Book Review: : "City of Songs" by Anthony Ryan

 

ATHERIA—THE FABLED CITY OF SONGS 

THE SHINING JEWEL OF THE THIRD SEA

WHERE THE MASKED EXULTIA CASTE HOLD SWAY AND VIE TO OUTDO EACH OTHER IN THEIR PATRONAGE OF THE ARTS,

SOMETIMES WITH DEADLY CONSEQUENCES…

Guyime, wandering, dethroned King of the Northlands, is drawn to the Atheria by his quest for the Seven Swords, the demon cursed blades of legend. But to claim the next sword he must first solve a seemingly impossible murder—a puzzle that, once untangled, will unveil secrets so dark they could bring the City of Songs to utter ruin.

Continuing the epic tale of The Seven Swords, City of Songs is an action-packed, darkly magical mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of the Raven’s Shadow and Draconis Memoria trilogies. - from NetGalley.com

Seeing how this is book three in what appears to be a series in progress, I had to go out and read the first two books prior to picking this one up. Definitely worth it! "City of Songs" continues the story of traveling Guyime, who is on his own personal mission to collect the "mythical" seven demon-cursed blades. As legend has it, combining all seven swords will cause the destruction of them, thus releasing Guyime, who is in possession of one of these blades. In each book, another blade is found, and a companion seems to join our main character on his quest. Lead by a 'magical' map created especially for his quest, it leads them in search of the swords.

I found each of these books to be fairly quick reads. There isn't much of world-building, but we discover more of the land as the group travels. Character background is added throughout the storyline, just enough detail to quench either the reader's desire for more personal info, or more for a facet of the story about to take place. The pace is smooth, and moves along fairly rapidly. Large amounts of traveling distances are shortened by lack of content occurring, which is nice. I look forward to reading the additional books in the series if they get written (possibly 4 more) and would definitely recommend for readers YA and up.

Thanks to NetGalley.com and the publisher for the ARC to read! #NetGalley #CityofSongs