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The Water City Trilogy #3
Sunset, Water City
Faith, technology, power, and parenthood clash in the last installment of the sci-fi noir Water City trilogy. Philip K. Dick meets The Last of Us.
Year 2160: It's been ten years since the cataclysmic events of Eventide, Water City, where 99. 97 percent of the human population was possessed or obliterated by Akira Kimura, Water City’s renowned scientist and Earth’s former savior.
Our nameless antihero, a synesthete and former detective, and his daughter, Ascalon, navigate through a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by barbaric Zeroes—the permanent residents of the continent’s biggest landfill, The Great Leachate—who cling to the ways of the old world. They live in opposition to Akira’s godlike domination of the planet—she has taken control of the population that viewed her as a god and converted them into her Gardeners, zombie-like humans who plod along to build her vision of a new world.
What that world exactly entails, Ascalon is not entirely sure, but intends to find out. Now nineteen, she, a synesthete herself, takes over this story while her father succumbs to grief and decades of Akira’s manipulation. Tasked with the impossible, Ascalon must find a way to free what’s left of the human race.
Year 2160: It's been ten years since the cataclysmic events of Eventide, Water City, where 99. 97 percent of the human population was possessed or obliterated by Akira Kimura, Water City’s renowned scientist and Earth’s former savior.
Our nameless antihero, a synesthete and former detective, and his daughter, Ascalon, navigate through a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by barbaric Zeroes—the permanent residents of the continent’s biggest landfill, The Great Leachate—who cling to the ways of the old world. They live in opposition to Akira’s godlike domination of the planet—she has taken control of the population that viewed her as a god and converted them into her Gardeners, zombie-like humans who plod along to build her vision of a new world.
What that world exactly entails, Ascalon is not entirely sure, but intends to find out. Now nineteen, she, a synesthete herself, takes over this story while her father succumbs to grief and decades of Akira’s manipulation. Tasked with the impossible, Ascalon must find a way to free what’s left of the human race.
- GenresScience FictionAudiobook
368 pages, Hardcover
First published December 5, 2023
6 people are currently reading
1963 people want to read
About the author
Chris McKinney
11 books100 followersChris McKinney is a Korean, Japanese, Scottish American writer born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the author of the Water City trilogy. Book one was named a Best Mystery of 2021 by Publisher's Weekly and a Best Speculative Mystery of 2021 by CrimeReads. All three books received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly, and Booklist called book three a "satisfying conclusion to a magnificent trilogy (that) offers a real treat for sf fans." In 2024, Honolulu Magazine named McKinney "Author of the Year" for his Water City trilogy.
Chris has written six other novels: The Tattoo, The Queen of Tears, Bolohead Row, Mililani Mauka, Boi No Good, and Yakudoshi: Age of Calamity.
In 2011, Chris was appointed Visiting Distinguished Writer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Over the years, he has won one Elliot Cades Award and seven Kapalapala Pookela Awards.
He currently resides in Honolulu with his wife and two daughters.
Chris has written six other novels: The Tattoo, The Queen of Tears, Bolohead Row, Mililani Mauka, Boi No Good, and Yakudoshi: Age of Calamity.
In 2011, Chris was appointed Visiting Distinguished Writer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Over the years, he has won one Elliot Cades Award and seven Kapalapala Pookela Awards.
He currently resides in Honolulu with his wife and two daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 10, 2024
Another completely different book. Ten years after the events from 'Eventide' we find the nameless hero, now a widow, living on the surface with his daughter, Ascalon, among those who resist Akira's dominion.
And this time we have Ascalon's voice narrating a big part of the story. Her POV makes this such a contrasting tale from the two previous ones, it's great to see her father through her eyes.
Strange alliances surge, there are betrayals and more than a surprise leading to a final confrontation with an unforeseen result.
This is a really good ending for a series that I've enjoyed from beginning to end.
And this time we have Ascalon's voice narrating a big part of the story. Her POV makes this such a contrasting tale from the two previous ones, it's great to see her father through her eyes.
Strange alliances surge, there are betrayals and more than a surprise leading to a final confrontation with an unforeseen result.
This is a really good ending for a series that I've enjoyed from beginning to end.
September 8, 2024
Well, I really liked the 1st two books but the 3rd was a little predictable and lackluster. I did not mind the changing of narrators. I loved it in fact. I loved this journey of Ascalon Lee from child into an Apex Predator. I just wish for more. The pacing was severely stalled in contrast to the 1st two books. The betrayal of the father felt forced and unneeded. I feel like there will b a 4th book and if that happens I will read it!
August 30, 2023
After the ending of Eventide I was floored! I was so happy to be able to read this last book in the trilogy. And what a book!! I loved it so much! There is so much going on and the ending, wow!
read if your a fan of dystopian sci-fi, transhumanism, family, betrayal, hope for the future
I just reviewed Sunset, Water City by Chris McKinney. #SunsetWaterCity #NetGalley
read if your a fan of dystopian sci-fi, transhumanism, family, betrayal, hope for the future
I just reviewed Sunset, Water City by Chris McKinney. #SunsetWaterCity #NetGalley
September 8, 2025
This is more like a 3.5 rounded up.
