City of Lies

City of Lies, Sam Hawke, who is up for the Astounding. I liked this a lot - a brother and a sister, friends/allies of the heir to the city, deal with a murder mystery and a siege. Kept me guessing, some good warfare action, pretty gripping second half. Stands alone satisfyingly but there's going to be another one, which I would like to read. Spoilery comments: ( Read more... )

Btw I was interested to learn that Hawke is a woman Sam rather than a man Sam, which I am embarrassed to realize I had assumed, so if you were worried/wondering whether this book might be in Dude-o-vision, it is not. (And in fact it's a nicely queer default-bisexuality sort of culture with interesting family structures that center sibling and uncle-niephling relationships rather than romantic pairings and "nuclear families" are a marginalized lifestyle; always nice to see more fantasy without default patriarchy.)

(I feel like I should clarify that even if Hawke was male like I had assumed, I don't think every book by a man suffers from Dude-o-vision. And also Sam could of course have been an enby Sam, I didn't mean those were the only options.)