Customer Reviews

The Hidden City: The House Wars: Book One

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love Michelle West's books - I've read all the Hunter/Sword books, Elantra, Sundered, short stories, etc. That being said, I was *very* disappointed in this book. There are many inconsistencies between the flashbacks in the Sword books, and the story in Hidden City. I kept going back to my copy of the other books, and sure enough, she was re-writing history. I knew enough about what happened before we met Jewel and her den. What I wanted to know was what happened when Jewel left the Voyanni! I'm not sure how she is going to connect the new book (Hidden city) and the book I really want to read, which continues the story of the adult Jewel, and Adam, and the House. If that is also the story you are looking for, I guess we will just have to keep waiting.

Hidden City begins with Jewel (or Jay as she is known to her friends) trying to steal from Rath. She manages to take his money and he tracks her down. He lets her keep the money with a promise to repay him and when he comes back to the bridge she has been living under he finds her sick. So, he takes her back to his place to nurse her back to health - an act that he says is totally out of character for him. The rest of the book is the story of a developing relationship (not sexual or romantic relationship, but of a more father-daughter or student-teacher relationship) between Rath and Jay. He begins to care deeply for her, enough to let her bring various other children back to his home. He risks his life for her and her friends more than once, but don't expect that just because they are children they don't pull their own weight.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the book. It is over 600 pages long, and believe it or not I read it in one sitting (was up until 5 in the morning). The author creates another world that just pulls you into and I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. Jay is an unusual child with unusual skills. She is very stubborn and strong, but also very caring. I like seeing the character development in both her and Rath.

There is a sequel to this book coming sometime in 2010 supposedly. Also, this book is supposedly a prequel to some of the author's earlier written works - the Hunter's Oath Series and Sun Sword Series. I haven't read either series so I don't know how they compare to this book or how this book fits in with them. But this book on its own is fantastic - one of the best fantasy books I've read. The author also writes the Elantra series under the name of Michelle Sagara, and I am enjoying that series as well. I hope that you read this book - it is well written with interesting and dynamic characters that grab your attention and don't let go. ENJOY!

First I have to say that in my opinion, Michelle West is a writer in the same category of excellence as the recently deceased Robert Jordan. I loved reading The Hidden City, it was great to have something new from West to read. I read the Sun Sword series 3 or 4 times!

This book reminds me of the first volume in West's Sun Sword series, in that it focuses extensively on one character (Jewel) and the people and circumstances that shaped her. She also uses this volume to set the stage for future plot developments-it's clear that there's more to come.

I was already familiar with Jewel from West's earlier novels (I believe she makes her first appearance in the second of the Sacred Hunt books--Hunter's Death). If you have loved West's other books, you'll love this one. If you haven't read her books yet, I suggest you begin with the Sacred Hunt--a 2 book series, then move on to the Sun Sword series. Maybe by then, the House War triology will be completed and you won't have a long wait between books.

"It was easy for me. That's what you want to say. It was easy. Let me say it for you. It was. It's not easy now. And maybe...Kalliaris' frown, maybe I had to learn what it is that you--what hard means..."

Is it just me, or is that sentence hard to follow? I mean, if you read it slowly you can puzzle it out, but I read *fast* and I don't want to read and re-read a sentence to make sure I know what the character is saying. The odd sentence structure was not the only distraction I found with the writing style. West makes it difficult to figure out which character is speaking. the punctuation, spacing, and paragraph /start-/stop made narrative an exercize in interpretation.

I mention the above first because it colored my enjoyment of the story. Unlike other reviewers, this novel was my first introdction to Michelle West, so I was not disappointed with any plot inconsistencies from earlier novels. New readers to West can start here, and still be able to enjoy the story.

The overall story is about an orphaned girl that steals from the right man. Though morally shady, Rath turns out to be a pretty decent, as demonstrated when he saves the orphan from the streets. Jewel the Orphan was pretty damn Mary Sue. She showed too much understanding, self control, and self sacrifice to be a believable ten year old girl from a poor but loving family.

