Amanda DownumCritiques

Prelim Review: Wasn't sure what I was to expect going into the book. I picked this up on a whim because I liked the cover....and its orbit so that's always a plus in my book.

With a definite asian influence, The Drowning City, was fast-paced, intriguing and just a little bit creepifying. I don't care how you dress it up, when the main character wishes a victim's eyes had not just turned to melting gray-goo it makes you shudder.

Full review to be posted at Poisoned Rationality

Short, sweet, and truth.

How well did I love these books?

I devoured them. In three days. One book a day.

Wow. Wow. What an amazing story, amazing character, wonderful, rich world. Heart breaking and elating.

Ágætis YA bók. Söguþráðurinn nokkuð hreinn og beinn en plottið þétt og fín spenna.

Still So Strange is a collection of short stories by Amanda Downum. The stories were all previously published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. They are all dark fantasy stories about creatures out of mythology or folklore trying to find their place in the world. Most of the characters face a bittersweet choice over the course of the story. These stories really hit my sweet spot for short stories. The author had no problem developing interesting and compelling characters in the short format. Most of them made me think of some of these creatures, such as zombies, mermaids, and dragons, in different ways. I would definitely recommend this collection for those that like fantasy.½

Other than the 1920s Arkham setting and the conceit of a forbidden tome, Dark Revelations is relatively free of the tropes of Yog-Sothothery. It is an altogether more traditional sort of supernatural horror story. As well as disdaining Cthulhu and the Necronomicon, this tale is mostly at a remove from the the sort of pulp action tone that sometimes informs the literature for the Arkham Horror games. There are a number of features that brought this novella closer to the jauniste vein of The King in Yellow than to the so-called Cthulhu Mythos. The main characters are creatives rather than academics or researchers, and there is a connection to medieval France.

The protagonist is author Gloria Goldberg, one of the investigator characters from the games this book was written to support. Gloria is a widow from New York who ventures to Arkham when called on to help with the literary estate of a recently deceased colleague. There are italicized passages throughout the book, and it can be difficult to tell from context whether these are passages that Gloria is reading, ones she is writing, or some other sorts of dreams or visions. As the story proceeds, it invites the reader to discard distinctions among these categories.

The book includes a set of about a dozen glossy color pages at the end, featuring news clippings, fragments of manuscripts, and pages from reference books relevant to the novella. This appendix section is a standard feature of this book series, and the contents in this case are entertaining enough, without any of the clinkers I've seen in the other novellas.

Dark Revelations comes with a set of cards debuting the Gloria Goldberg character for Arkham Horror: The Card Game. She is a flexible mystic-class investigator with a special ability that helps her to manipulate the encounter deck. Her alternate signature cards unique to this release are the ally Ruth Westmacott, a book illustrator whom Gloria befriends, and the treachery weakness Liber Omnium Finium.

I've read two of Amanda Downum's book before - the first two installments of the Necromancer Chronicles. Those were atmospheric, imaginative blends of high fantasy and gothic horror and I enjoyed them a great deal. Here Ms. Downum turns to a blend of urban fantasy and the mythos of the Yellow King as created by the author Robert W. Chambers in the 1890s. The result, for me, was a little disappointing. For a start, the structure of the book is unruly, and the first 50-60 pages in particular seem to be wanting in terms of holding the reader's attention. The characters are interesting, but they act in strange, unrealistic ways. If people have witnessed strange, magical sights that challenge what they think they know about how the world works, you'd expect them to discuss or talk about it. The writing also seems workmanlike at times. Once the story starts taking shape the whole enterprise starts to become more engaging but all in all its not a particularly memorable book. Look to her Necromancer Chronicles instead.½

We gave this one about 60 pages. The writing wasn't bad at all, but the characters didn't seem to have any personality. I really like some of the names and the plot seemed interesting, but I just found myself not caring what happened (and my wife agreed).

NEXT!

I enjoyed the first of these ([b:The Drowning City|6296885|The Drowning City (The Necromancer Chronicles, #1)|Amanda Downum|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327901734s/6296885.jpg|6481427]) but didn't find it amazing. The Bone Palace, however, built on the introduction of the main character and just took off. The pace was excellent, and the writing just sang in a way the first one never quite managed for me. Ms Downum's phrasing is rich, varied and replete with sensorial detail, even if she occasionally overuses a word or two. For instance, "conflagrant" is such a stand-out word that it can probably only be supported once a book, especially if you're burning through the pages as fast as this tight-plotted and splendidly turned-out book almost demanded.

