Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the SPSFC2 finals. We have whittled our entrants down to a mere seven, all clamouring for the title of SPSFC Champion. So without further ado, here is my take on Aestus Book 1: The City, by S.Z. Attwell.

First of all, I want to talk a little about the title of this book. You see, I don’t actually know what it is. The cover simply says Aestus: Book 1: The City. All of that is a bit of a mouthful, so Aestus: The City is an easier shorthand. Given that the sequel is called Aestus: The Colony, I’d guess that Aestus is the title of the series, and so I’m electing to refer to this book simply as The City. There’s an additional reason for that, and it’s one that frustrates me. You see, the City is the setting for the book. That makes sense. But Aestus? The word never appears in the text. According to a quick Google search, it’s a Latin word for fire or burning. Now, that makes some sense given the climate of the book. But why Latin? And why, if using a term that will be unfamiliar to most readers, wold you never mention it in the book itself? It’s like Terry Brooks never saying what the word Shannara means.

Once you get past the title, however, you are rewarded with a decent book. The dystopian setting and long training montages give this the feel of a young adult novel at times, but the characters themselves are a little too old to fit neatly in that bracket And while there are a whole lot of dystopian tropes at play, the ecological angle is interesting, and the tropes are generally used well. The Onlar make for a perfect Morlock-style antagonist, and while I did guess the twist a mile off, it’s well-executed and makes perfect sense in the setting, so bonus points for that.

In Jossey we have a strong protagonist, with a surrounding cast whose relationships all feel natural (if, on occasion, immature). Most importantly of all, the decision-making made sense for each character. Nothing stood out like a sore thumb as some post-apocalyptic characters have a tendency to. I do feel that the novel would have been stronger if Jossey’s perspective had been the only one we were afforded though. There are times when it seems we skip perspective to receive more information, rather than because the plot needs it. And in all honesty, Gavin is simply a much less interesting character to me. Cut out some of his chapters, and the book wouldn’t suffer all that much.

Which brings me to the novel’s greatest weakness. Its length. The City is simply too long a book to be sustained by the story it holds. Trim the book down to half its length (perhaps by removing extraneous perspectives) and you’d get a much tighter read. As it stands, it’s rather bloated. Jossey’s strong arc drowns in a sea of repetitive character beats and familiar encounters. While the prose is very readable, information is frequently repeated, and even the language used grows stale after a few uses. When the plot is moving forwards, a lot of this can be forgiven. but at it’s worst moments, The City can be an incredibly dull slog.

Overall, The City ends up as the less than the sum of its parts. There are interesting bits, engaging characters, and great individual scenes, but they are surrounded by fat that is desperate need of some trimming.

At Boundary’s Edge will not be revealing our scores for the finalists until all our judges have read all of the books. Stay tuned for more reviews until then.