Jewel collects 9 other orphans, which Rath accepts with very little questioning, into his intensely personal and somewhat illegal life. By some miracle, all 10 children are perfectly behaved little angels--with the notable exception of Duster.

Spoiler Alert!



Duster is the bad egg, and I almost wish the novel was about her. I must give West credit, Duster and her story was unique and interesting. Duster is a dark souled child, who's past lives were dark and evil as well. She is captured and tortured by demons in order to bring her completely into the dark, and make her a new demon. Jewel's rescue kept Duster from complete evil, and later events test the dark child and almost find her wanting. I do believe I could have lived without the rape of a ten year old, but I understand the necessity for plot development.


End Spoiler!


I have the sequels to this novel in my TBR pile. I'm going to take a break and perhaps come back to it. The writing style, and the simplicity of Jewel, the main character, may keep me away from this author. The novel gets three stars from me because I was really into the story initially, hoping I'd adjust to the writing style. I think that many people will like this novel, and some, like me, will be just too nit picky to enjoy it.

Michelle Sagara West is different. Good different. Her world-making is incredibly detailed and multilayered. It, in my view, is what distinguishes her work in this series (bearing in mind I've not read some of her others) from so much of the "lesser" work in the sword and sorcery genre. That very detail and texture, though, makes it often difficult, if not impossible, to resolve everything at once.

The story of The Essalieyan Empire and The Dominion as told in her Sun Sword epic extends to six volumes and over 3000 pages. It was so long and complexly textured that she had trouble (or so it seems to me) bringing it to a single "conclusion". She left hanging one of the major sub-plots as one of the truely great characters she created, Jewel ATerafin, was facing a major and surely going to be bloody struggle for control of the House of Terafin (one of the Ten greatest merchant houses of the Empire).

To assuage that, however, Ms West returns now to that thread of plot. But, as with the Sun Sword series, she does so by starting another monumental undertaking. She takes Jewel Markess back to her roots as an 11 year old seer-born girl who looses, in fairly rapid succession, her grandmother and both parents. The last to go is her father in a shipyard work accident that she (as seer) had forseen 5 days in advance. But, as a young girl, she could not make her "grown-up" male father take seriously her warning. After his death, she takes her gift, unpredictable and uncontrolable, and what money she had (her father's last 3 days of pay) and goes the only place she can, to the streets. She acquires, much to his consternation, a guide and protector in the shadowy and taciturn figure of Rath, the fallen son of a great merchant family turned himself to the streets many years ago after an angry renunciation of his birthright as heir to that house because his sister "deserted" the House of her birth for one of the ten great houses, Terafin.

Jewel ATerafin is, by the end of the Sun Sword books 30+ years old (if memory serves). She's a remarkable character and that series obliquely touches on some of the events that made her that way. Instead, however, of picking her up there and simply continuing the house war story, Michelle West takes us back and will attempt to show us how Jewel Markess became Jewel ATerafin and where her "den", that cadre of personally loyal friends and supporters who follow her to the House of Terafin, was acquired and how. It's a fascinating journey. It will, as another reviewer has noted tend to keep you up til the wee hours of the morning. It'll make you exult and smile, worry and weep in the process. You will meet extraordinary characters other than just the main ones, like the dress maker with a hidden and dangerous past, Haval, who helps instruct Jewel and her darkest, most dangerous den-mate, Duster, on how to act like a merchant's daughter and her servant for the key mission/test of this the first episode.

The whole is a "pistol" of a stroy. There are Demons and their syncophants, brawlers, high born, low born, Magicians, and all sundrey of supporting cast. I'm not sure how you end up caring about so many of these folks, hating of course some of them, but you do and it will keep you turning pages. It's probably better to have read the Sun Sword series, but not essential. I suspect if you haven't you will as a result of starting this one. If you really like (or even think you might like) good sword and scorcery world building, pick up this series or the Sun Sword one and dig in. If you're just an "action junkie", this may move too slow (although I find it full of action and suspense) with its finely drawn and psychologically complex characters.

