Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: The battle has been fought and won, and all have been transformed by the struggle. Imago of Lockwood has become Lord Mayor of the City Imperishable, though at a price beyond his wildest imagination. Bijaz the Dwarf has been imbued with a godlike power and a responsibility he scarcely understands. And Jason the Factor, resurrected from death at the hands of his sister, the Tokhari sandwalker Kalliope, has become the sula ma-jieni na-dia, the fabled Dead Man of Winter. When a beautiful mountebank arrives in the City Imperishable, offering to lead an expedition to uncover the lost tomb of the Imperator Terminus, she stirs up the mob with promises of treasure and imperial power... but what will her quest unleash? Political intrigue, adventure, and all-out war await the principles and inhabitants of the City Imperishable. Through it all, the City may endure, but none will remain untouched by the Madness of Flowers...

My Review: Oh damn. This is the last book set in the City Imperishable. No more adventures for Bijaz the newly minted demigod/dwarf, no more cruel rivalry between the Sewn and the Slashed...

I will miss annoying Jason the factor. I will miss obnoxious Imago the Lord Mayor, who gave me my new favorite blasphemy: "By Dorgau's infected nostril!"; and Bijaz most of all. Bijaz, now possessed of startling powers he spends most of the book learning how to cope with:

A thought came unbidden to his head. Enough fire. Transformation was easier than heat and light. His fingers brushed tons of paper. From the madness of insects he would make instead a madness of flowers.
With that, it was done. The paper exploded in roses the color of light and flame, twisting in a whirlwind as the reaper touched Bijaz's shoulder to claim back his fragment of the sun.

Oh hell yeah.

I will miss the cadence of speech that Lake created for his barbarians, the Winter Boys: "I am to be receiving ever more pointed letters from the south," the mercenary commander added. "Higher authority is to be calling me home." It rolls and swirls, this dialect, it feels natural and suggests the difficulties of speaking a language whose rules aren't in your bones. And yet it's not phonied up pseudo-archaic claptrap. Yeah, me likee.

I confess that Kalliope, sister to Jason the factor and a sandwalker/desert mage, made a pretty big dent in my enjoyment of the book. She was such a superior, self-satisfied character that it was hard for me to warm to her. When she meets Bijaz after he gains his startling new powers, her greeting is, "Must you hide in these ridiculous places?" Shades of Hermione Granger the Swot! And then, mere moments later, she utters this ponderous and condescending line: "To whom does a godling pray?"

I want a baseball bat and five minutes alone with her.

But that's part of the magic that Jay Lake weaves around me in this book, this pair of books. I care about the people I've met in the City Imperishable. I like some, don't like others, am constantly reassessing my responses to all of them in light of what they've done and what they're doing now...I respond to them, in other words, as people, not plot-forwarding devices.

Many, if not most, fantasy novels I've read (not a huge number) have the fatal-to-my-pleasure problems of Speechifying, giving long (or longer than my interest lasts, anyway) disquisitions on the whys and wherefores and whosomevers of The Problem or The Quest we're here to learn about. I think of it as the Robert Louis Stevenson Disease: Explain explain explain action recap. Repeat ad infinitum.

Ech.

And then there's the other fantasy novel failing, the Stock Character on the Stock Quest: Teenager with Special Hidden Powers meets Cutesy Sidekick, is thrashed by Evil Villain, recovers in Hidden Hovel with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and emerges to Thwart Evil Villain and become Super Ruler. Or whatever small variation on that theme and those characters the author has rung. Yes, yes, all quest novels are versions of that story. Put some effort into hiding it! Distract me and engage my attention elsewhere, so I'll trot along behind your people as they go through the paces, smiling instead of sighing.

That's what Jay Lake did in his creation of the City Imperishable. He recapitulated eleventh-century Byzantine history mixed with the iconic Star Wars quest and made me, the most cynical non-fantasy reader ever, like it. He did it by making me invest in people, believe their eccentricities were real and interesting, and told me enough about the world they live in for me to know that it wasn't my world but one a bit more interesting.

So, yeah. The city is.


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I can't improve on the reviews by Bluetyson and Aethercowboy so I'm not going to even try. I also have to admit that I didn't read the first book in this series (I have to locate a copy). I found after a few pages that I was pulled into the story and got a lot of the background without too much strain. The middle of the book flew but the end kinda lost me. It's urban fantasy much in the way Terry Pratchett's novels are Urban Fantasy, the story is about a city and how a city works.

Everyone is dealing with the aftermath of the battle from the first book, Bijaz is trying to work out how to use his powers, Imago is trying to work out how to keep the burgers of the city from killing him while ruling the city; Jason is resurrected and his sister is trying to atone for killing him and other people sparkle and appear in the story with pivotal roles.

It's an intersting story and the characters of different people shone through, I just felt a little let down by the end. ( )

Madness of Flowers is the sequel to Jay Lake's earlier Trial of Flowers. This is the second book of the City Imperishable.

The book is set in a fantasy world, shortly after the events of Trial, in which the gods tampered with the rules, altering several characters significantly. It follows the stories of three dwarfs: Bijaz, recently bestowed with godhood; Imago, recently modified into a dwarf by a Procrustean god; and Onesiphorous, Imago's emissary in the nearby port town. Likewise, they are supported by a cast of character, such as Kalliope, a desert-dweller returning to the city; Jason, her revenant brother who died at her own hands; and Marelle, a mysterious dwarfess with a deep knowledge of the city. The City Imperishable, their home, feels like a very close spiritual neighbor to China Miéville's Bas-Lag, falling securely into the realm of the New Weird.

Most stories start when a stranger comes to town, and Madness is no different. Ashkoliiz, a mysterious woman with a mysterious white bear and some mysterious Northmen have an expedition for which they'd like to recruit some good men and dwarfs. Imago doesn't trust her, and so enlists Bijaz to go along with her and keep her out of trouble. Meanwhile, Onesipherous must deal with a building tension between dwarfs who believe their children should be "boxed" (and thus, made into dwarfs), and those who don't, among other political issues whose repercussions effect the trade of the port town.

The story is good. The setting is good. The world is good. The writing, however, was very, very dry and turgid. Having never read anything by Lake before, I'm not sure if this is his style, or if it is just the voice he adopted for his City Imperishable books. However, it really made the book read all the more slowly.

If you're a die-hard fan of New Weird, then you'll probably find the Trial of Reading more worthwhile than somebody who just wants a thrilling story, plz. Otherwise, you'll probably get lost in the Madness. ( )