Wow. Let me just say, wow.

I have been excited for this book for months, ever since I found out about it. A few years ago I fell into the humans/magic/fantasy mixup with things like Brent Weeks and Brian McClellan and haven’t looked back since, finally settling into a genre that my adult self likes. The Last Smile in Sunder City makes a perfect new edition to that genre that seems to sometimes be a little bit of everything.

Luke Arnold has a unique way with words, and many reviews I skimmed prior to release (attempting to avoid spoilers at all costs) used words like refreshing, and new. And it’s true. In a story about a world that has just ended, told in the voice of a man who blames himself for everything, instead of finding myself despondent, I felt like I was taking a breath of fresh air. The fast paced, yet in depth storytelling meant I was never bored, and hardly put the book down to make dinner.

I admit I was perhaps a bit more excited about this than I might normally be, having discovered Luke Arnold in a whirlwind watching of all four seasons of Black Sails in one week, and coming out the other side to find my worldview somewhat changed, but regardless of that, this book is one of the more entertaining and exciting that I have read in a long time. It joins the elite ranks of books I have pre-ordered or bought and read the entirety on release day, which previously were only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Inferno (Dan Brown).

I look forward to the continuation of the story, and can guarantee each further instalment will also be read in a single day.

Most of this review is what I’ve posted on goodreads, but here is a bit more undignified squealing:

OMG THAT WAS AMAZING! I admit, I have trouble with first person, I tend to hate first person. So it make sense that when I wrote a book it was in first person. Yes, I know, logic right? Well this…this was beautifully done. It’s hard to capture first person well, and hard to keep it engaging throughout the story.

I remember a post Luke made here on WordPress a few months ago while he was editing, about the emotional toll it takes to get inside your character’s head and to write their life. It is hard, terribly hard, and it’s even harder when you write in first person. As I read the voice of Fetch Phillips, I could easily see how hard it would be to write his voice, to feel his guilt. Those emotion’s run through you when you write and can leave you feeling raw and wrung out.

I have never met Luke, though I admit I would love to. I’ve found throughout my life that it’s easier to tell from someone’s writing if you want to be friends with them, than it is to simply sit down and talk to someone. For me writing is my better way of communicating, and I can read people better through what they write than what they say 9 times out of 10. You can read a book and then say ‘Oh…yes, I would love to sit down and just have a conversation with this person. I don’t know about what, I just want to see where it goes.’ That’s my biggest problem with people, I never know what to say.

I do hope his book tour brings him to the UK at some point, because I would like to thank him for being the inspiration that has gotten me off my backside and back to my own writing. I’ve always looked for that one thing that will make you keep going with something, and I don’t know why it was this, but it has been, and I feel more inspired than I have in years to finish my own work, to find and agent and a publisher, and to be all right with the fact that it takes time. That my search might take me another year, or another five. Somehow now it’s ok, because I realise it really is worth the effort.

– Caitlin