I didn't like this one as much as the other two, but appreciate the conclusion/closure.
Part of this had to do with the drastic-feeling change in tone from the first two books. While the first two sat comfortably in sci-fi, almost cyberpunkian mystery with our unnamed synesthete protagonist, this one felt more....I don't even know. Techno-thriller? There's not a lot of mystery here beyond trying to figure out motives, and this book manages to blast past sci-fi and wrap all the way around to fantasy with literal dragons, krakens, and mythical creatures from various cultures showing up (albeit created by technology). It's very fast-paced, and our POV character doesn't seem to do a great job at keeping us in the loop as to what's going on.
Which leads me to the other reason I didn't like this one, the POV character. This book changes POV characters entirely, so we're now sitting in the daughter, Ascalon's, head. She's perfectly acceptable as a POV, but for her to be the exclusive POV in this book made me a bit disappointed. It's drilled into the reader throughout the entire book about how awesome she is at everything (and she even gets more awesome as the book goes on), so the stakes feel especially low in a book where everything should be ramping up. I think I would have appreciated maybe a dual POV including the synesthete, because it felt like Ascalon hit the end of the book along with us and had no more idea what was going on than we did.
I did really like the fleshing out of the Leachateans, their ad-speak and way of life. Their city names, also, were pretty great.
I'm glad to have finished the series though! This was really unique, and despite my hangups in this book, it still kept me reading and interested, so that's something.
I didn't like this one as much as the other two, but appreciate the conclusion/closure.
Part of this had to do with the drastic-feeling change in tone from the first two books. While the first two sat comfortably in sci-fi, almost cyberpunkian mystery with our unnamed synesthete protagonist, this one felt more....I don't even know. Techno-thriller? There's not a lot of mystery here beyond trying to figure out motives, and this book manages to blast past sci-fi and wrap all the way around to fantasy with literal dragons, krakens, and mythical creatures from various cultures showing up (albeit created by technology). It's very fast-paced, and our POV character doesn't seem to do a great job at keeping us in the loop as to what's going on.
Which leads me to the other reason I didn't like this one, the POV character. This book changes POV characters entirely, so we're now sitting in the daughter, Ascalon's, head. She's perfectly acceptable as a POV, but for her to be the exclusive POV in this book made me a bit disappointed. It's drilled into the reader throughout the entire book about how awesome she is at everything (and she even gets more awesome as the book goes on), so the stakes feel especially low in a book where everything should be ramping up. I think I would have appreciated maybe a dual POV including the synesthete, because it felt like Ascalon hit the end of the book along with us and had no more idea what was going on than we did.
I did really like the fleshing out of the Leachateans, their ad-speak and way of life. Their city names, also, were pretty great.
I'm glad to have finished the series though! This was really unique, and despite my hangups in this book, it still kept me reading and interested, so that's something.
November 29, 2023
I got this book from a free giveaway. And since it is the third installment, I also read the first two of the trilogy. I am relieved that I can finally put this series behind me and never think about them again. It was quite an ordeal going through them, definitely not an enjoyable experience.
My biggest problem with the book is its story telling, which contains twice as much internal dialog (definitely not all of them useful) as actual plot. I also dislike characters who used to be diehard on one side but later change their minds way too quickly just so that the plot, weak as it is, can move forward. Yet another thing that rubs me the wrong way is the book's treatment of sci-fi. Let's be honest, there is more fantasy than science in the book. If the author doubles down on the fantasy path, I will probably feel less uncomfortable, yet his constant attempts to make fantasy sound like science feel awkward. There are other cringy/cliche moments (e.g., protagonist's repeated "I don't want to do it, but I still do" monologues, protagonist's mythical beast behaving like a golden retriever), but there is no need to dig them all out.
There are sharp commentaries on and analogies to our current society. Surprisingly, the author also offers a glimpse of musing on the meaning of freedom (e.g., when Lincoln emancipated the slaves, were the slaves really free?). Yet these brilliant ideas are either presented too heavy-handedly or inundated in piles of mediocrity and poor story telling.
My biggest problem with the book is its story telling, which contains twice as much internal dialog (definitely not all of them useful) as actual plot. I also dislike characters who used to be diehard on one side but later change their minds way too quickly just so that the plot, weak as it is, can move forward. Yet another thing that rubs me the wrong way is the book's treatment of sci-fi. Let's be honest, there is more fantasy than science in the book. If the author doubles down on the fantasy path, I will probably feel less uncomfortable, yet his constant attempts to make fantasy sound like science feel awkward. There are other cringy/cliche moments (e.g., protagonist's repeated "I don't want to do it, but I still do" monologues, protagonist's mythical beast behaving like a golden retriever), but there is no need to dig them all out.
