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The Last Smile in Sunder City

(The Fetch Phillips Archives #1)

Luke Arnold (Goodreads Author)

3.76 · Rating details · 1,570 ratings · 452 reviews

A former soldier turned PI tries to help the fantasy creatures whose lives he ruined in a world that's lost its magic in a compelling debut fantasy by Black Sails actor Luke Arnold.

Welcome to Sunder City. The magic is gone but the monsters remain.

I'm Fetch Phillips, just like it says on the window. There are a few things you should know before you hire me:
1. Sobriety costs ...more

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Paperback, 352 pages

Published February 6th 2020 by Orbit

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Jan 22, 2020 Petrik rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs-and-review-copies

ARC provided by the publisher—Orbit—in exchange for an honest review.

A well-written urban fantasy with a wonderful take on the premise of “what happens when magic runs out?”

The Last Smile in Sunder City is Luke Arnold’s debut, it’s the first book in an urban fantasy series titled Fetch Phillips Archives. I think I’m speaking on behalf of many readers that we have come to know the name Luke Arnold from his role as “Long” John Silver in the Black Sails TV series. Admittedly, I didn’t finish watchi ...more

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Jan 08, 2020 Paromjit rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, crime-fiction, netgalley, fantasy, dystopian

There is so much to love in Luke Arnold's debut, a dark, urban fantasy noir, it is so well written and positively drips with atmosphere. Then there is the central protagonist, the downbeat, jaded, cynical, tired, and self loathing detective, Fetch Philips. The world building is done with style and imagination, so richly descriptive that you can picture Sunder City, a place that originally grew and built upon the underground fire pit and the blue collar workers who made their living from the gian There is so much to love in Luke Arnold's debut, a dark, urban fantasy noir, it is so well written and positively drips with atmosphere. Then there is the central protagonist, the downbeat, jaded, cynical, tired, and self loathing detective, Fetch Philips. The world building is done with style and imagination, so richly descriptive that you can picture Sunder City, a place that originally grew and built upon the underground fire pit and the blue collar workers who made their living from the giant factory established there. It is a different place now, there was the pre-Coda world and the devastation of the human wrought Coda that brought with it disaster. It used to be a world where magic flourished, a world of magic folk, wizards, goblins, satyrs, elves, and more, and a great river of magic that humans eyed enviously, for they could not do magic and thought they would be able to do so if they took over the river.

However, they got more than they bargained for as they triggered the collapse of the magical world and its creatures, with fatal consequences, body modifications and increased suffering. Fetch bears responsibility for this horror of the post-Coda tragedy, weighed down by his guilt and driving his refusal to work for humans. Work is a scarce commodity for him, so when he is offered an opportunity by Principal Simon Burbage of the Ridgerock Academy, a rare cross-species school, he has no choice but to take it up. One of the Academy's teachers, the elderly vampire, the kindly Albert Rye has disappeared, and the apparently genial Burbage wants Fetch to find him. In a narrative where we learn of Fetch's childhood and personal history, Fetch stumbles over dead bodies, in a case that proves to be more challenging and demanding than he could have ever expected.

Arnold depicts a dangerous and inhospitable city where hate and violence proliferate, with the likes of the religious sect of winged monks helping the burgeoning tribe of homeless. Humans continue to spew forth their hatred against the once magical creatures, and there are nail gangs who deploy brutality against them. I was captivated by so much of this novel, but for me, Arnold needed to move the action and plot a little more quickly than he did. That is not to say that this is not a wonderful read, it is, but my enjoyment was marred by a little too much lingering in the world building part. Otherwise, this is a great debut. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC. ...more

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Dec 13, 2019 Emma rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasybookreview, netgalley

