The Last City

The Demon War Chronicles #1

by Nina D'Aleo

An intoxicating blend of noir crime, science fiction and fantasy THE LAST CITY is BLADE RUNNER meets PERDIDO STREET STATION.

Scorpia – the last city of Aquais – where the Ar Antarians rule, the machine-breeds serve and in-between a multitude of races and species eke out an existence somewhere between the ever-blazing city lights and the endless darkness of the underside.

As a spate of murders and abductions grip the city, new recruit Silho Brabel is sent to the Oscuri Trackers, an elite military squad commanded by the notorious Copernicus Kane. But Silho has a terrible secret and must fight to hide her strange abilities and monstrous heritage.

As the team delve deeper into Scorpia’s underworld, they discover a nightmare truth.

Hunted by demons, the Trackers must band together with a condemned fugitive, a rogue wraith and a gangster king and stake their lives against an all-powerful enemy to try to save their world and one another.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Dystopia, Urban Fantasy

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2012

Reviews

[Paul Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurb attracted me to this debut novel as I stumbled across it on Amazon.

An intoxicating blend of noir crime, science fiction and fantasy The Last City is Blade Runner meets Perdido Street Station.

Scorpia - the last city of Aquais - where the Ar Antarians rule, the machine-breeds serve and in-between a multitude of races and species eke out an existence somewhere between the ever-blazing city lights and the endless darkness of the underside.

As a spate of murders and abductions grip the city, new recruit Silho Brabel is sent to the Oscuri Trackers, an elite military squad commanded by the notorious Copernicus Kane. But Silho has a terrible secret and must fight to hide her strange abilities and monstrous heritage.

As the team delve deeper into Scorpia's underworld, they discover a nightmare truth. Hunted by demons, the Trackers must band together with a condemned fugitive, a rogue wraith and a gangster king and stake their lives against an all-powerful enemy to try to save their world and one another.

Sounds good, definitely not this is truly fantastic the author effortlessly blends an incredible sci-fi setting with intriguing fantasy elements.
The world building is wonderfully unique, set in a layered city surrounded by desert with the rich and powerful living at the top and the lower echelons down at the bottom.
The humans have mixed animal blood lines which reminds me of the shadows of the apt series but its done better and the powers some of these humans have brings much interest. In fact all the different species in the book are cleverly done with Androbots, spectral beings and the evil skreafs adding a darker tone to the book.
The story starts as a murder investigation but develops in to a threat to the city and everyone in it, ending with a stunning climax.
The characters are all excellent, the Oscuri Trackers are the investigative branch of the police/regiment and its members by majority are strong action types from the Commander Copernicus Kane to the new recruit Silho Brabel. They all have secrets and dark pasts that come to light throughout the book but the standout character is the weakest of the bunch the tech wizard Eli Anklebitter an imp who has a tendency to blurt out the wrong things under pressure.
This book only came out at the beginning of August, so I guess is largely undiscovered yet I hope not for long as this is a fantastic read and highly recommended, a credit to the author who has a unique and wonderful imagination. I look forward to the next book set in the last city.

[Tudor Ciocarlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good debut novel. The blurb says that "THE LAST CITY is BLADE RUNNER meets PERDIDO STREET STATION." But Nina D'Aleo is not Philip Dick or China Mieville and this is a good thing. She has a very interesting, unique voice that tells wonderful things. The setting is incredible, the characters very good, but what is really impressive is the ability with which the writer is juggling with almost every fantastic creature and fantasy concept from the last 1000 years. And in no moment what D'Aleo is doing is to much because everything is weaved together almost without a flaw and the world is logic and natural in a very science-fictional way. And if this only is a debut novel, I can't wait see what wonderful books she'll give us next.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last City is a book of balance. D’Aleo writes an action packed book which is balanced by an incredible world and some tantalizing depth. Her characters are wonderfully weird, balanced by some very humanizing attributes. D’Aleo’s world is absolutely memorable due to how wonderfully unique it is. Her prose are stunning. Basically, for a debut work, this is a book that the author should be amazingly proud of, as it truly sets her apart from the crowd. I can’t wait to see what’s next. D’Aleo is an author to watch.


