language, must be controlled and overseen by different schools that are maintained by the government. It actually reminded me a lot of the fascist and totalitarian regimes that we've seen in our own history, and so this was a fascinating aspect to the story that I'm sure Tchaikovsky did on purpose.

With all of this going for the book I was truly hoping that my difficulty focusing on the cast of characters would get better and that eventually everything would click and I would hit my stride. Ultimately though it continued throughout and there were more times than not when I felt my concentration wandering to the point where I just put the book down fairly often.

The ending was pretty satisfying but again, this one just didn't grab my attention the way so many of Tchaikovsky's books have done in the past and subsequently it hampered my enjoyment a little and I have to give this book a lesser star rating as a result. However, please don't be put off by my experience, it may just be a case of the wrong timing for this kind of book. Others may really latch on to the intrigue, deception, and deep world-building. In the end, this was a good but just short of great read for me for many of the reasons I mentioned.