Review by Booklist Review
This series opener from coauthors Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms follows con artist and former street rat Ren as she returns home. Nadežra is an occupied city in the otherwise free region of Vraszan, divided between colonizers, avid freedom fighters, and those that fall somewhere in between. Ren's plan is to infiltrate the elite via the noble but decaying House Traementis, disguised as a scion from abroad named Renata Viraudax. Darker forces are at work within Nadežra, however--street children are being kidnapped and drained of their dreams and use of a vicious new drug is increasing. Watching it all is the mysterious Rook, a masked and hooded vigilante and champion of the Vraszenian people. Ren must navigate an increasingly complicated playing field as both Renata and her alter ego Arenza Lenskaya, a Vraszenian fortune teller. She balances family and new friends as she confronts old demons and harnesses magic to save Nadežra from disaster. This historical urban fantasy is for those who like their revenge plots served with the intrigue of The Goblin Emperor, the colonial conflict of The City of Brass, the panache of Swordspoint, and the richly detailed settings of Guy Gavriel Kay.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Marie Brennan (Driftwood) and Alyc Helms (the Missy Masters series), writing as Carrick, join forces to launch the Rook and Rose series with this intricately detailed doorstopper. Renata Viraudax leaves her backwater hometown determined to con her way into a noble house in the City of Dreams--but Ren's plans bring her face to face with a dangerous crime lord and pit her against a vigilante called the Rook, her childhood idol. Navigating the glittering society of the City of Dreams, Ren soon discovers she is not the only one pretending to be something she's not: her landlord, Derossi Vargo, controls the city's underworld, while Capt. Grey Serrado of the city Vigil is seen as a class traitor for serving the nobility. Meanwhile, old religious beliefs prove to be more than just superstition, and a new drug floods the city's streets offering hallucinations that turn all too real. The authors devote much of this volume to detailing the names, places, and belief systems of this sometimes tediously complex world, causing the pace to drag. But readers who persevere will be rewarded with a tightly laced plot dripping with political intrigue. Carrick has built a strong foundation for things to come. Agent: for Brennan, Eddie Schneider, Jabberwocky; for Helms, Paul Stevens, DMLA. (Jan.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Nikki Misoud's richly textured audioscape enlivens Carrick's (pseudonym of the writing team of Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms) novel set in a city suggestive of medieval Venice. Con artist Ren attaches herself to a noble family by pretending to be a long-lost relative. She is hoping to secure a fortune for herself and her seamstress sister. She does not expect to become entangled in aristocratic feuding, corrupt magic, and the violence of an underclass yearning to break free of the foreign nobility that conquered the city centuries ago. By shifting her accent from a sort of British upper-class intonation to a more Central European mode, Misoud conveys the multiple characters Ren plays in her long game. Misoud handles Carrick's worldbuilding, including fluid sexuality and vocabulary relating to the magical systems of numinatria and pattern, with ease. VERDICT Recommended for those who enjoy dark fantasy with elaborate worldbuilding.--David Faucheux, Lafayette, LA
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