New York City, 2118. A glittering vision of the future, where anything is possible – if you want it enough.
Manhattan is home to a thousand-story supertower, a beacon of futuristic glamour and high-tech luxury… and to millions of people living scandalous, secretive lives.
In this novel, the story picks up not long after the death of Eris. Each of the characters on the roof that night has their secret to hide, but someone is watching and is determined to make them pay for what they did.
For large parts of the book I had the sense of things being put in place to set up our finale. This isn’t big on action as such, but there’s a manipulation of characters and events to suit where we end up.
I’m still uncertain where I stand on the Avery and Atlas relationship. I know they’re not related – so it isn’t that element that bothers me – but they seem to spend very little time trying to do the best for the other. It’s as if they’ve got into a pattern of behaviour that they can’t break away from.
The introduction of con-artist Calliope brings a different level into the mix, and she struck the right blend between participant and observer. While she is doing something awful, and we are meant to see her as shallow and unpleasant, there are moments when she offers an interesting perspective on these characters. I felt very much as though we were digging under the surface of characters a little.
Towards the end I feared we were going for a rehash of book one. Thankfully not, but there is a death and it binds our characters in a way that sets up intrigue for the final part of the trilogy.