Luke Arnold

“An Angel had fallen in Sunder City: bloody, broken, and the best thing to happen in seven long years.”

One Foot in the Fade, the third instalment of the Fetch Philips Archives fantasy series, from Luke Arnold, picks up about a year after Dead Man in a Ditch ended.

‘Man for Hire’ Fetch is as determined as ever to bring magic back to Sunder City, and rescue it from the grasp of industrialist, Niles. When an angel plummets to the ground at his feet, Fetch dares to hope that redemption may finally be within reach.

While mostly retaining the same noir tone of previous books, One Foot in the Fade leans more into adventure as Fetch, after catching a jewellery thief, sets out on a cross-country quest to claim a magical artifact, and save the world he broke. Accompanied by a librarian, a genie, a werewolf, and a young college student, Fetch encounters dragons, amalgams, crazed wizards, golems, and a Minotaur in pursuit of a crown hidden in a castle in Incava.

Convinced he has a real chance of rectifying his past mistake, Fetch seems to lose what little good sense he had. Already an anti-hero, Fetch steps closer to villainy, ignoring the means in favour of his ends. I was initially disappointed to see him lose ground made in previous novels, as Fetch, impulsive and abrasive at the best of times, becomes careless and sometimes cruel. Too caught up in his dream of magic returning, Fetch brushes over the harm he is doing until he’s forced to tally the cost of his actions.

This isn’t a series I’d recommend picking up midway as Arnold expands his world with each book, but more importantly, each story relies heavily on the character growth of Fetch.

With its entertaining mix of adventure, drama and dark humour, I enjoyed One Foot in the Fade. Though Arnold may have originally planned the Fetch Phillips Archives as a trilogy, I don’t think this is necessarily the last we will see of Fetch, a possibility hinted at in the last few pages.… (altro)

One Sentence Summary: When Fetch comes face to face with the last Genie, who has been attempting to use her powers to save desperate magical creatures and failing miserably, he ends up setting out on an adventure with her, but at a cost.

Overall
One Foot in the Fade is the third in the Fetch Phillips series. It features Man for Hire Fetch Phillips, a Human working hard for the past seven years to bring the magic back. But, too often, he seems like the only one trying to bring it back, because Humans have taken advantage and have pushed the city forward, bringing the magical creatures along with it if they want to survive. Until Fetch meets Khay, the last Genie, and the hopes of bringing the magic back. One part mystery and one part adventure story, One Foot in the Fade mostly felt like it was focused on world building and character development, but leaves off on an interesting note that shifted quite a few things for me, and I look forward to what’s next.

Extended Thoughts
Man for Hire Fetch Phillips is just a Human trying to bring back the magic, but it’s been seven years. When an Angel, with feathers on his wings, falls from the sky, he thinks it might be coming back. But it leads him on a chase for someone who leaves burn marks on the victims, bringing him face to face with the last Genie. Khay believes she can use her powers to restore a magical creature’s powers, but might not have enough cursed jewelry to make it work properly. With Fetch at her side, and a small motley crew, they set off for the wizard city of Incava, stumbling across more than they expected with the future staring them down.

Where the first book, The Last Smile in Sunder City, felt more like it focused on world and character development and the second book, Dead Man in a Ditch, felt more like it was focused on the forward progress Sunder City as a whole was trying to make, One Foot in the Fade felt like a blend. The world was opened up in this installment and Fetch was forced through a few changes and shifts in perspective. There’s also a lot of forward progress the world as a whole is doing, finding a way to live without magic and letting go of the past. Fetch felt like something of a relic, but the focus on his character development went a long way to smoothing out the story for me.

Just like in the previous novels, the mystery is thin and actually solved really early on. Though it was a lot of fun watching Fetch stumble his way to that. No, One Foot in the Fade felt more like an adventure story to me. Half of it was set in Sunder City and half was basically on the road towards Incava. I did like how the murder mystery actually kind of bobbed and wove through the city. It faded completely in the middle, but I liked how it was set up and how it ended up being resolved at the end. Actually, the end felt like the strongest part of the novel for me. The first half felt a little slow, but I liked the focus on the mystery. Most of the second half was an adventure and it felt like it meandered a little to me, with forward progress constantly being hampered by small events. But the ending really pulled the story together with a surprising amount of feeling, as well as an interesting shift in not just Fetch, but also, possibly, the overarching story to this series.

