The City / Stella Gemmell

The City
by Stella Gemmell
fantasy

copyright 2013
read in December 2014

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

I once read a book called, "How to Write a Bestseller". The main message of that book was, that success comes from a formula. Gemmell may have read that same book.

A key element of the success formula is "complexity". The City has complexity in spades. Nothing wrong with that. It's complex but clearly written; the complexity can be unraveled.

Another key element is to have a lot of characters, all interacting and possibly interrelated. Tick. The idea is, there will be at least one character with whom each reader will be able to identify.

That's rubbish.

If I like the main characters then I am likely to enjoy the book. If I dislike the main characters then I will probably dislike the book. If there are so many characters that there is at least one that I will like... then I may as well be reading a telephone directory.

Then there's violence. Actually, I'm not sure whether violence was an essential part of the success formula. The City certainly truckloads of blood and violence and sudden death.

I almost categorised it as "military" fantasy, there are so many battles. But the battles -- and the centuries-long war -- are just background. This is not military fantasy.

Despite my dislike of bestseller formula, I enjoyed reading most of this book... Up to the end, I would have rated it higher than six. So what don't I like ?!

Stella Gemmell's background is politics and journalism. Perhaps she realises the reality, that war is just a small part of politics and power. That's reality. I read for escapism.

There are battles and victories and defeats. Heroic deeds and base treachery. And at the end... nothing much has changed.

Sure, several evil rulers have been overthrown. The current battles have been ended. Some major characters have survived. But...

Another evil ruler had taken over. The attitude of war is still there, there may be a lull but the war will continue. The surviving heroes get to survive... nothing more. Oh, and they find out that all their heroism was being stage-managed for the benefit of others.

What's the point ?!

Real life may be pointless and miserable. Well, it is if you look too closely at politics and read too much journalism :-) I prefer my fantasy to be more optimistic. The City just leave me feeling, so what. (Or bleagh, if that's how it's spelt.)

Oh, one more rule from the bestseller formula: leave enough loose ends for another book. Yep, you guessed it. More loose ends than a knitted scarf in a kitten factory.

Too complex, too many characters, too pointless to enjoy. Otherwise, not too bad.

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Problems ? Solved 

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14mar18:

I pick up this book... read a few pages... realise that I have read it before. Not to worry, I think, it seems to be an entertaining book. I have forgotten most of what happens. So...

I read a few chapters. Read through the slaughter of 20,000 or so conscripted soldiers. Have already met three sets of characters who would be central characters in any well-written book -- meet them once, then they disappear. Read my earlier review. Give up in disgust.

My dislike of never-ending sagas has grown. If an author doesn't have any idea how to wrap up their own plot -- why should I bother to read it?

Rating it now, I would say, four out of ten: bad but could be read. That is, could be read by someone with a strong stomach and no interest in endings.

Not a novel. Just a pointless and endless pot-boiler.