Felix Gilman returns once again to the streets of Ararat in Gears of the City, a novel that Agony Column’s Rick Kleffel calls “A dark, dank and delightful combination of rip-roaring adventure.” In this sequel to 2007’s Thunderer, that novel’s priest protagonist Arjun is lost to himself, his memory shattered and his place uncertain in a city now abandoned of its once ubiquitous gods. Drawn into a quest to find a missing woman, Arjun learns that his destiny may be intertwined with that of Ararat itself.
I recently asked the author to share seven reasons why you should read Gears of the City if you haven’t yet. Read his response after the jump.
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Because I asked nicely.
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Because Gears of the City is, if nothing else, a very unusual book. Go on, give it a go, you might as well, you won’t read anything else exactly like it.
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Because Gears contains, encoded within its long fustian mock-Victorian chapter headings, the Seven Secret Names of God, by which you may bind, abjure, and command the Angelic Host.
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Because Gears straddles genres, encompassing elements of horror, high fantasy, low fantasy, sci-fi, surrealism, Alice-in-Wonderland whimsy, some comedy, action, what one reviewer of Thunderer (the previous book in the series) called metafantasy, a small quantity of noir, etc. You can think of it as one-stop shopping for all your genre needs. I do this as a convenience for You, The Reader.
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Do you ever feel that the world is an puzzling, sinister joke, a conspiracy run by lunatics, in which even the smallest acts of kindness or love or reason are heroic triumphs of self-assertion? Yes? Then this is the fantasy for you.
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Because it’s got a dragon, sort of.
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The seventh reason is a secret too terrible for you to know.