These books/series are a monumental undertaking, both in their production and their appreciation. One really good thing if you start now: the second book of this series is already out, and the whole of the Sun Sword series is available so you won't have to wait months and months for your second "fix" of Michelle West and this world of Empire and Dominion she's created, but watch out these books really are habit forming.

When I picked up this book, I was expecting another one of Michelle West's long winded stories that would probably continue in 4 other books. I was right....sort of. The book is long, 754 pages, and the story is intricately full of complex characters who you love and hate. It has West's trademark affection for kids and orphans, as Jewel (the 10 yr old Protagonist) tries to magically save every kid in the run down town. But my favorite character was Rath- the runaway Lord whose past with his sister haunts him at every step. His relationship with Jewel was brilliant. He was the perfect display of mysterious male who had hidden depths. My two main problems were that 1) the book is too long! She over complicates the plot and you end up skimming a few hundred pages. Problem 2 was that Jewel was 10 years old but acted and spoke like she was 16-18. At no point did she seem to be truly her age. It was distracting for me and made the story seem goofy. West likes kids (read her Elantra series) and this is the first part of a long series so I guess that's why she did it. Overall, I really recommend this book for its great characters.

I am very harsh on authors whom I like and expect a lot from their new books. I had only read the Elandra series written by this author under her other name, and I love that series. For some reasons I never did try to read her earlier books. I happened to come across this paperback and almost finished it in one reading. It is that good. It is interesting that the dialogs between characters in some fantasy fictions will sometimes bore me to tears but in books written by this author, they were simply so enjoyable. The author did not try to do too much to confuse the "sequences" of this book. While there were many characters being introduced but the story is always centered around the two main characters - Rath and Jewel (or Jay). It is just a very entertaining and action filled fiction. You simply cannot go wrong with it because for me to give any books a five star, it has to be better be good.

A prequel to the events of her Hunter's Oath and Sun Sword series, The Hidden City examines the life of one of Michelle West's most interesting protagonists: Jewel (eventually Jewel ATerrafin).

This work also detail the creation of Jewel's den and fleshes out characters that were only briefly mentioned previously.

As hard as it must be to expand a world in which the future is already written, this is a magnificent work.

I had never read any Michelle West books before, but I was given an advance copy of this one about a month ago and since I had nothing else to read, decided to give it a shot.

This is the story of an orphan girl -- Jay -- who has a strange ability attract people to her. Her life is changed when she meets up with Rath after stealing money from him and he takes her under his wing. Soon she has drawn a small group of children to her, orphans, child prostitutes, thieves etc... At the same time there is an underground city that her mentor Rath has shown her. Danger in the form of Demons who want to keep the knowledge of the city hidden lurks here.

I didn't think I would like this book and instead found myself unable to put it down. It is one of the better fantasy novels I have read in a long time. I tried afterwards to read some of Michelle West's other books, thinking that if they were anywhere near the quality of The Hidden City, I had found a hidden gem. Unfortunately I couldn't even finish Hunter's Oath -- the book this is supposed to be a kind of prequel to.

This book seems to be just so far and away better than Michelle West's other stuff that I am going to pretend that this is her first novel, eagerly awaiting any sequels and ignoring her older work. If you love, or simply like, fantasy, read this book.

Michelle Sagara-West is a real writer, a quality writer. She reminds me of Guy Gaveril Kay for some reason.
Her characters have a solidity about them. They are pruned as carefully as a hundred-year-old bonsai tree. She reveals them in slow build up layer upon layer and they have such a real quality that they step out of the pages and spend time talking to you in your dreams. Not that much happens in the book, but the reader knows he is caught in a slowly revealing world of Dickensian harshness on a journey into horror.
I loved the way Michelle writes. Not what I would call a light read, but it will stay with you long after most other books fade!