September 14, 2020
Marie Brennan (Driftwood) and Alyc Helms (the Missy Masters series), writing as Carrick, join forces to launch the Rook and Rose series with this intricately detailed doorstopper. Renata Viraudax leaves her backwater hometown determined to con her way into a noble house in the City of Dreams—but Ren’s plans bring her face to face with a dangerous crime lord and pit her against a vigilante called the Rook, her childhood idol. Navigating the glittering society of the City of Dreams, Ren soon discovers she is not the only one pretending to be something she’s not: her landlord, Derossi Vargo, controls the city’s underworld, while Capt. Grey Serrado of the city Vigil is seen as a class traitor for serving the nobility. Meanwhile, old religious beliefs prove to be more than just superstition, and a new drug floods the city’s streets offering hallucinations that turn all too real. The authors devote much of this volume to detailing the names, places, and belief systems of this sometimes tediously complex world, causing the pace to drag. But readers who persevere will be rewarded with a tightly laced plot dripping with political intrigue. Carrick has built a strong foundation for things to come. Agent: for Brennan, Eddie Schneider, Jabberwocky; for Helms, Paul Stevens, DMLA.
Starred review from November 1, 2020
This series opener from coauthors Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms follows con artist and former street rat Ren as she returns home. Nadezra is an occupied city in the otherwise free region of Vraszan, divided between colonizers, avid freedom fighters, and those that fall somewhere in between. Ren's plan is to infiltrate the elite via the noble but decaying House Traementis, disguised as a scion from abroad named Renata Viraudax. Darker forces are at work within Nadezra, however--street children are being kidnapped and drained of their dreams and use of a vicious new drug is increasing. Watching it all is the mysterious Rook, a masked and hooded vigilante and champion of the Vraszenian people. Ren must navigate an increasingly complicated playing field as both Renata and her alter ego Arenza Lenskaya, a Vraszenian fortune teller. She balances family and new friends as she confronts old demons and harnesses magic to save Nadezra from disaster. This historical urban fantasy is for those who like their revenge plots served with the intrigue of The Goblin Emperor, the colonial conflict of The City of Brass, the panache of Swordspoint, and the richly detailed settings of Guy Gavriel Kay.
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