3.0
City Under the Stars
ByPublisher Description
God was in his Heaven—which was fifteen miles away, due east.
Far in Earth's future, in a post-utopian hellhole, Hanson works ten solid back-breaking hours a day, shoveling endless mountains of coal, within sight of the iridescent wall that separates what's left of humanity from their gods.
One day, after a tragedy of his own making, Hanson leaves the city, not knowing what he will do or how he will survive in the wilderness without work. He finds himself drawn to the wall, to the elusive promise of God. And when the impossible happens, he steps through, into the city beyond.
The impossible was only the beginning.
completes a journey undertaken by Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick when they published the novella
. Over two decades later, the two realized there was more to the story, and began the work of expanding it. Now, after Gardner Dozois' tragic passing in 2018, the story can be told in full.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesCity Under the Stars Reviews
3.0
“3 Stars
The City of Stars is a dystopian Sci-Fi novel set in a world in which the City of Gods closed themselves off from the rest of the world, leaving everything and everyone on the outside to ruin. In this, we follow Hason, who has been working in the coal mines, up until he is displaced by a younger, stronger worker. After Hansons fall we soon follow him on the run throughout this broken society and wilderness.
I enjoyed the writing style of this, it reminded me a lot of how the Windsinger trilogy is written. However, to be a shorter novel I did find at times the pacing to be lagging. The concept is interesting and well developed. As much as I wanted to give this a five-star rating for me it is a little too slow and rambling. It does have a very classic feeling overall in tone and nature. I would recommend if you are looking for a shorter Sci-Fi to pick up.”
“This book was such a departure for me. Though I read fantasy as often as I can find it, science fiction is 50/50 for me; sometimes I love it and sometimes I hate it. I often find it too focused on the “technical” for me to enjoy. This book was not like that but it was still definitely not my usual fantasy. I have not read anything else by the authors and I couldn’t find a copy of the original short to read.
I was immediately drawn in by the summary: “God was in his Heaven - which was fifteen miles away, due east.” This may just be one of the best openers ever. The story was short and went along an interesting line until it departed rather dramatically from where I expected it to go. I enjoyed it nonetheless.
It felt a bit like an outline after a certain point; like it wasn’t fully fleshed out. There seemed to be more story that could be written. Hanson was wonderfully alive, but everyone else felt a bit half-drawn. After reading the afterword and learning that that is precisely what happened, because Dozois passed before the project, as it was intended, could be completed, I loved it a bit more.
The ending was everything I wanted it to be. I enjoyed this and would recommend it. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.”
About Gardner Dozois
Other books by Gardner Dozois
Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick has received the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Theodore Sturgeon awards for his work. His short fiction has appeared in
,
,
,
, and numerous other publications, and many pieces have been reprinted in best-of-the-year anthologies. He has written nine novels, among them
,
, the New York Times Notable Book
,
, and, most recently,
. Swanwick lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Marianne Porter, and their son, Sean.
Other books by Michael Swanwick
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