Stars: 4.5 out of 5
Wars come and go, but the city of Guerdon persists. Many times conquered, it still stands, even when those conquerors have long turned to dust. This is a city that constantly evolves and reinvents itself. And those who seek to conquer or destroy it end up being assimilated whether they want it or not.
This book picks up a few months after the end of the previous book and the Gutter Miracle, when Cali and Spar hijacked the spell destined to free the Black Iron gods and created the New City. One might argue that this was more of a curse than a blessing, since Guerdon is in disarray now, and the alchemists’ guild is all but destroyed, just as the Gods war is coming closer and closer to its shores.
While the previous book was a book of the poor and the forgotten, the little people eking out a living in the shadows of the mighty city, this book is about politics… and spies. Nobody, apart from Cali, Eladora, and Spar, understands what happened in Guerdon, and how the Gutter Miracle came to be. So all other countries sent their spies to find out. Oh, and to also find out what came of the dreaded bombs that destroyed a Goddess so thoroughly that her valley is virtually dead now.
The pace of this book is slower, since there is a lot of politicking and cloak-and-dagger intrigue, but that didn’t make it less interesting. It shows us a different facet of this multidimensional world. We also learn a lot more about the God War and the horrors the mad gods bring to the world and even their own followers.
And of course, we get to spend a bit more time with some of the characters from the first book, and discover what they are up to now. We get to meet new protagonists as well, and they were just as endearing. I will definitely continue with this series.