I particularly loved the "third gender" (as trans-gender people of all kinds are referred to in the world of the books) characters in this story. Savedra is an amazing, complex, sympathetic, understandable character, who is introduced and developed with deftness and sensitivity. She is also privileged, and well aware of her privilege - which makes her a nice contrast with the general perception/treatment of androgynes, a specific example of which is also introduced with deftness and sensitivity later in the book.

All of which turns the book incidentally into an excellent consideration of the element of gender in the struggle for identity (nicely supported by cisgender characters with non-real-world-traditional senses of their gender) AND a consideration of privilege. I say incidentally, because it never gets anywhere near preaching on this, but does all of it in the background of a rollicking fantasy urban adventure.

And for that, fuck it, I'm giving the book fives stars, because while it's not perfect, it's an amazing achievement, and a damn good read.

Not as tight-wound and compelling as [b:The Bone Palace|7822865|The Bone Palace (The Necromancer Chronicles, #2)|Amanda Downum|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327927870s/7822865.jpg|10865183], but still lyrically written, deftly characterised and a fun and interesting read. I love how hard the characters live, and how they do not emerge from that unscathed, and how they carry their scars, and heal. It's realistic and it's beautiful and it's not made easy or gratuitously sexy. (Though, that said, she writes some of the most meaningful and intimate sex scenes I've ever read, and rarely are they even slightly explicit.)

This is the debut novel by author Amanda Downum and also the first in a fantasy trilogy. It does however work as a standalone with a satisfying conclusion to the story. Perhaps the strongest aspect of this book and what really makes it stand out from the crowd is the lush, tropical south-east asian inspired setting. The world building is excellent - the city of Symir growing restless under the yoke of a foreign empire - as well as the larger world and the political rivalries between empires and kingdoms are well realized. So is the role of magic in the world which relies heavily on the use of charms, gems and the binding of spirits and ghosts - it is both unusual and memorable The flora and fauna and geography of Symir and its surrounding jungles and swamps are all vividly described and add to the dense, cloying, riotous atmosphere of the story. All of it adds up to give the world great depth in which the story can unfold.

The characters too are memorable. The main protagonist is a young necromancer and spy, Isylt Iskuldur who has been sent to Symir with arms and money to see if she can stir the brewing discontent in to open revolt in the hopes of disrupting Symir's crucial trade in gemstones (which are important components in the working of magic), thereby distracting the Emperor of the Assari Empire away from plans of Imperial expansion in the north. However Symir's rebels are themselves divided in to factions, some of whom see any foreigners, even those who come bearing gifts, as a threat to be eliminated. To make matters more complicated, elements of the Imperial government also seem to be working to cross purposes and Isylt has to navigate the murky waters of internecine conflict while the lines between who is ally and enemy get increasingly blurred.

My description may make the whole thing sound like an incredibly convoluted thrill-a-minute ride but in fact the story unfolds in a stately manner. The author takes her time in introducing characters and letting plots and subplots unfold. If there is a criticism to be made it is that at time Isylt seems somewhat passive (not in her actions but in her decision-making) and her motivations not always entirely clear. At different times it is other characters who are much more the author of events and Isylt seems to be content to go along with things which one might expect she would balk from given her mission. The secondary characters are also interesting and well-realized - in some cases perhaps more well realized than Isylt.

Despite this criticism, all in all this was a satisfying and entertaining read. The world-building once again stands out and as soon as I was finished I picked up the sequel, not because the story was left unfinished (as mentioned earlier the story comes to a satisfying conclusion) but because the world and the characters were so intriguing that I wanted to spend more time with them.½

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

I should really learn to read at least part of a blurb before deciding I want to read a book based on the pretty cover and awesome title. Perhaps in that case I would have had different expectation. Because although the cover screamed Urban Fantasy to me, it was a completely different kind of Urban Fantasy I got.

Liz has powerful dreams, together with the mystics she encounters on the search for her friend Blake that's the fantasy you get. The rest of the story left me feeling unsatisfied and looking for something more to get from it. I didn't feel for the characters, and since I was unfamiliar with the concept of the yellow king, I didn't find that as interesting as it could have been. (But that's my fault of course).

I've been asking myself whether I would have liked the story better if I hadn't thought it would involve more fantasy, but frankly I'm not sure. I also read a lot of mystery books or books that just have a little something that's unexplainable, but this book fell short in those genres as well. It probably just wasn't the book for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I'm writing this review a little while after actually finishing the book, but I felt I had to get around to actually reading all of Robert W. Chambers' 'King in Yellow' stories before giving this a fair review, since the book is an homage to that mythos.