Read my full review here:

http://www.bookwormblues.net/2012/08/...

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a great debut novel. A mix of genres and a bunch of interestinf characters.
For my taste there have been too many fights.
Full review in progress .. should be available end of September 2012.

[S.B. Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Last City by Nina D’Aleo is one of the growing number of novels that have been picked up by the PanMacmillan digital offshoot Momentum. It's available in both digital and print on demand format as per Momentums business model.

The Last City was characterised as Perdido Street Station meets Blade Runner. I haven't read the Miéville title but going on online summaries I can see the comparison. With D’Aleo’s Scorpia we have an ancient city, that is falling down in as much as it is being built up. Comparison could be made to the Mega Cities that feature in 2000 AD as well.

The allusion to Blade Runner is apt in that hi tech is juxtaposed with the crumbling mish-mash of a patchwork city. To my mind it lacks the hardboiled single detective element though. It’s mystery/investigation elements have their roots more in recent police procedurals like CSI.

Scorpia – the last city of Aquais – where the Ar Antarians rule, the machine-breeds serve and in between a multitude of races and species eke out an existence somewhere between the ever-blazing city lights and the endless darkness of the underside.

As a spate of murders and abductions grip the city, new recruit Silho Brabel is sent to the Oscuri Trackers, an elite military squad commanded by the notorious Copernicus Kane. But Silho has a terrible secret and must fight to hide her strange abilities and monstrous heritage.

As the team delve deeper into Scorpia’s underworld, they discover a nightmare truth.
Hunted by demons, the Trackers must band together with a condemned fugitive, a rogue wraith and a gangster king and stake their lives against an all-powerful enemy to try to save one another and their world.

To this setting D’Aleo brings a plethora of diverse races and a magical abilities tied to bloodlines and evil curse worked sorcery. If I could praise one thing about D’Aleo’s work its the originality of her world building around races and their abilities. It’s definitely not elves and dwarves with small transistor radios stuck to the side of their head. She’s put a good deal of work into giving the reader something fresh to look at while telling an interesting story. The names and places, the nomenclature of the world of The Last City is colourful and fresh.

It begins as somewhat of a police procedural and I liked the band of Oscuri Trackers that we were introduced to. A group of misfits who shouldn’t be able to work together but somehow do. D’Aleo gives the reader poorly lit streets, tensions between races - I was prepared to knuckle down into a good “hard as nails” techno fantasy version of CSI.

Then we changed tack a bit and the tale tends to become larger in scale - we move towards the epic adventure. Now there are plenty of police procedurals that start with the small events that go on to reveal conspiracies but the scale is still small i.e. uncovering a small group of corrupt but powerful conspiring politicians.

This change in itself was okay but I think that D’Aleo tried to keep a foot in both camps and I found it hard to settle again. Was this detective fiction or epic adventure?

D’Aleo is great at painting the setting of Scorpia, a place that you can smell and see, a setting with real texture. This works well for the small scale mystery less so for the action adventure, which to my mind needs to move fast. There’s a scene where we are introduced to the multitude of gangs that inhabit the seedier parts of Scorpia. We are treated to beautiful rich descriptions of the various gangs and their affiliations. Only two of these,however, feature throughout the rest of the novel - I can’t help feeling that D’Aleo would have been better served giving us broad brushstrokes on the less important gangs for the sake of pacing.

I also found it difficult to decide which character I should be rooting for. That’s not to say that each book needs to have one main protagonist but I did find myself at a loss as to who to place most of my care in until nearer the end of the novel. In the end it was the comical character of Eli that seemed to identify with the most and I am not sure if shouldn’t have been Silho Brabel.

Original and ambitious, The Last City is part mystery, part police procedural, part epic world saving adventure and I am not sure if some of the elements quiet work together. The book, however is full to the brim with a rich detailed setting. I’ll be very interested to see which direction D’Aleo takes with book 2.

If you are a fan of Games workshop’s gothic infused 40K and its spinoffs like Necromunda you should check it out.

This book was provided to me by the publisher.