Fetch Phillips has a lot to atone for. More than most people realise, or he’d already be dead. Living at what might euphemistically be called rock bottom, he takes a last minute job investigating the disappearance of a vampire teacher at a local school. It’s this or die. The temptation to throw himself out the Angel door of his office is becoming too hard to resist. But Sunder City hides all manner of things in its shadows and Fetch is about to find himself a problem that might just be too big f Fetch Phillips has a lot to atone for. More than most people realise, or he’d already be dead. Living at what might euphemistically be called rock bottom, he takes a last minute job investigating the disappearance of a vampire teacher at a local school. It’s this or die. The temptation to throw himself out the Angel door of his office is becoming too hard to resist. But Sunder City hides all manner of things in its shadows and Fetch is about to find himself a problem that might just be too big for him to handle…

The dystopian, post-war, post-magic Sunder City is all kinds of awesome. It’s clear that this is where the author has let his imagination and creativity go to work. What happens when the magic goes away? All kinds of shit. Once immortal creatures dusting away; twisted creatures not quite one thing or another, stuck in grotesque half forms; society, industry, politics, and culture patched back together as the magical races fall and humans become ascendant… Yes, yes, yes, this is a dark and desperate place where things can happen…

The problem is this: while this achieves its aim for a noir feel, it lacks that ever so important distinctive voice which these types of books need to stand out, regardless of genre. There is absolutely nothing about Fetch to hold on to. Alcoholic, guilt-ridden, lost his love, suicidal, averagely intelligent, limited self-awareness. Blah. He really is the cliche. Character wise, there’s nothing to redeem him, making you wonder why you should care. He only barely seems to want to redeem himself, which doesn’t help either.

What makes it worse is that the plot is slow. S l o w. There are only 3 main action scenes I can recall: one past battle, one major fuck up, and one part of a chucked in thread that seemed to have no bearing on the main plot at all. There's lots of plodding investigation and flashbacks to where it all went wrong for him. It all seemed a little too justificatory to me. I did the worst thing ever…but I was used, I was lied to, this person didn’t love me, this person did (but I didn’t want them to)… You see the problem. Writing this now, I’m starting to realise just how much I didn’t like Fetch Phillips.

If Luke Arnold wants to continue this series, he needs to up his game. The worldbuilding might be top notch, but the characterisation and plot is seriously lacking.

ARC via Netgalley ...more

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Jan 19, 2020 Hamad rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-reads, adult-books, arcs, e-books, fantasy, good-covers

This Review ✍️ Blog 📖 Twitter 🐦 Instagram 📷

Actual Rating: 3.75 stars

“Sometimes, the one who looks like a monster turns out to be a monster.”

Thanks for the publisher for providing me with an E-ARC of the book through Netgalley. That does not affect my review of the book.

I know some readers are excited for this one because the author is a good actor. I did not watch the TV series he plays in and I just read this because the synopsis sounded good to me and because the cover is gorgeous ...more

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Feb 03, 2020 Holly (Holly Hearts Books) rated it really liked it

Shelves: review-copies, own

“A good man is made through a lifetime of work. Great men are made by their monsters.”

The Wolf Among Us meets L.A. Noire in this new urban fantasy. Luke Arnold has delivered a well-written adventure, with an added dose of stylish noire presentation.
Fetch Phillips is a mercenary for hire with a colorful past. Running from one job to another, following whoever rings the bell. Fetch has a character introduction that’s funny, brutal, and mysterious in the best possible ways.

Set in a grimey place cal ...more

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Jan 25, 2020 Hannah rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, 2020-publications, fantasy

I should have loved this. The world Luke Arnold created here (post-magic, well-thought-out, imaginative) is absolutely brilliant. I adore stories that deal with the fall-out of an event that fundamentally alters the laws of the physical world (see N. K. Jemisin's books and Robert Jackson Bennett's The Divine Cities trilogy for excellent examples) and this book does this incredibly - on a world-building level. I got the impression that Arnold's imagination is endless and the way in which he thoug I should have loved this. The world Luke Arnold created here (post-magic, well-thought-out, imaginative) is absolutely brilliant. I adore stories that deal with the fall-out of an event that fundamentally alters the laws of the physical world (see N. K. Jemisin's books and Robert Jackson Bennett's The Divine Cities trilogy for excellent examples) and this book does this incredibly - on a world-building level. I got the impression that Arnold's imagination is endless and the way in which he thought out how this sudden disappearence of magic would influence different magical races worked really well for me. I also really like mysteries set in an urban fantasy kind of epic fantasy world. Sunder City is a brilliantly done fantasy city, with flavours of a darker Ankh-Morpork. But there were two big kinds of problems I had with this book - one that I think is a problem with the book itself and one which I have to admit has more to do with my own reading tastes.