Having now read both, I'll say - it's not really necessary, but it's certainly fun to compare.

Chambers' 'King in Yellow' posits a work of art - a play - which drives the reader mad, possibly by showing them a glimpse of horrific realities beyond human comprehension. Downum skips the play, and skips right to the horrific realities, which is a bit of a shame (I like the idea) - but the 'feel' of the story is spot-on, and in keeping with Chambers' creations. If he'd been writing in the 21st century, instead of the 19th, this is something like what he might've written.

With its depiction of eccentric young characters involved in subcultures & the art scene and caught up by powers beyond their control, I was also reminded of Kathe Koja's horror novels and Lauren Beukes' 'Broken Monsters,' a bit.

Liz Drake's best friend Blake moved to Vancouver a while ago, and they haven't been in touch. But when she is suddenly plagued by vivid and terrible dreams concerning him, she insists on traveling out there to see if he's OK. Unfortunately, he is most certainly not OK. In Vancouver, Liz and her partner Alex discover a maze of occult ritual and mind-altering drugs... which Liz must navigate, Eurydice-like, to enter strange realms and attempt to save Blake from the alien land of Carcosa and the malevolent clutches of the Yellow King.

Many thanks to Rebellion/Solaris and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. As always, my opinion is solely my own.

Fast paced, action packed and never a dull moment. WOW. A wonderfully dark and twisted fantasy with a twinge of romance sprinkled all through the tale. It read like a fantasy/romance/paranormal mystery. An epic tale of magic, greed, revenge, lust, hate, power, love and death. It's all here in this book, vampires, sorcerers, necromancers, demons, witches, prostitutes, murderers, kings, princes, princesses, castles, transsexuals,...and I am sure I missed something. All tastefully, characterized. It is written so well, the story grabs your soul and does not not you sleep at night. It's a long book so I lost some z's.
I have to add this author as one of my "not to miss authors"

I am cleaning up my currently reading list. I haven't touched this book in ages. That is probably a good indicator that I didn't like it to much.

I will say this:

1) The book has good world building.

2) Well thought out magic system.

But:

1) Also uninteresting characters.

2) A story that just doesn't grip you.

I give this book 3 stars. On the good reads scale I would still like this book, I think it's a bit of a wacky scale.

Amanda Downum has created a creepy masterpiece. The realest of lives merge with the darkest kingdoms of fantasy in a story that bristled the hair on the back of my neck .Protagonist Liz Drake could be your best friend. But hers, Blake, has gone missing a continent away. With her lover, Liz tracks Blake through a nightmare of drugs, murder and magic.
This quiet little book was impossible to put down, difficult to finish, and is the epitome of that older line of fairy tales that warn us that what goes bump in the night isn't just the trickery of fey folk, but the evil we countenance and create. Definitely worth your while - but leave the lights on.½

trading off the series. I won't be reading it again.

After a week plagued by nightmares, Liz Drake decides that she has to travel the three thousand miles from Connecticut to Vancouver to find out what has really happened to her friend Blake Enderly. Together with her boyfriend Alex, Liz starts looking into Blake's apparent disappearance. At first the couple's tone is slightly jokey, with Alex casting them in the roles of Holmes and Watson. But when they arrive at Rainer Morgenstern's art gallery on the back of a clue found in Blake's apartment, they discover that they're caught up something far more serious: Blake is in a coma and his boyfriend Alain is dead, both having drowned, exactly as Liz' dreams foretold.

Rainer and his partner Antja, who are as close at the book gets to human villains, are hiding all sorts of things both from Liz and Alex and from each other. Rainer is obviously involved in supplying a drug called mania, something that triggers powerful mystical visions whilst slowly transforming the user into some sort of non-human monster, while many of his occult promises seem tied up with his oath to the sinister King in Yellow. Antja, for all the apparent confidence of the masks she presents to the world, is worried about Rainer, especially in light of his infatuation with Blake, and seems to have made some sort of Faustian pact to keep them safe after some unspecified event forced them to flee Berlin for Canada.

On the other edges of events are Lailah, who seems to have moved beyond mere humanity, and Rae Morisseau, a young goth pulled into Rainer's circle through her drug-dealing boyfriend who also seems to be connected with dangerous local boss Stephen York. But despite her position on the periphery of the core events of the book, Rae plays a pivotal role in the finale, making a hard decision in light of her growing realisation that her mania habit is eating away at her humanity in a way she can't seem to fight off.