[Jason Beech · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nina D'Aleo's The Last City is a mash-up of sci-fi and fantasy, set I'm not sure where and peopled by I'm not sure what. If you're not much into fantasy or sci-fi then you'll have your patience sorely tested... but stick with it.
The population in The Last City is a bunch of differing races whose genetics have mashed with different animals, some illegally. So, you have a gangster with lion characteristics, spectral breeds which can merge into walls, and main characters who can read your heat to check emotion, morph physical objects, look into a location's history by listening to its walls, and travel down into the earth and reappear elsewhere. Copernicus Kane is the leader of a tracking unit, comprising Jude, a half-Androt (and thus a second class citizen); Diega (who morphs objects), Eli (a winged gadget genius), and newcomer Silho Brabel, who has a history that could target her for death.
Their enemies are the Skreaf, a race of witch-demons trying to raise their lord with the help of a ring belonging to the gangster Shawe, and one giant machine that must be destroyed.
I almost packed it in half-way through. I couldn't quite get my head round the Star Wars bar freaks populating the novel, especially getting annoyed at Eli's wings. I couldn't help thinking of that annoying Italian caricature in George Lucas' ropey Phantom Menace. Which got me thinking of Jar Jar-fingers-down-the-blackboard Binks. If I'd read the paper version I might have thrown it out the window and hit my poor old neighbour.
What saved said neighbour is that the book wears its fantasy and sci-fi lightly, never getting bogged down in silly explanations. And so you don't have to read through reams of verbal dog-doo of how Diega can morph objects. She just can. Just like the brilliantly cynical Ev'r Keets can transport herself through earth and reappear elsewhere. And once you get to the second half of the book, the story's momentum does take you right to the end, where you even start to like Eli and his annoying wings.
Overall, it's definitely recommended if you like this kind of thing. It's funny, cynical, at times brutal, and has a lot of pace, not allowing much time to pull back and say "you what?" to its fantastical crackpottery. It is definitely not recommended if you want your fiction planted firmly on terra firma.

[Patrick O'Duffy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The standout element of this book is its bizarre, brilliant setting - Scorpia, a 1000-level skyscraper-city populated by humans, aliens, imps, androids and animal-breeds, a city of weird magic and cyberpunkish technology, a city groaning with history and grotesquerie. It's the kind of setting that demands that you not just willingly suspend but completely ignore disbelief; if you can do that, D'Aleo colourfully evokes this decaying, vital, fascinating place in every chapter.

Sadly, the story she writes within this setting is a lot more flawed. It's a confusing, overbusy morass featuring a bewildering array of characters, all with strange powers and complex backstories, that groans under the weight of too much going on and not enough time spent exploring any of it. This isn't helped by her prose style, which has moments of strength but too often is bland, matter-of-fact and flatly paced, robbing important action and emotional scenes of their drama and power.

And yet I finished the whole book, and on the whole I enjoyed it. It's written with more ambition than skill - but damnit, we need more books with ambition, that dare to go big and crazy. And for all that the prose falls flat too often, the characters are mostly engaging and interesting, and I wanted to find out what happened to them. That's more than some finely crafted books can manage.

I can't recommend The Last City whole-heartedly, but I want to see what Nina D'Aleo writes next; I want to see what else she pulls out of Scorpia, once she has more polished skills and can live up to her ambition. So check this book out if the setting sounds appealing to you, or if you want to see the beginning of what could be a fascinating authorial career.

[Holly Kench · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last City is an intense combination of fantasy and sci-fi with a touch of noir. I have never read anything quite like it.

I will admit that the combination of genres made it initially a little difficult to get my head into the story, but D’Aleo’s incredible world building soon sucked me in. There is an ease to the world building in The Last City which comes as something as a surprise given the genre combination. The fantastical creatures, sci-fi tech, and futuristic landscape are all described in a way that fits well into the narrative without becoming overwhelming, and instead fills the story with a rich texture.

In terms of characterization, D'Aleo manages to write interesting insight into each of her characters. All the characters are explored thoroughly throughout the novel and make up a fascinating reading of the different aspects of humanity. That said, there were maybe a few too many characters and at times I found myself struggling to keep my ducks in a row as the characters and bouncing point of view became a little convoluted.

