Hennessy, Rachel, City knife (The burning days #3), MidnightSun Publishing, September 2023, 344 pp., $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781925227970
City knife is the concluding book of The burning days trilogy. It’s three years since the second instalment, so I was very grateful for the opening pages: What Has Gone Before.
Following on from Mountain arrow, the ferals, or Chimera, appear to be joining forces to battle the surviving humans. Many of the characters from the first two books feel the only way forward is to go to war with the Chimera and obliterate them. Pandora is fighting for a more humane solution.
The burning days series explores the ethical question: should you act for the greater good, even if that action does not marry with your own personal values?
I found the plot of this book very difficult to grasp as it jumps from one narrator to another. There are so many: Pandora, Bayat, Fatima, Emmaline, Matthew, Zaana, and then Rath’s journal which has a different time-line. All these narratives are in the first person, and the voices all sound the same – there is no difference in tone or vocabulary which made it very difficult to follow. Using first person also means we read a lot of internal dialogue and questioning, which felt one dimensional. Reading a character asking themselves ‘What have I done?’ “Why did I do that?’ Or a series of questions, for example: ‘Why had she been left behind at Brownback? Why would she choose that? Had she had another bout of cowardice?’ These questions were relentless and added nothing to the narrative.
When I reviewed the first book in the trilogy four years ago, I was loud in my praise. It was original, and had a strong environmental message. The writing was fresh, and at times, lyrical. Pandora was a strong female leading character. The second volume, Mountain arrow, did not live up to the first, but I felt it was merely suffering the ‘middle book’ syndrome! However, I am sad to say that I did not find the last book satisfying. Perhaps it’s the three year gap between the books that has affected my enjoyment – I hope other readers enjoy it more.
Reviewed by Gaby Meares