First for the more "objective" criticism I had: I found the writing clumsy. This showed itself mostly in a pacing that was, frankly, abysmal. The story moved in fits and bursts to suddenly coming to an absolute standstill, with the backstory and the world-building integrated in heavy, heavy info-dumps. While it did not bother me as much as it could have if the word hadn't been as fascinating, it led to the book feeling much longer than it actually was. The writing is also clumsy on a sentence-by-sentence level and filled with odd descriptions that took me out of my reading flow (examples: "My boots sucked up mud like hungry dogs in a pit of peanut-butter...", "Thick smoke tunneled through my nose like an escaped prisoner..." or my personal favourite "The future of [...] looked darker than a blackbird's shadow at midnight").

But ultimately my main issue with this book came down to the main character: Fetch Philipps is everything that annoys me with male protagonists in noir type stories. He is a guilt-ridden, alcoholic, direction-less, and unpleasant private investigator who is not snarky or intelligent enough to be interesting. He is also weirdly indistinct as a main character - he reads super young in the flashbacks and middle aged in present time, he reacts more to what is going on than being a more active player, his motivations are deeply selfish until they suddenly aren't, and his narration never became a distinct voice for me (and additionally, I found it fairly male gaze-y). I admit that this has a lot more to do with my own reading tastes but he really did rub me the wrong way. He is also, and this is a petty issue, disgusting - there were a few scenes where he behaves in a weirdly disgusting way in order to intimidate (?) people (like when he downs the drink the bartender he is questioning spit in or when he drinks from an open bottle although other people informed him there were flies swimming in there).

Content warning: trauma, loss of a loved one, alcoholism, substance abuse

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Quotes are taken from an advanced copy and are subject to change.

You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog. ...more

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Oct 23, 2020 Faith rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, audio, overdrive, netgalley

The underlying premise of this book is that 6 years ago humans tried to harness magic but instead they destroyed it. Since then all of the magical creatures lost their powers and have had to struggle for existence. That poses a problem in urban fantasy, since the author has removed all of the fantasy from the present. The formerly magical creatures (including elf, dwarf, werewolf, vampire, ogre, gnome, goblin, satyr and siren) just look weird and are helpless in the presence of human greed and i ...more

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Jan 16, 2020 TS Chan rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc-review-copy

ARC received from the publisher, Orbit UK, in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars.

The Last Smile in Sunder City was an impressive debut by Luke Arnold; a dark urban fantasy that enraptured me with its stellar worldbuilding and writing style.

Firstly, I've never been exposed to much noir elements in my reading so far, so I won't be able to make any comparisons. However, I can still safely say that this book accurately captured that feel in its worldbuilding and the characterisation of its main ...more

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Feb 04, 2020 Haïfa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arcs_review_copies

ARC provided by the publisher, Orbit in exchange for an honest opinion. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and the quotes included may have changed in the released copy.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

The Last Smile in Sunder City is a UF mystery, imbued with a unique personality, a moody atmosphere and a deep wistfulness.

The very first paragraph set the tone quite immediately, hurtling you into Fetch Phillips' melancholic thoughts and destroyed world. For the world, or more specifically ...more

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Apr 14, 2020 Nicholas Eames rated it it was amazing

A great start to a promising series. I listened to the audiobook for this, which I think is the perfect medium for it, since the author himself narrates the story--and does so really, really well.

Being a 'noir detective' tale, there's an huge number of analogies (my cup of tea) and most of them are fantastic. A bit of humour, a bit of poignancy, a ton of interesting characters...I'm looking forward to seeing where Fetch goes next!