My favourite character was Eli, and I would have been happy had the entire novel been from his point of view, though this would have also created a lot of limitations on the story’s narrative. D'Aleo has a wicked sense of humour that comes out through Eli's personality, which is a nice break from the often heart breaking nature of this novel and indeed this character.

I'm really looking forward to the sequel!

The Last City loses an extra star because, despite her heroism, Silho was unconscious for much of the action which is one of my pet peeves, but gains a star because I REALLY want a pet otter.

[Maree Kimberley · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are a fan of fast-paced action and adventure set in some brilliant world-building, then The Last City is the book for you.

I always have great admiration for any writer who can create a convincing, authentic world for their novel, and D'Aleo has done a masterful job of creating the legion of posthuman species and the multi-layered city of Scorpia they inhabit. The unveiling of the world is skilfully woven within the action, avoiding any heavy-handed slabs of backstory.

There is also a good dose of humour in the story. The clumsy yet brilliant elf-breed Eli Anklebiter was one of my favourite characters, not only for his comical side but because of the depth of his character.

Action abounds in The Last City. There is plenty of fighting between warring factions from hand to hand combat to hurling of dark curses and visions. But the action takes place in a fully-realised world, with three-dimensional characters I quickly came to care about. The struggles of main characters Sihlo, Jude and Copernicus to come to terms with the truth of who they are and where they come from gives depth to the narrative, and I came to really care for these characters. Not just cheering for them to win the physical battles they're fighting, but also for the internal battles they had to face.

The Last City is a great debut from new author D'Aleo, and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Highly recommended.

[Ahimsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know if I have enough superlatives to describe this book. It's billed as Bladerunner meets Perdido Street Station, but it's far closer to Mieville than Dick (assuming that by "Bladerunner" they mean "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.) The calling card of Last City is the alpine levels of creativity, but there are too many things gone right.

The prose is always very good and sometimes even quite excellent. The intriguing plot is convincing without ever seeming contrived. But like with Mieville (and unlike Dick)this is a book of fascinating characters. Moral, immoral, and amoral alike mix in the mean streets, and while I don't usually have favorite characters, Eli the imp-breed is sheer genius. He stands out as a great character you want to read more about as much as Tyrion Lannister did in the late 90's.

Quibbles: The villain was a bit generic, and too many characters had contentious relationships with their parents. These were, for me, the only less than perfect notes.

I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

[Jason Franks · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last City is an excellent SF-Fantasy adventure novel that runs roughshod over genre boundaries but never fails to deliver on its characters.

Nina D'Aleo drops you right into the action and lets you work out what's happening for yourself. There are no sodden exposition dumps, no languid and verbose descriptions of the scenery or the settings. We discover the world of the Last City by living in it.

D'Aleo's characters are equally well thought-out delivered. They're unique, cool, flawed and interesting, full of depth and detail. Perhaps D'Aleo takes the axiom 'every character has a secret' a little too far, but it makes for an entertaining and surprising read, full of action and intrigue and brimming with a rare imagination.

All of the pieces fit together neatly--perhaps a little too neatly--but this is book is a rare combination of thrilling and truly original, executed with grace and panache.

Go read it.

[Henry Lazarus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nina D'Aleo has a strange, but ancient world that has both magic and technology; Androids, human breeds with wings, and demons in Scorpia , The Last City(trade from Momentum)of Aquais . The Oscuri Trackers investigate strange murders, and they have several in which the corpses came from something explosive within them. Led by Copernicus Kane, a harsh man demanding perfection because of his horrible father, they don’t realize they are faced with a rise of immortal demons. The rest of the team includes Diega who can manipulate metal with a word and carries a flier compressed to the size of a coin in her pocket, Jude who’s hiding his noble origins; Eli who can hack computers and flies with wings on his back, and the latest recruit Silho Brabel who is hiding her rare breeding and talents. Helped by a Gangster King and a wanted fugitive, the action is pulse-pounding and the tale is impossible to put down. Review Printed in Philadelphia Weekly Press

[Sachin Dev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nina has done what a lot of new authors would be dreaming of. Rewrite the rules of the genre with a mash-up that pushes the boundaries and refuses to be straight-jacketed into a certain “type” of fantasy writing. It’s a bold vision – unabashed and unapologetic in its originality and imagination, deftly executed in a lyrical prose that brings alive the last city of Scorpia with world building of tantalizing depths that leaves you gasping for more.

