Here the chapter may jump between the characters who are currently there. On occasion, it does not focus on a person, but a location. It is like Tchaikovsky has a beam that focuses on one person and then leaps across the city to another, always moving on to the next location with each new chapter. We are told the story of Ilmar, not from the perspective of the individual, but the city as a whole. The book starts with a few characters being introduced, but then you start to realise that the chapters keep moving on to new people. Structure is not often the thing that I highlight when discussing fantasy novels, but Tchaikovsky has created a genuinely different take than I have read before. Ilmar is starting to smoulder once again, and we follow several people as the powder keg starts to go off. If that was not enough, it rests on the edge of the mysterious Anchorwood, a place that people enter and never leave. As a centre of industry and education, it is a key place, but one that is known for its uprisings. Its residents are currently under the control of the foreign power of the Palleseen and their strict rules. Ilmar is known as the city of last chances, a place where people go to be hidden or start again. City of Last Chances is a story told from the perspective of potentially any citizen of Ilmar. Adrian Tchaikovsky is well versed in fantasy, so as an author they are well placed to mix thing up. Leaping from one character and back again works in the genre as it gives you multiple perspectives on the same epic events from the side of good, evil, and, even on occasion, the indifferent. As a rule, they fall into a couple of camps on how they are narrated – from a single point of view, or through the eyes of several people, normally 3-7. I have read more than my fair share of fantasy novels and I love them.

City of last chances tchaikovsky