Dreams of Shreds and Tatters is a mixture of urban fantasy and Lovecraftian horror, with more than a touch of the gothic thrown in. The characters are all flawed and troubled and vulnerable in their own ways. Both Liz and Blake have troubled pasts which, much as they've tried to escape them, continue to shape their behaviour in the present. Alex, too, is struggling with an event in his past which, although only ever alluded to, seems to have followed a similar shape to Blake's current trajectory and which has left him in a broken, fragile state of health. Similarly, Antja and Rainer are caught up in the sweep of events even as they choose to shape them. Their relationship mirrors that of Liz and Alex, with both Antja and Alex having stronger feelings for their partner than are reciprocated; something that explains the bond of uneasy friendship that forms between them during a glamorous party at Rainer's gallery.

The book isn't flawless - there are bits of the narrative, like the three Alices, that seem to drop out partway through - but the world it imagines is intriguing and unsettling, the characters are strongly drawn, convincing and unsettling, while the moments of horror are suitably visceral and unpleasant, and the whole thing makes for a rewarding and engaging read.

I am a huge fan of Amanda Downum’s Necromancer Chronicles, and I have to confess that I was more than a bit disappointed to learn that her new novel, Dreams of Shreds and Tatters, was not part of that series (and I still hope that she’ll get the chance to continue it one day). That disappointment, however, did not even survive the five or so pages of the Prologue; by then I was totally gripped by what turned out another brilliant novel by that author (who is on her way of becoming one of my favourite writers of speculative fiction).

While the Necromancer Chronicles were Second World Fantasy, her new novel belongs unambiguously to the horror genre; in fact it places itself firmly in a certain tradition by incorporating numerous references to Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, which – among others – greatly influenced H.P. Lovecraft. And there is something quite old-fashioned about Dreams of Shreds and Tatters in the way Downum deftly builds an atmosphere of looming dread, just a few wispy strands of fog barely above ground level at first, but slowly and ineluctably rising higher and higher, until the characters of the novel (not to mention its readers) find themselves entirely caught up in an alien, unutterable horror,manipulated by forces far beyond human knowledge and experience for inscrutable purposes.

But Dreams of Shreds and Tatters is not just a nostalgic excursion into retroland, but updates the supernatural horror for contemporary sensibilities – there are zombies and the occasional action scene and, more importantly, among Downum’s protagonists are people of colour, queers and of course women with agency. All of which places the novel into another, more colourful horror tradition, namely of the early Clive Barker and Caitlín R. Kiernan, the first for his vivid, bizarre imagination, the second for replacing the usually rather bland protagonists of classic weird fiction with credible, interesting characters.

If all of this makes Dreams of Shreds and Tatters sound somewhat less than original, then this is not quite untrue – but lack of originality is, I am quite confident, fully intended by the author. The novel is a deliberate weaving-together of two quite disparate strands of tradition in horror fiction, and Amanda Downum purposely plays with elements from both these traditions making this, if you want, a postmodern horror novel. But it’s not really self-referential games Downums is interested in – underneath the brightly polished brilliance of the writing and the dazzling display of bizarre creatures, Dreams of Shreds and Tatters is at its heart a character-driven novel and the literary and imaginative fireworks it burns have in the end as its main purpose to illuminate the people populating the world Amanda Downum has created. She presents the reader with a variety of viewpoints most of them, in keeping with Chamber’s The King in Yellow, artists with of a somewhat decadent inclination. Something I particularly loved is how, although we learn a lot about those characters, really none of them is made totally transparent – they all keep some of their secrets, and this opacity makes them more substantial, gives them a certain weight and allows them retain their mystery and likely to occupy the reader’s mind even after finishing the book.

I’m still hoping for more Necromancer Chronicles, but now I’m hoping for a sequel to Dreams of Shreds and Tatters, too (and there are some hints as to wider conflicts of which events playing out in this novel may be a part… so there is hope). Or really, anything Amanda Downum may want to write next.

Symir, the Drowning City. A lush subtropical port, home to exiles and expatriates, pirates and smugglers. And violent revolutionaries who'll stop at nothing to overthrow the corrupt Imperial government. Isyllt Iskaldur, necromancer and spy, has been sent to Symir to stir the pot and help the revolutionaries out. Unfortunately the longer Isyllt stays in the city the more dangerous it becomes. Will she choose between her mission or saving the lives of millions?

The Drowning City is the first in The Necromancer Chronicles and the first book by Amanda Downum. There is a definite Asian/Arabic influence to the world building. I enjoyed reading about the city itself and the steamy jungle. The characters even eat a a sushi cafe at one point. The magic system is also interesting. It is more shamanistic, spirit and ghost based, quite different than anything I've read recently.

