City of Last Chances (The Tyrant Philosophers)

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We witness happenings that relate to the criminal underworld, academia, workers and demons, refugees and outsiders, forgotten gods, and magical artefacts from a wide range of perspectives. Ilmar is the novel's main character though, and this includes distinct and atmospheric areas such as The Reproach, The Hammer Districts, and The Anchorage. I found The Reproach to be a haunting and intensely interesting part of the city and I adored my time reading about that area and its inhabitants most of all. City Of Last Chances sits very well within its fantasy lane, and although there is magic, mysticism and machinations to explore, Tchaikovsky elects instead to use these as a platform to deliver symbolic tales of rebellion and dissent, that celebrate the unexpected delights of collaboration without conformity. City of Last Chances is a standalone novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The book explores the city and factions of the city of Ilmar, occupied three years ago by the Palleseen Sway, an all-conquering empire that seeks to “perfect” the world-and, with its control over Ilmar, potentially many worlds. For on Ilmar’s edge lies the Anchorwood, a grove of trees that, when the moon is full, becomes a gateway to distant, alien lands. I’m rating City of Last Chances 6/10 as it features moments of Tchaikovsky‘s brilliance but was hard work in places too. That being said, it was a unique reading experience that I would recommend mostly because I’d be interested to see what other people think of this intriguing book. I’d especially recommend City of Last Chances to readers who enjoyed the sweeping scale, industry, revolution and political turmoil of Joe Abercrombie’s Age of Madness.

The novel is set in the titular city of Ilmar, suffering under the heavy boot of an occupation force left over from the city’s conquest three years earlier by the Palleseen, a people who seek “perfection” in themselves and others via “correct principles of law and thought.” While the city seems stable on the surface, it seethes with anger, resentment, greed, and ambition as various factions have their own view of what resistance looks like and who should lead any eventual rebellion should one occur, as well as who should benefit from it. These factions are not new-born from the conquest, but are long-standing opposed forces in the city: the criminal underworld, who have found little difference in the scorn with which they are treated by the overthrown duke and his aristocracy or the victorious Palleseen; the Armigers, the old families more concerned with a return to power rather than a return to independence; and the Siblingries, the factory workers who toil for the conquerors as they did for the upper classes before and feel oppressed by both. In the mix are the idealistic students of Gownhall University; the Allorwen, a downtrodden and mistrusted group of refugees from a land conquered earlier by the Palleseen; and most mysterious of all, the Indwellers, the enigmatic people who control the ways in and out of the Anchorwood, an ancient grove that acts as a portal through to other worlds for those who can pay the price of safe transport.The Empire: The Palleseen Sway is a vast colonial empire, stretching over at least four countries (the Pallesand Archipelago, Allorwen, Telmark, and Nihilostes' homeland), and is the method by which the Palleseen seek to perfect the world by extinguishing religion, magic, and the cultures and languages of conquered peoples.

A thank you to Cassie Waters from Head of Zeus for inviting us aboard the book tour for The City of Lost Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky. While she kindly provided an arc of the title, this review and my thoughts are my own. But don’t expect your usual heroes and heroics. Those don’t pay off. It’s a place for those who work for self-interest, and all we can hope is that at some point it may align with what may be the lesser of evils. And don’t expect hand-holding and exposition - you are in the middle of it all, and Tchaikovsky expects you to figure it all out, and with a bit of an effort you certainly can, and enjoy it, too. Approximately every 8-10 chapters, there is a Mosaic chapter, which I would describe as a city-eyed view of happenings: summarising what is taking place throughout many areas of the city at the given time. As City of Last Chances progresses, we’re updated regarding the potential revolution that is stirring underneath the surface: who will light the fuse, will the Palleseen military be prepared, what will the consequences be and what part will the supernatural elements of the city play? This book, which is standalone, is set in a city that’s been under foreign occupation for several years. The occupiers have the goal of “perfecting” the world, so naturally anything not already “perfect” according to their rigid standards must be … perfected. Naturally this is hard on the populace. We can’t bring perfection to the world without the threat of force. We can’t rely on the threat of force unless they know we will follow up on it.”

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The Siblingries, factory workers who banded together first to resist the power of the Armiger factory owners. Fundamentally, that's what it is. An account of a stunningly wide variety of people's experiences in a city under occupation. And the differences of that experience... how one fact of existence can shatter and refract and become a hundred different perspectives on the same set of events, a thousand different responses. We ARE Struggling Together: Almost every one of the city various resistance factions hates the other groups, even though the Pals oppress all of them-the Siblingries dislike the Armiger families for being their long-time industrial overseers, the Armigers hate the Vultures for being criminals who would bring chaos to Ilmar if they came out ahead in a revolt, and everyone sees the Gownhall students as a bunch of inevitably doomed, naïve fools.

Langrice; the owner of a inn called the Anchorage, which doubles as a gambling den, a safehouse and a neutral zone within the city. She knows many people and keeps many secrets. Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Dirty Coward: For all his talk of Ilmari history and freedom, Ivarn Ostragar turns out to be one, and as soon as his life and position are threatened by an actual revolt he tries to flee the city. There are more than a dozen viewpoint or significant characters – all occupying their own chapters, adding some detail to the pic­ture. I suppose every reader will fasten on a different set of characters to root for, though I was immediately taken by the opening chapter’s picture of Yasnic, the last priest of a much-diminished and whiny god, as they wake and greet the day: As an aside, readers who enjoyed Head of Zeus’ brilliant The Hood by Lavie Tidhar in 2021 will feel very much at home in Ilmar. Certainly, Tchaikovsky’s latest fantasy tale scratched a mystical dark wood itch I didn’t realise I’d been needing scratching.The Man They Couldn't Hang: By the end of the book, Ruslav, Lemya, Yasnic, Ivarn, and several other characters count as this. Ivarn even counts twice-over. Unfortunately I also had some issues with this book. For starters, especially the first 40%, is really slow. And that slow pace, combined with the dense prose made it a struggle for me to get through it. Ahoy there mateys! I enjoyed this novel even if I have no idea what the point of it was. The story takes place in a city called Ilmar otherwise known as The City of Last Chances. It is a city in turmoil. Foreign occupiers with the goal of "Perfection" are in control everywhere except the Anchorwood. This wood has a door that opens up to other dimensions? I am not sure how or why it works. There are resistance factions in Ilmar but none work together. Spark of the Rebellion: After Ivarn tries to return secretly to the Gownhall and has to be saved by Shantrov and other students from soldiers, the students fortify the Gownhall Square, the Siblingries strike and begin marching in support of them, and the Vultures use the chaos to loot and burn as much Palleseen property as they can find. Labs gabals, kuru var izraut cauri pāris vakaros. Pilsēta autoram ir izdevusies, tik izdevusies, ka šis pat nolēmis to parādīt no gandrīz pārdesmit skatu punktiem. Līdz ar to sākumā īsti nevar saprast uz ko viss šis stāsts velk, bet uzzinām daudz par Ilmāru (pilsētas nosaukums), tās vēsturi.