Weird in the good sense (‘Mievelle-esque’ sense) with a world that is unique and tantalizing and some unforgettable characters whom we cannot wait to see again, Nina D’Aleo delivers a stunning debut with the Last City. It’s definitely worth all the hype it’s garnered and am hoping the Forgotten City ups the bar in terms of the Weird and Fantastical. Four Stars!

Here's my detailed review: bit.ly/1eRUTI9

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a copy of this to read through NetGalley. First off, I'm a sucker for a great cover and this one really caught my attention.

This book is an interesting mix of fantasy characters in a sci-fi world. My one complaint is that I would have loved cheat sheet listing of the various character species/types. It took me a bit of time to get into the story but I think that was mainly because I was trying to remember the specifics about all the characters introduced.

The author built a stunning world that encompassing so many different characters without losing any sense of the original action packed police procedural storyline.

I read the book in one sitting and eagerly await reading the next book in the series.

[Andreea Pausan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing world building, great imagination in a coherent and surprising book: the city of Scorpia where people have animal bloodlines and characteristics (viper with poison glands and fangs, lions, eagles with wings and super vision , bats and wolfs with echolocation and super sight and smell, etc). And there are also imps and fairies and giants and witches and a thousand of other breeds living, loving, moving, fighting and dying together. Enter Copernicus Kane, the head of en elite investigator team (with a dark past and a complicated friendship with famous crime bosses), his team (an imp, a fairy, an Androt half-man- half-machine, each with their particular story and a new recruit Silho Brabel with an unique ability. Nothing short of miraculous it all fitted in 300+ pages.

[Merrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really a C+ grade

I liked this story a lot. The author has made an original, decadent world with an interesting mix of races that are not the usual suspects. It begins as a police procedural and then moves into end of the city, everything at risk mode. It also reads as if the author has these amazing intentions and ideas and begins to lose a bit of control over the story as everything is connected/wrapped up. I am looking forward to the next book with pleasure.

[Duncan Swann · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was a riveting and imaginative sci-fi read, it felt too simple. There were too many grandiose ideas (some of which may be resolved in sequels) and it felt cramped. Compared to China Mieville it's extremely plain, with too much reliance on easy character verbs. The pace was good, the plot solid, if somewhat expected. Despite a good attempt at world building I never really got a solid picture in my mind, possibly because of having too much going on.

[Liviu]

saw some reviews that interested me; the sample was ok'ish and there is some resemblance to the M. Sagara Cast series which i started but never got far into but as I was in a buy books mood and the book was only 3$ on Amazon Kindle, I thought it worth

second try as i really want to like this book and I keep getting bogged down in its style

[Amy Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that Nina D'Aleo created a amazing new world. This book grabbed my attention from the begining and I couldn't put it down. This book has the perfect mix of scifi/fantasy/mystery with a touch of romance. I can't wait for the next book hopefully it comes out soon. I would definitely recommend this book.

[Amanda Bridgeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's the first one I've read in a while that actually made me want to get back to it. It's filled with great characters of all shapes and sizes (and flaws), has an intricately woven plot that keeps you turning the pages, and is set against a rich tapestry of world-building that stretches the imagination. I look forward to the follow-up book that's in the works!

[Phill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great example of a large cast, intense sci-fi hybrid thriller. If you want my full impressions, check out my podcast review of this book at my website. I'm looking forward to more from D'Aleo!

[Di Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book - it was a mix of science fiction and fantasy, with all sorts of different races in the book - bots, humans, witches, imps, and so forth. Kept me interested all the way through looking forward to reading the next instalment.

[Doreen Dalesandro]

Kindle freebie, 11/22/12

[David Leger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mix of sci-fi and fantasy, science & magic. The book tends to be somewhat incoherent early on, but everything comes together and the suspense holds you.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

'twas okay.

[Laura Greenwood]

DNF at 5%

The first chapter was interesting but then I just started getting really confused.

[Elly · Rating 4 out of 5]

So... this book was kind of amazing.

[C.F. Villion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this, but can see it being a "you either love it or you hate it" title for people. :)