What drew me to checking the book out was the fact that the main character is both a necromancer and a spy. Here is where the story fell short for me. Isyllt wasn't very spy-like in my opinion. Several of the books revelations occurred with our her by secondary characters. In fact, more time was spent with secondary characters than with Isyllt, which was both interesting and odd. Interesting because the characters we fun to read about but odd that the heroine wasn't allowed to shine more.

For a first novel it shows promise. There is a good amount of action and political intrigue. It's also nice to see several strong female protagonists. I hope in future books the magic system is played up more and a glossary would be a good addition if "foreign" words within the context of the world will be common.

The Drowning City is a promising debut that overcomes its few hiccups by the conclusion of the book. Downum is definitely one to watch.

Isyllt is a necromancer spy, sent to the steamy south to sow trouble in a rival empire. But on arrival, she realises she's stepped into a colonised city on the precipice. Can she push it over the edge without taking herself with it?

I struggled a little with the start of this book - I am not alone, judging from some reviews. Downum pops you straight into her city, and she fills her story with new terms, names, cultures. The political situation is not complex (an empire, their colonised kingdom, another rival kingdom/empire far to the north) but when it's served up all at once, the info dump was a little intense, especially coupled with constant allusions to what's happening offscreen and multiple protagonists.

This is compounded by Downum's rather heady prose. I don't know if I got used to it, or if she scaled it back a little bit as the book progressed, but either way I was fine with it by the end.

The setting is a kind of pan-Asian setting. It works very well in some places, and not so well in others, as Downum is happy to mix up syntax and cultural norms from very different Asian countries (eg Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam/Laos, India etc) to make her setting, and for me it was both a bit confusing, and also skirted the line of orientalism for me. I know her fantasy country is not meant to be analogous to one particular Asian country, but this kind of blending felt a bit haphazard - I felt she just wanted it to feel exotic and "Asian".

However, these weaknesses were far outweighed by the novel's strengths, first of which was its mature and engrossing plot. I love tales of intrigue, and Downum has a good one here - and one that escalates steadily, avoiding a tit-for-tat feel that Game of Thrones imitators can have. There is a sense of things being at stake in The Drowning City, and also progression.

Whilst the multiple protagonists were confusing at first, as their stories matured and developed I really started to appreciate them. Characters I had written off as one dimensional and shallow came to life, with more complexity than I had given them credit for.

This goes for our main protagonist, Isyllt, as well. Downum stuffs her with backstory and it really does add a lot of depth.

The climax, when it comes, is a superb collation of these separate threads. None of it felt forced or rushed to me, and I finished the book with a feeling of great satisfaction. A promising debut; I bought the sequel immediately.

A solid book in the modern fantasy genre - We have a wonderful detailed world, with interesting cultures and well written characters. The heroine, Issylt, is interesting - and considerably more than a simple spy - she acts rationally, asks for help, and has humanity - a welcome change from the loner type heroine novels that are so frequent. That isn't to say she isn't kick-ass, but she works within the system (well, her country's system - she is a spy), uses her skills when necessary, but knows her weaknesses.

The supporting characters are equally well written - for example, the student/revolutionist might be idealistic - but is smart and steps up to the challenge, without losing who she is.

The book is slow - there is a lot of politics, world building, and wordy scenes - but it picks up speed in later chapters, and becomes a book that you can't put down.

So, to summarize - nice world building, interesting characters, but at times a bit slow. If you like your fantasy with more of politics than fighting - this is a book you should read.½

I picked this up on a whim at Barnes and Noble. It then sat on my shelf for ages. I'm glad. Because when I finally read it, two more were published and I was able to gobble them all up! I enjoyed the character if Isyllt: unsure, but confident; prone to rash choices with her heart but wise choices for her job, broken but strong, and complex. The world building was fantastic. Symir reminded me of a jungly Venice. I could almost smell the water, the trees, the heat and death. The magic, the politics, the scoop - it was imaginative, intriguing, finely crafted and layered. Told from the viewpoint of three women, the story moves at a good pace, sucking one in and not letting go. I highly recommend!

After reading the first in the series, I was eager to return to this world. In this story, we get to go with Isyllt to her home city of Erisin, a different from Symir as possible. I adored the new characters introduced - in particular the Queen and the Mistress. We also learn more about Isyllt's magic and the other magic, how one learns magic and what magic gone awry can do. The story moved briskly, with intrigue. The twist at the end, I only half expected, which was nice. Again, I adored this book and highly recommend - only make sure to begin with book one.