As he lay dying before me, none of it seemed enough.' 'Over the next ten years, and hundreds of poisonings, Etan gave me many gifts: immunities, scars, an appreciation of our family’s honorable and secret role, and a memory and mind trained in our craft so I could one day protect the ruling family of Sjona as he did.

Instead, it was delivered like a weather forecast.

Though I typically enjoy a good amount of court intrigue and politics, there was absolutely no tension or drama added to any of this recounting of divided loyalties or motivations.

All of the characters stand around discussing what action to take and constantly narrating who might have what to gain from their suggestions, which I found exhausting and boring. I am sorry to say that Kalina is truly a wasted opportunity to create a three dimensional character with a chronic illness, a task that is desperately needed in our society that demonizes those that are less than able bodied.īut surely at least the fact that the city is under siege is interesting, if the murder mystery and characters aren't, right? Wrong. Instead, she asks the right questions with the subtlety her brother lacks, and fails to have any kind of a life outside of her brother, the heir, and their roles as advisors and proofers. But Kalina didn't seem to exist for much more purpose than bemoaning her inability to take up her rightful role as the 'proofer' aka food taster, which she lost to her healthier brother. At first, I was excited to read that Kalina, the sister, was chronically ill and to read from her perspective because it's so incredibly rare to read of a character with a chronic illness that isn't magically cured, especially in a fantasy novel. Unfortunately, I didn't care about any of the characters or what was going on in the world. Even after years of immunization, her frail body, ever susceptible to every cough and fever, couldn’t cope with the dose.' 'The first and only time Etan poisoned her, she almost died. What I got was an incredibly dull murder mystery, only visible if I squinted past all of the endless speculation and the countless scheming court politicians. Honestly, I was really expecting Poison Study, but with a brother and sister helping their childhood friend, who happens to be the surviving heir to the poisoned chancellor. With all of the marketing pushing about the poisoning and the series being titled Poison Wars, I was expecting poison, the training of learning poisons and detecting them, and fantasy elements. It felt more like historical fiction in a different world. City of Lies did not read like a fantasy novel to me.

City of Lies by Sam Hawke