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Thunderer #2
Gears of the City
In this stunning follow-up to his acclaimed debut, Thunderer , Felix Gilman’s brave hero returns from one thrilling and dangerous quest only to confront another. In a magical landscape where time is meaningless, reality precarious, and countless selves work toward countless possible futures, one man must seek a city’s truth—and rediscover his own.
Imprisoned with a prophetic half human, half beast, the lost man learns his Arjun . Slowly the terrible memories emerge, and at last he remembers where—and when—he has been. . . .
In the last days of the once great city of Ararat, Arjun is just another ghost lost in the shadows of the Mountain. To some, the Mountain is a myth, to others, a weapon. Above all, it is a dark palace leaving its seekers to wander the city below. For no matter how far one walks, the Mountain never draws closer, and time itself becomes another trap.
Rescued by two sisters from the mindless Know-Nothings who erode what’s left of the city, Arjun volunteers to retrieve their long-lost third sister from a ghost like Brace-Bel, another man out of time. It will require a perilous trek through ruins to a decadent mansion—one surrounded by traps and devices that could not possibly exist yet. And what awaits Arjun inside is something he could not possibly have imagined.
As he struggles to recover the lost girl and piece the fragments of his life back together, Arjun knows he must finally return to the beast to hear the rest of its prophecy. But each step is more treacherous than the last . . . and the beast who knows his fate may pose the most deadly trial yet.
A spellbinding novel of imagination and intrigue, Gears of the City will propel you into an adventure like no other, in a world like no other.
Imprisoned with a prophetic half human, half beast, the lost man learns his Arjun . Slowly the terrible memories emerge, and at last he remembers where—and when—he has been. . . .
In the last days of the once great city of Ararat, Arjun is just another ghost lost in the shadows of the Mountain. To some, the Mountain is a myth, to others, a weapon. Above all, it is a dark palace leaving its seekers to wander the city below. For no matter how far one walks, the Mountain never draws closer, and time itself becomes another trap.
Rescued by two sisters from the mindless Know-Nothings who erode what’s left of the city, Arjun volunteers to retrieve their long-lost third sister from a ghost like Brace-Bel, another man out of time. It will require a perilous trek through ruins to a decadent mansion—one surrounded by traps and devices that could not possibly exist yet. And what awaits Arjun inside is something he could not possibly have imagined.
As he struggles to recover the lost girl and piece the fragments of his life back together, Arjun knows he must finally return to the beast to hear the rest of its prophecy. But each step is more treacherous than the last . . . and the beast who knows his fate may pose the most deadly trial yet.
A spellbinding novel of imagination and intrigue, Gears of the City will propel you into an adventure like no other, in a world like no other.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
7 people are currently reading
467 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
October 19, 2011
Gilman follows up his impressive debut with a book that layers on excesses and shows such brazen ambition that it should be a loud messy failure. Like Moorcock’s Cornelius Quartet, and Hal Duncan’s Vellum a twisting series of timelines, genre, and realities is presented that should reduce the narrative to collage but as in the last half of the Thunderer the author retains a consistent narrative energy that holds the story together in ways that those two mentioned(and wonderful) books don’t. Like Duncan and Moorcock, Gilman also uses the multiverse theme to present essays on various genres so cyberpunk, high fantasy, new wave science fiction, gothic surrealism, steampunk(definitely more from the reality of 19th century ruled by filibusters and other men with guns than Sherlock Holmes and penny dreadfuls), and war stories coexist. An ambitious fantasy that sags a little in the middle, but comes back in a big way and is what I wish the movie Dark City had been like.
December 15, 2008
Gears of City was a novel I had very high expectations about and not only delivered but surpassed them.
Without too many spoilers, the book moves into clear New Weird territory as well as reminding me a bit of Gene Wolfe's Long Sun setting, with a decaying and alternating between bleak and wondrous landscape.