I felt a little torn about leaving Sunder City. Fetch has wandered away from it before, but he was away for almost half the novel this time. It was nice, though, to get to see more of the world and experience the crazy place the wizards live in. It was interesting to get to see how they were trying to pull through in a post-magical world as well as how it might have an impact on the wider story. I also really liked the introduction of a secret society called the Bridge, which is dedicated to finding a way to bring the magic back. But I wish more of the story had been set in Sunder City. With Humans seemingly taking advantage and introducing all these nifty gadgets like guns and microwaves, I’m intrigued by how well the magical city is adapting to this new way of life. It felt like most were actually adjusting a lot better than Fetch was, which made me question why he was holding on so tightly. It also makes me wonder if there’s a darker undercurrent to what the Humans have planned. Still, it was nice to see so many magical creatures beginning to find their feet and a new purpose.

One Foot in the Fade often felt like its purpose was to further develop Fetch’s character. I found myself both frustrated and impressed by him throughout the novel. His reasoning for just jumping on Khay’s case was flimsy and not at all thought out. From the beginning it felt like a wild goose chase, so Fetch throwing himself into it was, well, within character, but also kind of head scratching to me as a reader. But it was a good launching point for Fetch to evolve as a person. The journey forced him into situations he was uncomfortable with, so it was nice to see shifts in him. By the end, he felt very different from where he was at the beginning, and it also felt like a shift in the overarching story was occurring at the same time.

As much as the adventure part of this story was a bit of a struggle for me, I really liked the group: Genie Khay, witch Eileen, Human financier with more to his story that anyone else knows Lazarus, and hired mercenary Theo. I loved the way they played off each other and carried their weight. They were a lot of fun, and just the right group for Fetch to be caught up in. But Khay was the most important one of the group. She was fascinating in that she was morally gray, trying desperately to do something good, but was she really? I loved that I couldn’t figure her out, that there were times when she leaned one way or the other. But I could certainly understand her desperation. It’s just that sometimes the creatures who were supposed to help her attain her goal were slowing things down too much for her. I never got the sense that time was running out for her, so it sometimes felt more like a walk in the park.

One Foot in the Fade offers an interesting and fun mystery and adventure story. It nicely widens the world and offers a little more history, as well as some fascinating revelations. But it felt more focused on Fetch’s development, which, honestly, was sorely needed to help keep this series fresh. I look forward to what’s in store for him next, as well as where the story and world are going. There were some things I had to suspend belief to get past, but, overall, I found this to be largely pleasant and a lot of fun.

Thank you to NetGalley and Angela Man at Orbit for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.… (altro)

With half of Sunder City looking for magic’s return and the other half struggling to move forward, Man for Hire Fetch Phillips is stuck in the middle, until an old friend returns from the dead.

The Plot: The Question of How to Move Forward
Ever since Fetch Phillips found a vampire who somehow managed to stay young after the Coda that stripped the world of magic, people have been coming to him asking if magic is coming back. Fetch doesn’t believe so, but a paying client is a paying client and he can’t afford to be choosy.

His cases are simple enough: make sure a deal doesn’t go south, find who murdered a wealthy Human businessman, find out what happened to an Elf’s dearly departed husband, keep a strange new machine that shoots little metal pieces hidden. Simple, but they lead him deep into the bowels of the city and out to far reaches where secrets are just waiting to be found, and into the cane of an old friend.

Soon, Fetch is doing more than simply being a Man for Hire. Hired, sure, but he starts to find his way, his feet, and discovers his own cause, one that will have past and present, Humans and magic, careening towards an inevitable clash.

Where the first book, The Last Smile in Sunder City, felt more like a noir mystery, that facade quickly fell away in this book. The world has been sufficiently set up. The main character’s history has been thoroughly examined. Now the real story can get going, and what a story it is!

Dead Man in a Ditch is more serious, and heavier than the first book. It’s not much of a mystery or PI novel. Fetch is a Man for Hire and the series simply revolves around him. In this volume, it’s possible to say the direction the series might take, but, considering how surprised I was by this book, it’s impossible to say for sure what Arnold has in mind as the series progresses. While I expected more mystery couched firmly in fantasy, like the first book, this exploded into something more. It’s about progress, moving forward after mourning, looking to the future while attempting to atone for sins that can’t be forgiven but merely moved past, and a clash of worlds as the Humans stealthily try to sneak in and take over. But there’s also the allure of the past, the idea that magic is still out there, might still come back.

As heavy as Dead Man in a Ditch is, it offers an incredible amount of food for thought. It forces the reader to look at the world and Fetch in a different light. Whatever the overarching story might be, it looks like it’s taken a darker turn in this second installment, but, somehow, there’s still glimmers of hope. We just have to rely on Fetch Phillips, Man for Hire.

The Characters: It’s Fetch’s Story
Fetch Phillips is our tired, desperate, more likable protagonist. He caused the Coda and has spent the six years since trying to atone for that. He’s made a lot of enemies, and some questionable friends, but at least he’s honest (unless he’s trying to get some information for a case). Pain seems to be the only price he’s willing to pay, but he’ll gladly pay it if only it can help him set the world aright.

Fetch wasn’t exactly likable in the first book. It was almost as though Arnold was pushing him to the edge of palatable. There wasn’t much to redeem him, but Dead Man in a Ditch presents him in a new light, one that makes me like him a little bit more. He’s as broken as everyone else, but maybe more so. His desperation is clear and might make the reader sympathetic. But he really does try, and that’s almost noble.

Fetch doesn’t really have a knack for making friends, but he certainly has some old friends, one of whom pops up out of nowhere and leads him deep into a revolution. But every other character, no matter how little we see of them, was interesting and fleshed out, and had some kind of story with Fetch, whether it was old, recent, or entirely new. He might not know how to make friends, but he certainly knows how to make enemies. Most of the characters managed to help paint Fetch in a stark light: he doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but does it anyways. He has his job, but what kind of job is it, exactly? Though I did find a number of them fascinating and important to the story, it was also impossible for me to not believe they weren’t there to help show Fetch in a certain light.

The Setting: Bitterly Stark and Cold
Since Fetch works and lives in Sunder City, it is here we are returned to for this second novel. Now, it’s winter and the city is bitterly cold. It’s there in the shivering, the snow dusting the ground, the layers and layers of clothing everyone wears, the longing for the fires that once lit up and warmed the city. It’s stark and it’s sad. With magic gone, every magical creature has been hit hard and is now struggling to put their lives together. Since the first book perfectly, and at length, set up the world, Dead Man in a Ditch had the luxury of glossing back over the details and instead using stark, unapologetic language to describe the atmosphere and the desperation in the city.

It’s not just the city we see, but the land surrounding it as well. Fetch’s cases and questions lead him far out of the city, through forests and abandoned cities. It’s wild, scary, and sad, but, without magic, everyone has been forced to find a new way of living, or a way of just coping until their untimely, too early death occurs. In my mind, it felt dark, constantly overcast, freezing cold, and just utterly abandoned. It’s opener than the city, but still holds the same stark, sad truth.

Overall: A Worthy Second Installment
Overall, Dead Man in a Ditch is a worthy follow up to the first novel. It picks up where it left off, but presents the story in a different way. It was surprising to not get more of the same, the rapidly unraveling case couched in fantasy, but also refreshing. The world has undergone a massive change and this novel addresses it and provides solutions while also keeping the story open for further installments. It felt a little jumpy at first with so many different cases, but they quickly began to tie together, and then it took a great leap that spun the story a different way, though it still managed to neatly tie back together. The middle was a little slow and sometimes I just wanted Fetch and the story to just hurry up and stop wallowing, but I did enjoy the novel and look forward to what comes next.

Thank you to Angela Man at Orbit for a free e-copy. All opinions expressed are my own.… (altro)