Giveaway: The City's Son by Tom Pollock

From Amazon: Running from her traitorous best friend and her estranged father, graffiti artist Beth Bradley is looking for sanctuary. What she finds is Filius, the ragged and cocky crown prince of London’s mystical underworld. Filius opens Beth’s eyes to the city she’s never truly seen—where vast spiders crawl telephone wires seeking voices to steal, railwraiths escape their tethers, and statues conceal an ancient priesthood robed in bronze. But it all teeters on the brink of destruction. Amid rumors that Filius’s goddess mother will soon return from her 15-year exile, Reach, a malign god of urban decay, wants the young prince dead. Helping Filius raise an alleyway army to reclaim his skyscraper throne, Beth soon forgets her old life. But when her best friend is captured, Beth must choose between this wondrous existence and the life she left behind.

I received my copy of The City's Son from Ann Aguirre, another author whom I greatly admire who was so impressed with this book that she wanted to share it. Any time an author that I'm a fan of is excited about another book, I want to check it out. I figure if I enjoy their writing, I'm definitely interested in what they enjoy. I was not disappointed!

I've read quite a few books in the Urban Fantasy genre now, but this one actually puts the urban in the fantasy!  I loved how Pollock creates living creatures out of every day inanimate objects and machines, the streetlamps, spiders that run the telephone wires, the living statues, and the railwraiths, even Reach's minions, who are frightening in their mindless devotion to bring him to life.  The dialogue is fun and sarcastic, but underlying that is a dark and desperate story with a bittersweet ending.

Filius is an anomaly to this world, with his concrete grey skin but otherwise human features, he is unlike any of the creatures who belong to his goddess mother, Mater Viae.  Beth is artistic, brave and daring, though often rash, she takes to Filius and his fantastical London right away, jumping in to ally herself to his cause.  There are many other wonderfully done characters throughout, and I am totally on board for the next book, The Glass Republic which features Beth's best friend Pen, who is far from traitorous here, and who sacrifices so much for her friend.

This story is so imaginative and interesting, I don't think I'll ever look at a streetlight or a construction crane without thinking about it!  Check out Tom Pollock's Website.

Giveaway:

Since I received my copy as a giveaway from Ann Aguirre on Twitter, I'd like to pay it forward and offer it up for someone else to enjoy as well!  This is for 1 US Kindle Copy of The City's Son, so please make sure you are able to accept that format before entering, and make sure to leave me a way to contact you!  This giveaway will stay open through Midnight Oct. 31st Eastern time, and it's my first time using Rafflecopter so I'm keeping fingers crossed!

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