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Sep 06, 2020 Fiona rated it it was amazing

Shelves: detectives, crime-and-punishment, fantasy, noir

It was over. The world will continue to turn and there will still be jobs and season and kissing and chocolate; there just won't be any music in it any more. We can bite the fruit and understand that it is sweet but not taste it. We will look at the sunrise and do our best to will some kind of warmth into our hearts and feel nothing.
That is the Coda

I don't like most noir, much as I want to - a lot of it is simply too grim, and there's plenty of that around without adding it into my reading time. It was over. The world will continue to turn and there will still be jobs and season and kissing and chocolate; there just won't be any music in it any more. We can bite the fruit and understand that it is sweet but not taste it. We will look at the sunrise and do our best to will some kind of warmth into our hearts and feel nothing.
That is the Coda

I don't like most noir, much as I want to - a lot of it is simply too grim, and there's plenty of that around without adding it into my reading time. But The Last Smile in Sunder City doesn't just bring fantasy into it, it brings just enough humour and light and hope to offset that gloom.

Set in a world post-magic, after it all came to a sudden and grinding halt, the action is centered around Sunder City, previous technological wonder, and kind of an Ankh-Morpork writ serious:

The coastal towns out East loved their out-the-back beer gardens and sea-view rooftops. In Sunder, you stayed inside with your back to the wall and your wits about you.

It's a melange of neighbourhoods - rich, poor, slum - and inhabitants of almost every formerly-magical stripe, and in grand noir tradition, even the streetlights don't shed light on the dark in the streets. It's a beautifully built world, incredibly thoughfully done, right down to considerations like, now that the magic is gone, do plants still grow? Was that magic too? Technology is still in that nascent stage of old-fashioned telephones and automobiles, common in noir, but here turned into further effects of a world struggling to make up the shortfall left by magic's absence. Even our hero's traditional tragic backstory isn't just another set piece, but integral to understanding this world and where it came from.

I ran a comb through my haggard mop of hair and brushed my busted teeth and gums. Half an hour later, I still looked like a bucket of shit, I just had a cleaner bucket.

I really, really enjoyed this book. For a debut it's even better - and I see we're due another in the series at the end of the month. Let's hope the magic missing from it's world stays firmly in the series. ...more

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Dec 20, 2019 Dave rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy-all, netgalley-books, read-have, fantasy-urban-fantasy

Last Smile is a blend of urban fantasy with Hardboiled private eye. You see there once where all these magical beings, but the war is over, the magic is gone, and the elves, the dwarves, the ogres, and the goblins are now doctors, lawyers, and accountants. Lots of good imagination at work here, but I never fully bought into the concept.

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Jan 23, 2020 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2020, debut-authors, fantasy, netgalley

Originally posted to I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.

I’m not familiar with Luke Arnold’s acting career, however I was still intrigued by his debut novel, The Last Smile in Sunder City. I had heard good things about it and was incredibly curious to try it for myself. I admit I was a little wary going in because the book seemed to have some similarities to The Dresden Files, a series that I very much dislike, however Th Originally posted to I Should Read That

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.

I’m not familiar with Luke Arnold’s acting career, however I was still intrigued by his debut novel, The Last Smile in Sunder City. I had heard good things about it and was incredibly curious to try it for myself. I admit I was a little wary going in because the book seemed to have some similarities to The Dresden Files, a series that I very much dislike, however The Last Smile in Sunder City proved to be exactly what I wanted from The Dresden Files.

I enjoyed the heck out of The Last Smile in Sunder City -- Arnold manages to strike the perfect balance between grit and snark, as well as magic and reality. As a huge fan of film noir, I can confidently say that he manages to capture the spirit of noir and crafted the book with such care and passion -- never once did it fall into caricature or cartoonishness, which I sometimes find with books that attempt a noir setting.

I absolutely loved the world and world building in this book -- the concept of a land that has lost its magic years before and the impact that loss has on the magical and non-magical citizens was incredibly compelling. Arnold did a fantastic job of painting a bleak picture of Sunder City’s present day, while giving the reader the story of its past. The various types of magical creatures and how everything from their lifestyles to physiology changed after the Coda was so awful, yet totally fascinating and inventive. I really enjoyed that he included so much about how the magically-enhanced technology crumbled as well, launching the world into a bizarre modern dark ages. I was completely absorbed by the events of the Coda and would love to read more in this setting and about this world.

