Empire: Metropolis

by Tim Goff

Corber Port. Largest city in the Solarian Empire. Center of trade and industry. And a metropolis in trouble after an earthquake flattened a fifth of the city and set the rubble ablaze. Months later, the damage still has not been repaired. Citizens scrounge for food while gangs prowl the city searching for victims. Tia Samos, once a wealthy imperial citizen, is trapped in this urban nightmare, the captive of demons masquerading as men. She is a domestic drudge by day - but her nights are filled with horrendous visions. Sir Peter Cortez, Tia's former bodyguard, attends the School of Practical Law. He scours the city searching for her - but is stymied at every turn. Kyle, Tia's one-time carriage driver, studies magic and engineering at the Enchanted Quadrant. He searches for Tia with sorcery - but his spells keep failing. Rebecca, Tia's maid and personal minstrel, would dearly like to find her mistress - but she's been imprisoned. Her crime? Knowing too much. A renegade wizard goes to trial as anarchy grows in the streets while a sinister plot with catastrophic consequences unfolds. Can these four alleviate the impending apocalypse?

368 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2022

About the author

I was raised on an Alaskan homestead at the edge of civilization, an upbringing that brought with it passing knowledge of everything from mechanics to gardening to carpentry.

I was an avid reader from an early age - and started my first writing efforts as a teenager. It took me a while to actually get published.

Reviews

[Guy Estes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world Tim Goff created is extremely detailed, with a large cast of characters that can be difficult to keep straight. This can make things complicated as one tries to keep all these details in mind and which character is which. The conflict is ostensibly good versus evil, but there's very little difference between the two sides, demons on one and the church on the other. The vast majority of church officials are haughty, arrogant, and selfish, holding virtually everyone in contempt. Between the two, I honestly rather the demons. At least demons are up front about their intentions. Their don't cloak themselves in a facade of piety and virtue while they screw you over, whereas the church officials will do so with a smile. Another issue is poor editing. Many, many times I saw plural used when it should've been possessive, using "to" when it should have been "too," things like that. The paragraph formatting could sometimes make it unclear as to which character was speaking. One chapter was a flashback, but it's not immediately obvious. It features a character walking around freely when in the previous chapter he'd been imprisoned, so I was wondering what was going on. Then I figured out this was supposed to be a flashback, as it was the only explanation that made sense. The story trips over the heavy world building, as there are lots of pages with details that aren't relevant to the story; yes, you want some details to flesh out the world, but you also don't want to weigh the story down with too much detail. It tends to make for a plodding pace. The pace picks up in the latter half when the evil plot is coming to fruition. This was definitely my favorite part, as now important, significant things are happening and leaves us on a thrilling cliffhanger in anticipation of the next installment.

[P.M.F. Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are things to like about this novel. The characters kept me interested, their terrible troubles keep things going, through many dangerous and fluid situations, traps, puzzles, and so on. Each chapter contains action, where unexpected problems pop up, and folks have to be creative in their solutions. The two main characters, Kyle and Tia, each have unique problems, and I liked them both. And may I say that these people are always short of money, which affects them in intriguing ways. Keeps it real. But actually understanding who wants what, and what's at stake, and whose side we are supposed to be on, and what the great dangers looming are... that's all pretty confusing. If I stayed in the moment, without worrying why anybody was doing things, or what their motives were, the book was fun. But try to understand the various factions, or the overall goal of the story, and as a reader I felt lost. This author might take a lesson from Willa Cather, who starts chapters with who is in the scene, where they are, the time of day, then what they are doing and why. The reader is never confused. Finally, the reader should understand this is a middle book in the series, so much is left dangling at the end, to be resolved in the next book. Overall, I'd say the fun stuff saves the book. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

[B.J. Sikes · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there's a neat story buried in here, it's like an unpolished gemstone. The further saga of Lady Tia and her friends continues. They are now in Port Corbel, a major city in the empire but one that is in partial ruins and full of misery, brutality, and poverty.
Tia is in the thrall of a demon duo who are somehow the same entity but in different bodies. Her servants and fiance are looking for her while negotiating their magical studies and trying to survive.
It took me a long to time to read this book. I really struggled with its poor writing but the core plot was enough to urge me on.
The characters are mere sketches, pawns to move the plot. There are a lot of offensive stereotypes, especially with the female characters. The dialog is clunky and at odd times, full of foul language. The descriptions are incredibly detailed but mostly meaningless. There are way too many named characters that have no effect on the plot so that's hard to parse.
It really reads like a first draft, chock full of typos, incomplete sentences, and inconsistencies.

[Tom McAuliffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth book in a seven book series… And I should’ve seen that before I started down this road because I feel like I’m walking in a little bit like when the movie is half over. Do you really have to hand it to this author, he has created a whole world complete with maps, languages, culture and characters. I found the story to be engaging and nuanced. But it is not for the faint of heart it is detailed as detailed can be and might be too much for some readers, but the story flows logically and the dialogue is realistic. I guess I’ll pay this author and this book. The best compliment… I just went and ordered Book three! If you’re looking for an engrossing story, this is it.

[Audrey Driscoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is set in a city of the Solarian Empire called Corber Port, which acts almost like a character. It’s an ancient place, gritty and violent, richly imagined and vividly described. There is a helpful map of the city at the beginning of the book, that shows the key locations mentioned.

Point of view shifts among a handful of characters, but the three principal ones are Peter, a hedge-knight, who is seeking Tia, his kidnapped fiancée, and Kyle, a peasant studying magical engineering. There is a plethora of other characters, who represent a variety of social categories (highborn, godborn, dolemen, etc.) and include beings such as goblins, elves, gnomes, and angels. There is also a demon who occupies two bodies and has a long trail of names and incarnations. This world is a grand mashup of medieval Europe, imperial Rome, and classical Greece, with a dash of H.P. Lovecraft and a bit of 19th century London (bicycles and footy). Familiar names (Lysander, Hesiod, Edda) are applied to wildly different characters. Churches (which aren’t exactly Christian) are named after unfamiliar saints, such as Persephone and Fabia.

The characters’ individual goals and struggles are overlain by a cosmic struggle among demons and those who oppose them. There are hints of a deep history involving wars and cosmic convulsions. While I found this both intriguing and confusing, I was delighted by the incredible detail surrounding the lives of the main characters, especially Kyle the student mage. He struggles with learning runes, but succeeds in other areas such as Growth and Finding. The practical aspects of spell work and the laws surrounding it are quite fascinating.

While I wasn’t quite as taken with the other characters, the big picture grew more interesting as their stories converged and a buildup began toward a thundering climax. Unfortunately, that climax is a setup for the next book in the series. Situations and relationships developed throughout this one remain unresolved at the end.

The prose quality is good, with lots of action and colourful detail. However, I would recommend the author take a refresher course in use of the apostrophe. There is an apostrophe-related error on nearly every page of the book, ranging from absence to misplacement and misuse. I was unable to stop noticing them, which impaired my immersion in the story. 3.5 stars, rounded up.