Arjun is still looking for his music God, but now he is unstuck from normal time in Ararat, being able to navigate the Metacontext that threads the history of Ararat at least of some places and times within the City, while he takes breaks in a "Hotel" that is a favorite place of other people that "broke through".
The ultimate goal of these people that are unstuck from time is the conquest of the Mountain, but unprepared attempts are not advisable since you can find yourself a "ghost", a memoryless person in a decaying part/time of the City and this is exactly how Gears of the City starts.
Arjun is lucky though and he is taken in by the Low sisters, Ruth the dreamer and Martha the practical, and narrowly avoiding the "Know-Nothings" that summarily execute such ghosts since most come with tales of war and destruction. Then he agrees to try and find the third sister, Ivy the smart and brilliant with machines like their disappeared and presumed dead father. Ivy was kidnapped/went willingly with the one powerful "ghost" washed up in that decaying time/place, that even the Know-Nothings and Power to Be grudgingly avoid, known as Brace-Bel and being a sort of "mellower" Sade like man looking for transcendence in pleasure and pain.
There is a lot of sense of wonder in this novel and the pages turned on by themselves. I need to reread it at least once to fully savor it and it definitely stakes a claim at a top 09 novel for me.
Thunderer somehow staked a claim on the boundary of the New Weird and traditional epic, but this one goes in deep New Weird territory. Excellent novel.
Without too many spoilers, the book moves into clear New Weird territory as well as reminding me a bit of Gene Wolfe's Long Sun setting, with a decaying and alternating between bleak and wondrous landscape.
Arjun is still looking for his music God, but now he is unstuck from normal time in Ararat, being able to navigate the Metacontext that threads the history of Ararat at least of some places and times within the City, while he takes breaks in a "Hotel" that is a favorite place of other people that "broke through".
The ultimate goal of these people that are unstuck from time is the conquest of the Mountain, but unprepared attempts are not advisable since you can find yourself a "ghost", a memoryless person in a decaying part/time of the City and this is exactly how Gears of the City starts.
Arjun is lucky though and he is taken in by the Low sisters, Ruth the dreamer and Martha the practical, and narrowly avoiding the "Know-Nothings" that summarily execute such ghosts since most come with tales of war and destruction. Then he agrees to try and find the third sister, Ivy the smart and brilliant with machines like their disappeared and presumed dead father. Ivy was kidnapped/went willingly with the one powerful "ghost" washed up in that decaying time/place, that even the Know-Nothings and Power to Be grudgingly avoid, known as Brace-Bel and being a sort of "mellower" Sade like man looking for transcendence in pleasure and pain.
There is a lot of sense of wonder in this novel and the pages turned on by themselves. I need to reread it at least once to fully savor it and it definitely stakes a claim at a top 09 novel for me.
Thunderer somehow staked a claim on the boundary of the New Weird and traditional epic, but this one goes in deep New Weird territory. Excellent novel.
June 17, 2009
In the taxonomy of city fiction writer Gilman is a progression from Gaiman to Mieville to Van Der Meer to himself. Unfortunately he seems to have each author's weakness and none of their strengths. The premise of the book is interesting enough, but the actualization of it is flawed and a little boring.
July 31, 2013
This is a sequel to his Thunderer. I do recommend reading that first. Since this one starts out with the main character amnesiac, it's not obvious up front, but it becomes obvious.
Now, Thunderer took place in an enormous city haunted by gods -- strange, inhuman, numinous beings, whose apparitions were endless and quite capable of driving men mad. Although individual gods appeared generally for a period of time and then less and less until they ceased, new gods always appeared. Gave an interesting effect to the religions of the city. The plot lacked focus, I thought, and some things that proved to be important to what proved to be the main plot were introduced a little late -- but, you notice, I picked up The Gears of the City.
This one is better focused. The main character lacks his memory after an encounter with the Mountain, a stable though numinous landmark. He landed -- he can travel through space and time in the city -- in a portion of the city lacking in gods. He meets up with a prophetic lizard and with the Low sisters, and learns more of the oddities of the city. And of the looming War. Characters -- villains and others -- reappear from Thunderer in a much more elegant plot. And things -- even things from Thunderer -- get resolved, magnificently.
Despite the title, this is not steampunk. Anachronism-punk, maybe, since the characters can go through time and you get the oddest mixes of technology. 0:)
Now, Thunderer took place in an enormous city haunted by gods -- strange, inhuman, numinous beings, whose apparitions were endless and quite capable of driving men mad. Although individual gods appeared generally for a period of time and then less and less until they ceased, new gods always appeared. Gave an interesting effect to the religions of the city. The plot lacked focus, I thought, and some things that proved to be important to what proved to be the main plot were introduced a little late -- but, you notice, I picked up The Gears of the City.
This one is better focused. The main character lacks his memory after an encounter with the Mountain, a stable though numinous landmark. He landed -- he can travel through space and time in the city -- in a portion of the city lacking in gods. He meets up with a prophetic lizard and with the Low sisters, and learns more of the oddities of the city. And of the looming War. Characters -- villains and others -- reappear from Thunderer in a much more elegant plot. And things -- even things from Thunderer -- get resolved, magnificently.
Despite the title, this is not steampunk. Anachronism-punk, maybe, since the characters can go through time and you get the oddest mixes of technology. 0:)
January 3, 2011
"Gears of the City" is a wonderful book, and a great follow-up to the previous "Thunderer." While evidently this book can be read as a stand-alone, it makes much more sense after being exposed to the complex character that is the city itself as introduced in Thunderer. I've heard Gilman compared to Mieville. While I recognize the skill and vision behind Mieville's "Perdido Street station" and "The Scar," there is something effortlessly beautiful and lyrical about Gilman's writing that adds real literary depth to the style of the so-called "New Weird" writers. Though I haven't read Mieville's more recent works, which have garnered no small amount of praise, I would heartily recommend Gilman's writing as an introduction to this sub-genre that defies genre. Gilman's two books work on so many levels: as social criticism, as character study, as mystery, as dystopian fantasy, and as an unfolding adventure. Put simply, Gilman draws you in with his clever and lucid writing. He never forces you to digest byzantine metaphors wrapped in steampunk tropes. And he isn't derivative (though I feared at first in Thunderer that he might be). His imagery and storytelling seem to integrate previous ideas while still feeling fresh. And that's a good sign for this genre of writing.
February 15, 2013
I was a little put off at first by the significantly different tone than it's predecessor - a much darker, philosophical tone - but I had gotten over that within the first couple of chapters. This book easily matches and, in many ways, surpasses Thunderer.
Gilman is so wildly imaginative and descriptive (much of the time without specifically describing anything) that he is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.
The nerdy part of me wants to draw parallels between Gear's Inspector Maury and Half-Made World's Linesman Lowry; both systematically-repressed lawmen who obsess about something more fantastic than their rigid, dreary lot in life. They both serve as not only view points into an otherwise unseen part of the world, but as characters in their own 'story-within-a-story' plotlines (Thunderer's Captain character is fairly similar as well). Unfortunately, another similiarity all these characters share is that, once their personal arc is done, they fall to the wayside and end as somewhat unsatisfactory characters.
Gilman is so wildly imaginative and descriptive (much of the time without specifically describing anything) that he is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.
The nerdy part of me wants to draw parallels between Gear's Inspector Maury and Half-Made World's Linesman Lowry; both systematically-repressed lawmen who obsess about something more fantastic than their rigid, dreary lot in life. They both serve as not only view points into an otherwise unseen part of the world, but as characters in their own 'story-within-a-story' plotlines (Thunderer's Captain character is fairly similar as well). Unfortunately, another similiarity all these characters share is that, once their personal arc is done, they fall to the wayside and end as somewhat unsatisfactory characters.
April 27, 2011
Bizarre cities are places I want to escape to, and Ararat is one of those metropolises. Time and place are redefined, crunched, and crumpled up into something that really cannot be defined. If you like all that, then you will like Felix Gilman's "Thunderer" and its sequel "Gears of the City". I like the first book a little bit more because the actual city seemed to be more of a main character. The city was still very much part of "Gears of the City", but I guess since it was mostly in a dying state, that it seemed to be much more silent to me. But I do recommend both books for any metrophile or lover of the Urban Weird.
November 6, 2009
I really loved this. I thought it was a much stronger story than the first book, Thunderer, and I enjoyed that one quite a bit. Unlike Thunderer, though, this one took no time at all to grab me. It was engaging, exciting, and incredibly well thought out. The massive, ever-changing city of Ararat and it's workings made more sense in this book, which I suppose is the point of writing a sequel. The pacing was nice, the twists were well-planned (if not the tiniest bit predictible at times), and from start to finish, it was just a great read.
April 23, 2011
This sprawling novel is a mess--full of dark magic, horror and bits of beauty. It has a plot that is rather vague and hazy. The structure shifts and changes, like the city it describes. At its best, Gears Of The City mixes the high gothic style of Mervyn Peake with the fever dream surrealism of Lautremont's Maldoror. There are times when Gilman's invention overpowers his storytelling skill, and some of the characterization is weak. But the overheated, imagistic prose keeps the dark marvels coming.
May 31, 2009
I read thunderer and while it started off terribly slow it managed to catch my attention near the middle. this book started out the same way SLOW SLOWER SLOWERER....perhaps it's just me but i wasn't able to finish it, I got as far as page 250 and I just couldn't start book 2.
So... luck to you if you start to read this one.
oh no i am a ghost and can't remember what, who or why I am oh nooooo.... lol
So... luck to you if you start to read this one.
oh no i am a ghost and can't remember what, who or why I am oh nooooo.... lol
August 10, 2016
Disappointing after the breathtaking innovations of the first book, Thunderer, where you had the thrill of discovering the ins and outs of a god-infested world. The sequel takes the darkest, twistiest, least rational parts of the original and tries to spin them into a tale. Where the first book was ambitious, the second is merely undisciplined. Badly in need of an edit--and a sense of the parameters ruling Gilman's universe..
January 15, 2015
Utterly original
This was one of the most enjoyable books I've read in ages. The way Gilman gradually changes the focus of protagonists seems sloppy at first but makes total sense in the end. Brilliantly subverts the "chosen one" trope that's been so overdone.
This was one of the most enjoyable books I've read in ages. The way Gilman gradually changes the focus of protagonists seems sloppy at first but makes total sense in the end. Brilliantly subverts the "chosen one" trope that's been so overdone.
August 16, 2015
Just...painful. Awkwardly written, little to no characterisation, entirely too experimental to be worth the time. I read this after having delightedly torn through Gilman's "Half-Made World" books, and wish there were some way for me to go back in time and un-read this one.
December 5, 2024
A lot of the book and character interactions read like a fever dream. Sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it's unnecessary. I love the concept but the book drags pretty hard at times and took me a while to get through. It's multi-POV, which is fine, but starts switching to side characters pretty frequently and for me that really messed with the rhythm and pacing at times. There were whole chapters that jumped around and gave perspective from different characters but didn't drive the story forward at all. That might have been better if I felt attached to any of the characters but I didn't have that. Most of the characters were pretty weird (and/or dislikeable) in some way but even still a lot of the dialogue flowed weird. There was quippy banter but that kind of devolved into people having one sided conversations with each other. Again, at times it made sense and I liked it but at others it seemed inappropriate for what was going on. Kind of hard to explain but there were elements that I like that were either overdone or done at the wrong times and there were other parts I would like to have been explored more than weren't.
January 24, 2022
Some great ideas in here, but I had mixed feelings about the structure and ultimate execution. The conclusion also wasn't particularly satisfying: I expected this sort of book to end with either cosmic conflict or subversive anti-climax, but we got a lot more conventional violence than I felt served this story.
March 21, 2017
This book is perfectly fine as a stand alone book, separate from the first book. I felt that the first one was way dragged out. It was interesting, just way dragged out. THIS second book was beautiful. I loved it. It was like a beefed up version of Dark City, on steroids. The only thing that the first book is good for is adding a bit of detail to the main character, but certainly nothing that is detrimental to live without in the second book. I strongly recommend this book. One of my favorites.
July 21, 2019
There is something great about a book that if you tried to explain it to someone else you sound like a mad man.
March 15, 2017
The continuation of the story introduces you to some new characters, plots and the big mystery of the whole city. Although I think the whole point of the plot is Arjun and Ruth constantly missing each other and getting separated by circumstances. The style is easy to read.
May 6, 2009
*Spoiler alert: Review of a sequel, contains info on the earlier book*
Gears of the City is the sequel to Thunderer, a fantasy novel that was the author's debut. Both books are set mostly in a sprawling labyrinthine city (called Ararat) that is always changing. The main character, Arjun, sees a lot of these changes because in Thunderer, he gains the ability to walk through hidden "doors" that lead to different times and parts of the city. A lot of the places and time periods Arjun ends up in are roughly equivalent to a dirty Victorian-era city, and the novels have a distinctly steampunk quality.
Arjun originally came to the city from a distant land to seek out a missing god of music that had inhabited his monestary and filled the local people with peace. He had many adventures in Ararat and saw many gods and their works, but he didn't find his god of music. Through his travels in the city, he learns that the mountain at the center of the city is a big mystery in every place and time, and begins to suspect that it holds the key to his god's disappearance.
The problem is, the mountain makes people crazy. At the beginning of Gears of the City, Arjun has fled from the mountain, devoid of his memory. After meeting a prophetic talking Beast, he finds friends in the local area and begins to recover his memory and remember his mission. But he has started to care more about other people, especially Ruth and Marta Low, two sisters who rescued, hid, and healed him. This sometimes gets Arjun into trouble, as does the presence of a badly-organized police state and the increasing aggression of the mountain itself.
Slowly, Arjun begins to unravel the mysteries of the mountain, the Low sisters, and his space-time travel mentor, Shay. Along the way, he gets involved with the adventures of the hilariously pompous libertine Brace-Bel and the third Low sister. What had been a simple quest for a missing god turns out to be infinitely more complicated.
This book uses a lot of description to build the fascinating world of the city, so the pacing is on the slower side, but it's worth it. Several of the big characters are compelling, and there's much more of a female presence than in Thunderer. There's definitely a seedy, back-alley Victoriana element to the book and the tone is dark even when it's funny--definitely a fantasy for adult readers. The premise is certainly fresh and interesting, and you'll never expect some of the twists the story takes. I'd recommend these books to people who want to try a different kind of fantasy.
Gears of the City is the sequel to Thunderer, a fantasy novel that was the author's debut. Both books are set mostly in a sprawling labyrinthine city (called Ararat) that is always changing. The main character, Arjun, sees a lot of these changes because in Thunderer, he gains the ability to walk through hidden "doors" that lead to different times and parts of the city. A lot of the places and time periods Arjun ends up in are roughly equivalent to a dirty Victorian-era city, and the novels have a distinctly steampunk quality.
Arjun originally came to the city from a distant land to seek out a missing god of music that had inhabited his monestary and filled the local people with peace. He had many adventures in Ararat and saw many gods and their works, but he didn't find his god of music. Through his travels in the city, he learns that the mountain at the center of the city is a big mystery in every place and time, and begins to suspect that it holds the key to his god's disappearance.
The problem is, the mountain makes people crazy. At the beginning of Gears of the City, Arjun has fled from the mountain, devoid of his memory. After meeting a prophetic talking Beast, he finds friends in the local area and begins to recover his memory and remember his mission. But he has started to care more about other people, especially Ruth and Marta Low, two sisters who rescued, hid, and healed him. This sometimes gets Arjun into trouble, as does the presence of a badly-organized police state and the increasing aggression of the mountain itself.
Slowly, Arjun begins to unravel the mysteries of the mountain, the Low sisters, and his space-time travel mentor, Shay. Along the way, he gets involved with the adventures of the hilariously pompous libertine Brace-Bel and the third Low sister. What had been a simple quest for a missing god turns out to be infinitely more complicated.
This book uses a lot of description to build the fascinating world of the city, so the pacing is on the slower side, but it's worth it. Several of the big characters are compelling, and there's much more of a female presence than in Thunderer. There's definitely a seedy, back-alley Victoriana element to the book and the tone is dark even when it's funny--definitely a fantasy for adult readers. The premise is certainly fresh and interesting, and you'll never expect some of the twists the story takes. I'd recommend these books to people who want to try a different kind of fantasy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2023
I did like the book very much, despite it's flaws.
It had a completely different feel from the first book, Thunderer. Where the first book sometimes felt like epic fantasy, which got (new) weirder while progressing, Gears of the City is weird from the beginning, but also more claustrophobic. In the first book Arjun arrives in Ararat searching for his God. At the end of the book he found a way to reach the City Beyond, the Meta Context. Gears of the City starts with Arjun finding himself without his memories after an attempt to reach the Mountain, the presumed center of the city.
There were some major flaws. Arjun, the main character, is a bit of a blank slate, mostly things are happening to him, and when he takes action often it feels like he is supposed to do it, not that he wants to do it. His motivations seem largely external.
The scope of the setting is big: an eternal, everchanging city with a center that no one can reach, with a hidden group of people traveling through the history of the city trying to reach the Mountain. The closer the book gets to the end, the less epic the scope seems. It focusses on a family feud a one time/place in the city, mostly hinting at the scope, but zooming in so much it feels a bit claustrophobic.
During the book I was dreading the ending. Will Gilman explain enough? Often with these weird books if everything is explained the magic is just gone, but on the other end, if not enough of the mystery is explained, it can feel if your reading time is wasted. I'm still not sure how I feel completely. The ending is satisfying, but a bit too open. What happens to the city is unclear.
So, with all these flaws, why still 4 stars? Well, I could not put the book down. It's an ambitious book, political, imaginative, dark and funny. While the main plot let me down a bit, traveling through the city and it's different iterations was great. A lot of the side characters add much to the story.
I'd love to see a short story cycle like City of Saints and Madmen with different characters and times in Ararat.
It had a completely different feel from the first book, Thunderer. Where the first book sometimes felt like epic fantasy, which got (new) weirder while progressing, Gears of the City is weird from the beginning, but also more claustrophobic. In the first book Arjun arrives in Ararat searching for his God. At the end of the book he found a way to reach the City Beyond, the Meta Context. Gears of the City starts with Arjun finding himself without his memories after an attempt to reach the Mountain, the presumed center of the city.
There were some major flaws. Arjun, the main character, is a bit of a blank slate, mostly things are happening to him, and when he takes action often it feels like he is supposed to do it, not that he wants to do it. His motivations seem largely external.
The scope of the setting is big: an eternal, everchanging city with a center that no one can reach, with a hidden group of people traveling through the history of the city trying to reach the Mountain. The closer the book gets to the end, the less epic the scope seems. It focusses on a family feud a one time/place in the city, mostly hinting at the scope, but zooming in so much it feels a bit claustrophobic.
During the book I was dreading the ending. Will Gilman explain enough? Often with these weird books if everything is explained the magic is just gone, but on the other end, if not enough of the mystery is explained, it can feel if your reading time is wasted. I'm still not sure how I feel completely. The ending is satisfying, but a bit too open. What happens to the city is unclear.
So, with all these flaws, why still 4 stars? Well, I could not put the book down. It's an ambitious book, political, imaginative, dark and funny. While the main plot let me down a bit, traveling through the city and it's different iterations was great. A lot of the side characters add much to the story.
I'd love to see a short story cycle like City of Saints and Madmen with different characters and times in Ararat.
July 11, 2011
#2 of the Steampunk, dystopian city of Ararat.
This will not suit a good number of fantasy readers. It is more of a Zen Koan than a novel with a beginning, middle and end. There is a final conclusion but the writing is so very poetic and philosophic that I, even as a fast reader, could only get through a few chapters at a time. In other words I loved it!
The Villain is described: "His business, his scheming, his deals and revenges, his flights from creditors and police and inquisitors - It took him all over the city. Back and forth. To and fro. In and out. Up and down. From the first times to the last. Your mind cannot grasp the complexity of it - forward and back, how his own schemes tangled him, how he thwarted himself over and over. A trap laid in the first times springing itself in the last, and on the man who set it! A yellowing photograph in the police files of a prior century. The long memories of the many churches who knew him as the Devil. Nor could he grasp the complexity..."
This will not suit a good number of fantasy readers. It is more of a Zen Koan than a novel with a beginning, middle and end. There is a final conclusion but the writing is so very poetic and philosophic that I, even as a fast reader, could only get through a few chapters at a time. In other words I loved it!
The Villain is described: "His business, his scheming, his deals and revenges, his flights from creditors and police and inquisitors - It took him all over the city. Back and forth. To and fro. In and out. Up and down. From the first times to the last. Your mind cannot grasp the complexity of it - forward and back, how his own schemes tangled him, how he thwarted himself over and over. A trap laid in the first times springing itself in the last, and on the man who set it! A yellowing photograph in the police files of a prior century. The long memories of the many churches who knew him as the Devil. Nor could he grasp the complexity..."
May 12, 2015
I am not totally thrilled with this book. The dark, industrial, grimy setting is evocative, but the city itself is less interesting and varied than it was in Thunderer, and the city was my favorite part of that. The Mountain never really grabs me as a mystery - it's too distant, too archetypal, too inhuman to be of much concern.
The characters are moderately engaging, particularly the Low sisters, but Arjun, who is nominally the protagonist, is still bland and passive, which works much less well when he's supposed to be driving the action as opposed to being a blank-slate viewpoint for it. The secondary viewpoint characters, like Brace-Bel, can only make up for it to a limited extent.
I don't dislike it, really, but it feels to me like there's a middle book missing. I'm much more interested in all of the city-hopping adventures alluded to here than to this rather grim and ambiguous ending to a story I feel like I missed most of.
The characters are moderately engaging, particularly the Low sisters, but Arjun, who is nominally the protagonist, is still bland and passive, which works much less well when he's supposed to be driving the action as opposed to being a blank-slate viewpoint for it. The secondary viewpoint characters, like Brace-Bel, can only make up for it to a limited extent.
I don't dislike it, really, but it feels to me like there's a middle book missing. I'm much more interested in all of the city-hopping adventures alluded to here than to this rather grim and ambiguous ending to a story I feel like I missed most of.
May 31, 2011
Uneven followup to the wonderful Thunderer. In a way, Gears of the City offers a story very similar to Thunderer, only on a vaster scale and, paradoxically, of less interest. The settings are almost uniformly drab and bleak, the characters either brutes or victims almost without exception; there is one amusing character introduced here, Brace-Bel, who seems sadly underused, however. Have I mentioned that there are zombies here as well, which seems to have become some sort of arbitrary requirement in fantasy and SF novels these days? Can I stress enough how I detest this sort of pointless concession to genre fads? Yet Gears had just barely enough of what I loved about Thunderer for me to consider it having been worthwhile to read. Gilman has created a compelling world in these two books.
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February 20, 2016I gave up after 55 pages. It has an evocative title and and the author knows how to turn a phrase, but the main character is a blank slate who is difficult to care about: no memory, no family, no friends, and no motivation. He simply runs from various dangers, meets random people, and wallows in his problems.
Granted, I didn't read the first book in this series. Perhaps those who did will enjoy this more. Personally, as a SF fan, I get tired of never being able to pick up a book that interests me because it's book 3 of 7 or some such. I've decided to rebel by treating all books as stand-alones. Apparently, my rebellion was ill-advised.
I gave it two stars for the beautiful writing style, but unfortunately I can't enjoy a book for style alone.
Granted, I didn't read the first book in this series. Perhaps those who did will enjoy this more. Personally, as a SF fan, I get tired of never being able to pick up a book that interests me because it's book 3 of 7 or some such. I've decided to rebel by treating all books as stand-alones. Apparently, my rebellion was ill-advised.
I gave it two stars for the beautiful writing style, but unfortunately I can't enjoy a book for style alone.
August 9, 2016
Despite a somewhat slow and haphazard beginning, I thought Felix Gilman’s Thunderer was one of the best debuts I read in 2007 and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sequel. Alas, Gears of the City was a bit disappointing.
I think the biggest issue I had with the book were the characters. Simply put, I just didn’t care about any of them, which was a little surprising considering that returning protagonist, Arjun, was fairly compelling in Thunderer. In Gears of the City, Arjun’s goals are still the same — he’s searching for his lost god — but Arjun himself is changed, twisted by what he’s seen and experienced in Ararat, and he’s not always likeable. Plus, as the other characters are introduced... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
I think the biggest issue I had with the book were the characters. Simply put, I just didn’t care about any of them, which was a little surprising considering that returning protagonist, Arjun, was fairly compelling in Thunderer. In Gears of the City, Arjun’s goals are still the same — he’s searching for his lost god — but Arjun himself is changed, twisted by what he’s seen and experienced in Ararat, and he’s not always likeable. Plus, as the other characters are introduced... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
January 17, 2009
This continues the weird second half of Thunderer (the part that's like a strange mix of the old RPG Nexus: The Infinite City, Rats and Gargoyles, and Zelazny's Amber books), not the more normal fantasy of the first half. It ends at a reasonable point to end the series, so I'm interested to see what Gilman will do next.
April 29, 2009
If part of what I liked about Gilman's first book was its ability to be such a different kind of fantasy novel, part of what I liked about this one was its ability to do horror well. It'd still be classified as Fantasy, as it's set in the same City as the last book -albeit different parts- but it's a much darker book. Like Lovecraft, I think the best horror deals with facing things too large and beyond our comprehension to fully understand; unlike some horror writers, I thought Gilman did a relatively good job of not explaining everything away and making it too comprehensible, but also not copping out and leaving the reader completely in the dark and annoyed.
March 18, 2009
This is the second book that Felix Gilman has publish and it is a continuation of the first "thunderer". I liked this book as much as the first one. This setting is absolutely amazing. As you read more of the book, more of the city and the "meta context of the city", is shown to you. Story keeps a fairly fast pace with the scenery and the people constantly changing. Two books in and I am already a hug fan of Felix Gilman. You have to read his work. His settings are amazing and his story telling is topnotch.
April 10, 2014
This seemed to be written in a slightly different yet equally mind-numbing boring way as its predecessor, "Thunderer."
Luckily, it tied up a lot of unanswered questions that the first book posed.
This is the last time that I buy a book AND its sequel at the same time, thinking that they both will be good reads!
Luckily, it tied up a lot of unanswered questions that the first book posed.
This is the last time that I buy a book AND its sequel at the same time, thinking that they both will be good reads!
March 12, 2015
Follow up to Gilman's first book The Thunderers. Continues story of Arjun searching for his lost music god. Also conintues the story of Shay, who never seems to die
Characters: Arjun-boring Ruth Low-boring The Beast-Intially interesting then becomes dull. Shay: Interesting, but not enough about him.
Plot: Slow to develop. Seems to be a lot of sidetracks.
Language: Very well written.
Characters: Arjun-boring Ruth Low-boring The Beast-Intially interesting then becomes dull. Shay: Interesting, but not enough about him.
Plot: Slow to develop. Seems to be a lot of sidetracks.
Language: Very well written.
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