Nocturnal Book Reviews

3.5/5
egalley thanks to Angry Robot

Interesting premise isn't it? And totally wrong.

I had to literally fight my way through the book. Don't get me wrong, - this is a good book, interesting, original, leaves plenty to work with for your imagination... But my God, would it have hurt to give us a little bit of prologue or some sort of world description instead of just throwing us into the deep end and let us swim or sink?

It took me 5 chapters to understand the structure. The quote in the beginning of each chapter is from the future and it's relevant to what happens to the characters in the present.

In the south last defence of civilisation, city of Tate succumbs to Roil, a chaotic mass of creatures with one consciousness, that came out from the core of the planet. Roil can't stand the cold, which is the only weapon of the last human cities against its invasion.

Margaret, the only daughter of Tate engineers manages to get out of the dying city and heads off up north.

In the north David, an addict and a son of one of the leaders of the opposition to the current tyrant watches his father die from the hands of Vergers, some sort of genetically modified human hunters. His father's friends arrange his passage away from the city with the help of one of the Old Men, half-mad and very strange Cadell.

Cadell has got his own agenda. He is one of the first Engineers who built the Engine of the World, but they played too much with it, civilisation crumbled to what it is now and the Engineers were cursed with virtual immortality, madness and perpetual cannibalistic hunger for human flesh.

Cadell wants to see the extent of damage the Roil has done and get to The Engine to switch on the cold and destroy the Roil.

The book is full of confusing power struggles, multiple POV's, battles, gadgets, pursuits and even has a magnificent airships fight. It took me half a book to get into it, and if you get that far it was all worth it, ladies and gentlemen! :) In the end I had more questions than answers, and I would really want to get a bit more clear structure and less different POV's in the book two.

Overall, not bad. Not bad at all.