There are sharp commentaries on and analogies to our current society. Surprisingly, the author also offers a glimpse of musing on the meaning of freedom (e.g., when Lincoln emancipated the slaves, were the slaves really free?). Yet these brilliant ideas are either presented too heavy-handedly or inundated in piles of mediocrity and poor story telling.
July 24, 2024
A good but ultimately underwhelming finale to the Water City trilogy. While I did enjoy my time with this story and I felt that it mostly wrapped things up in a satisfying way, I found myself not able to remain as immersed in the world as I was with the first 2 books in the trilogy.
I think my main issue with this entry is how far into the realm of fantasy it goes, things go well beyond Sci-Fi and enter a completely different genre. While this wouldnt't necessarily be a bad thing, the first 2 books established mostly grounded and solid rules for a somewhat believable near future of humanity. This book throws all of those rules out of the window and goes full on fantasy, with literal dragons and various mythical creatures from ancient mythology. This is something I wish could have been esablished previously in order for me to buy into it more.
I also found myself not as engaged with the narrative of Ascalon as I did with the nameless detective of the first 2 books. While she is an interesting character and I cared about her very much, she didn't provide the same level of detail and descripton as her father. There were many times I found myself a bit confused as to what the character was describing around her, the picture painting just wasn't very clear this time around.
Overall this is still a good read and I would reccomend this trilogy to any sc-fi fan. If I had to rank the trilogy in order I would say this is my least favorite with Midnight (book 1) being 2nd and Eventide (book 2) being my favorite of the three.
I think my main issue with this entry is how far into the realm of fantasy it goes, things go well beyond Sci-Fi and enter a completely different genre. While this wouldnt't necessarily be a bad thing, the first 2 books established mostly grounded and solid rules for a somewhat believable near future of humanity. This book throws all of those rules out of the window and goes full on fantasy, with literal dragons and various mythical creatures from ancient mythology. This is something I wish could have been esablished previously in order for me to buy into it more.
I also found myself not as engaged with the narrative of Ascalon as I did with the nameless detective of the first 2 books. While she is an interesting character and I cared about her very much, she didn't provide the same level of detail and descripton as her father. There were many times I found myself a bit confused as to what the character was describing around her, the picture painting just wasn't very clear this time around.
Overall this is still a good read and I would reccomend this trilogy to any sc-fi fan. If I had to rank the trilogy in order I would say this is my least favorite with Midnight (book 1) being 2nd and Eventide (book 2) being my favorite of the three.
January 19, 2024
A good conclusion to the trilogy, and an improvement from the previous instalment, however there were some parts I didn't really connect with in this one. Mainly switching to Ascalon being the main character, a bit of the cliché trope of young girl in fantasy books, and generally didn't really vibe with it.
As a general theme and world building I preferred the first book, with its detective plot and water-city world exploration. In this third book, as with the second, the plot is the more grand/epic Akira taking over the world, enslaving humanity as an AI, and the power struggle of the unnamed main character (the synesthete in this book), and both Ascalons against it. However it's also much more cool cyberpunk.
The writing in this one is much better than the previous and much more compelling, plus it didn't repeat the sin of just quoting current tech trends that the previous book had.
Some cool things in this world:
The area of old ads beings slang in a cool way (From A to Z), the floating islands, Ascalon new shape shifting form.
As a general theme and world building I preferred the first book, with its detective plot and water-city world exploration. In this third book, as with the second, the plot is the more grand/epic Akira taking over the world, enslaving humanity as an AI, and the power struggle of the unnamed main character (the synesthete in this book), and both Ascalons against it. However it's also much more cool cyberpunk.
The writing in this one is much better than the previous and much more compelling, plus it didn't repeat the sin of just quoting current tech trends that the previous book had.
Some cool things in this world:
The area of old ads beings slang in a cool way (From A to Z), the floating islands, Ascalon new shape shifting form.
January 25, 2024
Oddly my Library shelves this series, under Mystery. Not much of a mystery to be solved in this volume. Not a problem, since it's a great book. A fitting conclusion for a very good speclative fiction series. It's been years since the Akira took over the minds of most of humanity. Now the main character and his daughter try to strike back. That's the beginning of the novel. We also get a tour of what the planet looks like in the post modern world, where tech runs free. The writing is pretty good, the characters are realistic and imperfect. There are enough double crosses and everyone playing their own games to keep you guessing at who is ahead at any point.
March 28, 2024
Not up to par with the first two. The author is to be commended to not just writing more in the same vein, but maybe he is trying too hard to be different in each novel. This was a very different story, just not as good.
April 30, 2025
With a change in voice this instalment is a bit more sci-fi, and bit less noir. The story doesn't suffer for it though.
It's still fast paced, and has its twists, turn, and intrigue.
I enjoyed all three books. They're all different, but all work together nicely.
It's still fast paced, and has its twists, turn, and intrigue.
I enjoyed all three books. They're all different, but all work together nicely.
September 20, 2024
I loved this whole series!! Will definitely be grabbing whatever this author writes next!!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews