In a world that’s lost its magic, a former soldier turned PI solves cases for the fantasy creatures whose lives he ruined in an imaginative debut fantasy by Black Sails actor Luke Arnold. Welcome to Sunder City. The magic is gone but the monsters remain. I’m Fetch Phillips, just like it says on the window. There are a few things you should know before you hire me: 1. Sobriety costs extra. know before you hire me:
1. Sobriety costs extra.
2. My services are confidential.
3. I don’t work for humans.
It’s nothing personal–I’m human myself. But after what happened to the magic, it’s not the humans who need my help.
Walk the streets of Sunder City and meet Fetch, his magical clients, and a darkly imagined world perfect for readers of Ben Aaronovitch and Jim Butcher.
Praise for The Last Smile in Sunder City:
“A richly imagined world…Winningly combining the grit of Chinatown with the quirky charm of Harry Potter, this series opener is sure to have readers coming back for more.” ―Publishers Weekly
“A marvelous noir voice; Arnold has captured the spirit of the genre perfectly and wrapped it around a fantasy setting with consummate skill.” ―Peter McLean, author of Priest of Bones
Fetch Phillips Novels
The Last Smile in Sunder City
Dead Man in a Ditch
One Foot in the Fade
more
This book is marketed as Peter Grant meets Discworld, and whoever came up with that is doing the book a great disfavour. Yes, there’s a private detective in a world full of fantastical creatures, but that’s the only thing they have in common. I wouldn’t necessarily even call it urban fantasy, despite it mostly taking place in a large city. Post-apocalyptic fantasy or grimdark might fit the bill better. Perfect for the fans of Daniel Polansky’s Low Town series.
The book is set in a unique fantasy world populated by every possible magical and fantastical creature the fantasy genre has ever come up with. Unfortunately for them, there has been a war with humans six years earlier that has wiped away all magic from the world, breaking it irrevocably and rendering the magical creatures and the very nature husks of what they used to be. The change is so recent that the people are only now starting to build their lives again, with some clinging to what they’ve lost and all blaming the humans. There is some technology, like phones and cars—though both have been adapted to operate without magic—but mostly it feels like a pre-technology world.
At the heart of the story is Fetch Phillips, a man for hire who is feeling permanently sorry for himself for his role in the loss of magic. At first I thought he was merely taking a general blame of a former soldier, but it turns out he actually is to blame. So he spends most of his time drunk. He’s hired to find a vampire who by all accounts is a model citizen and adapted to his new life without magic and with a certainty of an imminent death. The case takes Fetch all around the city and gets his arse kicked more often than he should’ve been able to recover from, and in the end turns out to be more than he imagined it would be. As he investigates, he takes a stock of his life so far and how he became the destroyer of magic.
I found the backstories infinitely more interesting than the investigation, which was done in a rather haphazard manner. They were insightful and told a lot about Fetch and the human condition. They are also what make the book more a fantasy, or even epic fantasy, than urban fantasy. The rich world and the story of its fall are not what urban fantasy is usually about. The book also lacks the humour and the optimism of most urban fantasy that I’ve read. It’s cynical and dark, and to the very end rather hopeless. The book even argues for the danger of hope in making a beast of a man who would otherwise be content with his lot.
This was an excellent book, even if it was a somewhat heavy reading at times. The language is rich and interesting, and Fetch is a complex man who has a long way to redemption, if that is ever even possible for him. The side characters are all more or less bastards, with a couple of exceptions whom I hope will become series stables. I have the next book already lined up and I have high hopes for it.
While I don’t enjoy noir-type books, Luke Daniels did a spectacular job of both writing and narrating it. The narration is what kept me to the end, whereas I would have probably put it down if I read it. For those who like noir and fantasy, this is right up their alley.
A marvelous noir voice; Arnold has captured the spirit of the genre perfectly and wrapped it around a fantasy setting with consummate skill.
ARC received from Hachette Australia for an honest review
I was excited to start reading The Last Smile In Sunder City after I read the blurb. It is not really a genre that I usually read, however I was intrigued.
Unfortunately, the book did not hit the expectations that I had for it.
It started off with a great noir feel to it, and I could kind of picture our main man Fetch Phillips walking the dystopian, post magic world in a trench coat, cigarette hanging from his mouth and a hat slouched over his face. Except that that would be too clean for Fetch lol
I found myself skimming through patches of this book, particularly the flashback scenes. I was just completely disinterested in them.
Also, I felt that there was just too much going on, too many people/beings brought into the story. What started as a missing person/being story turned into a confusing mish mash of different creatures that I was not sure all were required.
And the the noir feel that I was enjoying just vanished.
There was nothing at all I found about Fetch that made me want to like the man. The flashbacks ( that I did read right through) were all woe is me, everyone else is to blame for my life 0 gah. Just no Fetch!
To me, this could have done with a big round of editing out the superfluous characters and a bit of streamlining, as the story did plod along, and at times I did contemplate not finishing it.