DNF. Boring.

This book caused me to really enjoy it and find it mediocre in different parts.

The good: I loved the main character, a necromancer thief?! How neat! All the characters stay true to who they are so even when I didn't like a character's choice it made sense for who they were.

The bad: If you are going to make a fantasy world make one. Don't use pieces of our world in such obvious ways. Although this gets better later in the book the beginning is quite like races of earth with different names. The other problem I had was a dump of names in the first chapter making it nearly impossible to keep anything straight.

In the end, it was worth a read and I want to read the next one.

Three very meh stars.

I really loved this book and I can't wait to read the next.

Amanda Downum rocks and I'm also happy that she's working on the third!

My only complaint.... the feeling of sweat being itchy on skin was mentioned too often for my liking.

I am not enjoying this, I have forced myself to read 30% of this book, and all I can do is think about the next book I am going to read. Sorry, this just wasnt a fantasy I enjoyed.

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!

3.5

I've tried to read this book so many times because it seems like it would be amazing. It looks great, the summary is great, yet it falls flat on it's face. The characters are not special, the pace is off, the names are horrible, and the way the author describes things makes it even harder to read. It took me awhile to get into this book, and it felt like I had to physically force myself to read it. Calling it a struggle wouldn't even begin to describe the experience. I wanted to like it, which is why I've tried to force myself to read it so many times, but it's just not for me. I can't get past the descriptions and the unlikable characters. The book put me off too much in the beginning to sit through and hope it would possibly get a tiny bit better.

I wanted to like this book more than I did.

It's not bad, the prose is a little florid at times, but the real problem is that the characters are pretty undifferentiated from one another. And for all the races and countries in the story, there's not much explained about them. The book also feels pretty padded out for what actually winds up happening at times.

Adds up to not really caring about any of the characters which makes it hard to really care about the book as a whole. It's well written and has a lot of the small things done well, I just have no intention of spending more time on this series.

Isyllt, necromancer and spy, comes to Symir to finance a revolution--only to find herself and her companions ensnared by the city's complex politics. A welcome (and necessary) deviation from the norm, Symir isn't inspired by medieval Europe and the book is peopled in majority by strong, diverse women. Downum writes with intent; her worldbuilding is strong, and has an evocative sense of place; the politics are varied and confrontational. But The Drowning City lacks heart. Both plot and pacing are predictable, which strips intrigue from the politicking and even renders the landscape monotonous. There's too many PoV characters, each exploring certain cultures and motives but none kindling emotional investment. I'm biased, I find it hard to build investment in second world fantasy--but I had particular trouble with it here. While I admire Downum's intent, The Drowning City fails to rise above serviceable.