What do you think?
Rate this book
Arx: City of Broken Minds
Inhale the memory. Exhale the truth. City of Broken Minds is a standalone epic of grimdark fantasy.
In Arx, no-one remembers anything. Not the Flame Protests. Not the Sightless executioner. Not even themselves.
Caelan's memories have been stolen. All he has left is instinct and fear. Fear of the Fog-Eyes, mindless and drooling. The emptiness that lies in his future unless he can quiet the nameless voice screaming in his head. And he will burn Arx to ashes to avoid it.
Samantha, an asexual blacksmith and perpetual paternal disappointment, knows exactly what she'll be remembered Callisteel. A mythic metal that can pierce reality, it waits for her beneath the smog that scars the sky black. No matter the cost.
Ruairi, a famer boy with a twisted spine, heads to Arx desperate to avoid being pitied. On the way, he rescues a man with violet eyes. His reward is a nightmare of blue fire and blood that pushes him to the edge of what his broken body can take – and beyond.
Mindbreakers walk once more in Arx, drawn to the spire of unbroken metal that hangs like a blade against the rotten heart of the city. Now their master has returned, it is only a matter of time before it awakens and slices the connection between reality and memory for good...
In Arx, no-one remembers anything. Not the Flame Protests. Not the Sightless executioner. Not even themselves.
Caelan's memories have been stolen. All he has left is instinct and fear. Fear of the Fog-Eyes, mindless and drooling. The emptiness that lies in his future unless he can quiet the nameless voice screaming in his head. And he will burn Arx to ashes to avoid it.
Samantha, an asexual blacksmith and perpetual paternal disappointment, knows exactly what she'll be remembered Callisteel. A mythic metal that can pierce reality, it waits for her beneath the smog that scars the sky black. No matter the cost.
Ruairi, a famer boy with a twisted spine, heads to Arx desperate to avoid being pitied. On the way, he rescues a man with violet eyes. His reward is a nightmare of blue fire and blood that pushes him to the edge of what his broken body can take – and beyond.
Mindbreakers walk once more in Arx, drawn to the spire of unbroken metal that hangs like a blade against the rotten heart of the city. Now their master has returned, it is only a matter of time before it awakens and slices the connection between reality and memory for good...
460 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 17, 2024
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 11, 2025
This is an unusual and very clever work of grimdark fantasy that refuses to be constrained by expectations of the genre. Strongly character led, it follows several POV characters in close third person, and creates a very clear character voice for each. The language, too, is unconstrained by fantasy language tropes, using a vernacular that eschews medieval speech, and is downright modern at times. But again, language varies between character voice. The writing, too, is very clever. This is a writer who knows a lot about writing, in a tale that is sweeping and innovative, in a rich setting.
The basic premise is also very good. That the cost of magic must be paid with the memories of the magic user is a great idea, and allows a great piece of reflection at about the 80% mark, when one of the POV characters reflects on who he is. Very good stuff.
All that being said, I am annoyed with myself that I didn't like this more. I did like the story. I enjoyed it for all the ways it showed how a different kind of fantasy tale could be told. But I was not as engrossed in the characters as I should have been. It lagged a little, and some of the innovation around use of language perhaps indicated for me why we have those fantasy tropes. When people read into genre fiction, the writer can use the assumptions of the genre to guide the reader. Here, the use language left me a little disconnected. The lack of memories thing added to the disconnection. And somehow this prevented me connecting with the POV characters as deeply as I should have.
Maybe a more patient reader than me might adore this book. For me, it was definitely one I was glad to have read, but it was not something I would re-read.
I should probably rate it three stars, but because it is so clever and innovative, and because it doesn't have many reviews yet, I'll run to four (and my star ratings skew lower than the average, so that *is* a recommendation).
The basic premise is also very good. That the cost of magic must be paid with the memories of the magic user is a great idea, and allows a great piece of reflection at about the 80% mark, when one of the POV characters reflects on who he is. Very good stuff.
All that being said, I am annoyed with myself that I didn't like this more. I did like the story. I enjoyed it for all the ways it showed how a different kind of fantasy tale could be told. But I was not as engrossed in the characters as I should have been. It lagged a little, and some of the innovation around use of language perhaps indicated for me why we have those fantasy tropes. When people read into genre fiction, the writer can use the assumptions of the genre to guide the reader. Here, the use language left me a little disconnected. The lack of memories thing added to the disconnection. And somehow this prevented me connecting with the POV characters as deeply as I should have.
Maybe a more patient reader than me might adore this book. For me, it was definitely one I was glad to have read, but it was not something I would re-read.
I should probably rate it three stars, but because it is so clever and innovative, and because it doesn't have many reviews yet, I'll run to four (and my star ratings skew lower than the average, so that *is* a recommendation).
June 18, 2025
An engaging and multi-layered debut that is not just about survival, try tap road to create the richness of the story that will gradually reveal and reward patient readers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews