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City of Last Chances
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
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City of Last Chances
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Summary
Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller Adrian Tchaikovsky's triumphant return to fantasy with a darkly inventive portrait of a city under occupation and on the verge of revolution.
There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse.
What will be the spark that lights the conflagration?
Despite the city's refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood–that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores.
Ilmar, some say, is the worst place in the world and the gateway to a thousand worse places.
Ilmar, City of Long Shadows.
City of Bad Decisions.
City of Last Chances.
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What listeners say about City of Last Chances
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Porl
- 11-06-24
A walk to Aldebaran gets complicated!
Enjoyable story that lends itself well to a series with good characters and some interesting ideas.
All well written with some typical Tchaikovsky descriptions.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 13-02-24
A fantasticly novel take on fantasy
This books seems to run on the saying "Everyone is the hero of their own story" and this book has so many interesting characters.
The world is also just a mad of ideas that could be individual stories just as well. A fantasy city under occupation from a strange Nation that aims to perfect the world by rendering magic down to pure power for their own use, a university of ideal driven students, demon powered factories, gangs of organised crime and underground magic users. And that's just the stuff on the surface, this world has a depth that just unfurls so naturally in your mind, it's a treat to read.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- William
- 20-08-24
Hard to follow
Fan of Adrian as I am, I just could not get past the first few chapters of this book, I've tried thrice now.
Maybe it's because I listen to audiobooks while doing other things so they don't get the full 100% of my attention, but I found it impossible to keep up with all of the characters and locations that were being introduced. I was never really given anything to get invested in and after three attempts, I still don't know what the book was going to be about.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Hannah
- 26-08-24
Excellent worldbuilding
The book started out a little confusing as I struggled to keep track of the characters or to become invested in their stories. The narration was a bit over enthusiastic at times too. However, I stuck with it and this turned out to be a fantastic book - the world building was fantastic with a fantasy world fully fleshed out with different races, languages, lifestyles and histories. Reminiscent of the Discworld series.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- P. A. Pajor
- 12-06-23
Perfect hit for me
I enjoyed this story far, far more that typical fantasy. Compelling characters, interesting social observations and lack of simplistic moralisms plaguing fantasy (and SciFi) recently. I want more!
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Peter
- 12-04-24
Not sure the narrator got the text
Complex set up at the beginning- Lots of characters. Names hard to remember and so blurred them sometimes and found it a bit hard to follow. Thought the narrator struggled with the author’s text rather than bringing it to life much of the time. But despite all of that, overall a really interesting story and if there are more books in this series (is it a series?) then more if the complex world building should make sense / have more time to evolve. So hugely imaginative but a bit hard to follow at least in the beginning.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- James Tolmie
- 10-07-24
Great Story and Fantastic Narration
Imaginative world and intricate plot with a fleshed out cast of flawed and endearing characters. Brilliant narration that elevates the whole story.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- HeleN
- 04-08-24
fantastic set pieces within a coherent narrative
rambling tall tale that draws on great 19th century novels, Les miserables, and crime and punishment sporing to mind, but with fantastical twists and turns and a somewhat large fistful of pratchett. I have found this author over long, but the excellent narration makes the whole thing superbly entertaining.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 24-01-23
A very good fairytale
Adrian Tchaikovsky does it again. Defies expectations, that is! A strange story with some wonderful ideas and characters, flawed (though not all readers will concur) by being slightly too self-consciously ironic for its own good - it's certainly not a parody, but the author is very aware of playing up tropes, and with such a long book it was treading very close to the line. Performance-wise, Thorpe is very good at characterisation but somehow a little heavy on the narration; shades of public information film or something. A star knocked off both story and performance as a result. There's also a lot to love here, though.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Krypton
- 02-12-23
Quite a chew
I’ve persevered rather than listened to a few of the author’s previous books, all of them a bit weird and way too long, but this one just didn’t work. Clear to see messages but made more confusing than his average level by too many weird names. Not his best as they say.
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1 person found this helpful