Review: The City's Son

The City's Son by Tom Pollock
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to give this one a higher rating, but in the end I couldn’t quite bring myself to round up to a four star rating. It wasn’t quite enough for such a thing to happen. It was a fun read yet my hopes had been higher.

To be honest, I think I went in expecting the wrong thing from this book. I found it in Poundland, which is often a case of hit and miss. Sometimes you find real gems hidden in Poundland – I mean, I found Laini Taylor the one time – and other times you find the kinds of books that leave you wanting to gouge your eyes out. I’d been hoping this one would fall into the first category, that it would be amazing. I wasn’t expecting the beauty of Laini Taylor (she’s one of my favourite authors, after all, so such a thing is hard to do) but I’d hoped for something great from an urban fantasy that sounded so fun.

I’ll start by saying it was a fun urban fantasy read. The world building was wonderful. We’re giving something different yet somewhat familiar. We’re given a supernatural underbelly of London that is filled with mysteries, with the fantasy aspects being brilliant. All the aspects were new. They were all interesting. We’re given railway wraiths, bodies trapped in stone, electrical creatures of light, deities of the city, and then some. Okay, so not all of the aspects were new – but most were. If nothing else, the way they were mixed together was wonderful.

Despite how great this world building was, I found myself wanting more. Not in terms of what we were given – the way in which they all added to the story was lots of fun – as we were given plenty. I wanted more by way of description. I found, as I progressed through the book, that the author was great at describing action. If anything, there was too much description at certain points of action. When it came to describing the new creations of the world… well, some felt lacking. They simply were. We’re given the most basics. Some really came alive, yet others I found difficult to really imagine in the way the author was intending as I felt as though I wasn’t quite given enough. To put it bluntly, I felt as though there was differing amounts of attention given to detailing depending upon what the author was focusing upon. I understand that some things need more attention that others, but I feel as though world building deserves equal attention to truly bring all the creatures to life.

Truthfully, I think that was part of my problem. I found it hard to really get into the book to begin with, as I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the way in which the story was being told. It took me much long to find myself fully embedded into the story than I had hoped for. Once I was into the story, and everything was moving forward, the story was great fun. However, it took much longer for me to read that point than I had hoped for.

Overall, it was a fun story. It was a nice introduction to the series, and things could go to interesting places in the future books, but I’m not sure whether I’ll continue. There is potential enough for me to consider the books, yet I won’t be going out of my way to read them soon.

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