Synopsis: Running from her traitorous best friend and her estranged father, graffiti artist Beth Bradley is looking for sanctuary. What she finds is Urchin, the ragged and cocky crown prince of London’s mystical underworld. Urchin opens Beth’s eyes to the city she’s never truly seen-where vast spiders crawl telephone wires seeking voices to steal, railwraiths escape their tethers, and statues conceal an ancient priesthood robed in bronze.

But it all teeters on the brink of destruction. Amid rumors that Urchin’s goddess mother will soon return from her 15-year exile, Reach, a malign god of urban decay, wants the young prince dead. Helping Urchin raise an alleyway army to reclaim his skyscraper throne, Beth soon forgets her old life. But when her best friend is captured, Beth must choose between this wondrous existence and the life she left behind.
-Goodreads

Review: This book took me awhile to get into but once I was in, I really enjoyed it. The City’s Son was pretty much the pinnacle of URBAN fantasy. The fast majority of the story took place in an extremely imaginative, dark and gritty London away from the eyes of most of the city’s citizens. It may have been almost too gritty (for me at least) as even though there were some beautifully written fantasy elements, it was hard to get away from the doom and gloom feeling that is given off by every element of this book.

Even with that being said, the best part of this book is easily the setting. Tom Pollock described the streets of London with beautiful accuracy and added in distinct fantasy elements that I doubt I’ve seen the likes of before. The coolest for me was the sentient train wraiths who carry memories of past passengers inside them. It was so easy to visualize in my head and played a big part in immersing me in the story.

The relationship between Beth and Filius is entertaining but the chemistry wasn’t always believable. I think the problem lay more with Filius, he was played up so much as this mysterious boy of the streets with a dark responsibility but I never felt like he was really fleshed out. Beth on the other hand was dynamic with a great history you really believed.

Overall a very cool book that was unlike anything else I’ve read this year but still not exactly my cup of tea (this book will have you using British slang like nobody’s business) but I can absolutely see how this book will appeal to those of you who like a darker edge to their fiction. Enjoy!

Buy the book @Amazon (US) @Amazon (CAN)

Rating:

Second Opinions:
@100 Word Review
@Falcata Times
@Bart’s Book Shelf