I absolutely, unexpectedly, adored the character of Fetch Phillips. He’s a refreshing and updated (and not a misogynist! What a concept), yet completely identifiable noir detective. He’s a hard drinking, unkept mess of a man trying to atone for the sins of his past, but you never doubt for a moment that he cares deeply for the people he is investigating or for the lives of the formerly magical folk whose lives have been torn apart. I really enjoyed his back story and the way that details of his past are teased out over the course of the book.

I did find the pacing a little choppy at times, especially with the long flashback sequences tucked in between events. It didn't slow down things down, but I found that it did pull me out of the story a little. However, I did really appreciate those sequences because they added so much richness to Fetch's backstory.

Overall, The Last Smile in Sunder City was an absolute treat to read. The perfect crossover between fantasy and noir, it’s a fast-paced read that will keep you turning the pages late into the night. ...more

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Oct 27, 2019 Peter McLean rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

The magic didn't die, it was killed. That's a problem in a world that runs on magic. When humans killed the magic, they doomed all the magical creatures in their world to suffering and death. Technology stopped working, factories stopped running, dragons fell out of the air, elves got very old very quickly, and dryads turned to dead wood. It's fair to say this lead to some resentment.

Welcome to Sunder City, a bleak, noir cityscape struggling to come to terms with the Coda, the death of magic. Wh ...more

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Aug 08, 2020 Emma rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, crime, dystopian, mr-b

The world in this book reminded me of Pixar's latest film Onward. It's set in a world with mythical creatures- werewolves, vampires, sirens, ogres and more are commonplace, but they are essentially living in a normal city, set in a time where magic no longer exists.

Our main character is a depressed human detective who was hired to investigate the disappearance of a vampire. As a character he hits a lot of the down-on-his luck detective stereotypes- he is an alcoholic loner with a dark past, tryi ...more

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Jan 28, 2020 The Nerd Daily rated it really liked it

Originally published on The Nerd Daily | Review by Annie Deo

The Last Smile in Sunder City is a dark fantasy noir novel in which the protagonist investigates a disappearance that appears simple on the surface, but as he digs deeper, he becomes embroiled in a complex web of deceit, corruption and violence.

In the classic tradition of noir fiction, the protagonist Fetch Phillips is a deeply flawed and morally ambiguous man in a broken world where nothing makes sense anymore and the lines between rig Originally published on The Nerd Daily | Review by Annie Deo

The Last Smile in Sunder City is a dark fantasy noir novel in which the protagonist investigates a disappearance that appears simple on the surface, but as he digs deeper, he becomes embroiled in a complex web of deceit, corruption and violence.

In the classic tradition of noir fiction, the protagonist Fetch Phillips is a deeply flawed and morally ambiguous man in a broken world where nothing makes sense anymore and the lines between right and wrong have been blurred beyond distinction. Sunder City shares traits with the standard noir landscape as Fetch walks its mean streets to visit seedy bars, torch-lit town squares lined with thugs, garish brothels and more. But it’s creatively fused together with fantasy so that this world is also populated with Cyclops bartenders, Ogre bouncers, Elvish and Mermaid ladies of the night plus a hodge-podge of other creatures from myth and folktales.

From the very first page, Fetch is the epitome of the anti-hero, presenting himself as a barely functioning alcoholic whose work life is in shambles and is actively flirting with death to escape from his guilt over a mysterious past. The only thing keeping him from teetering over the brink of self-destruction is the memory of a woman who beseeched him to do good with his life instead. This is what distinguishes him from popular characters like Marvel’s Jessica Jones (a modern fantasy noir example) whose tragic past shapes her into a bitter misanthrope who uses sarcasm to alienate people around her. While Fetch is also cynical and world-weary, he doesn’t typically lash out at others and is more open about his desire to help people while remaining self-aware that he is a trainwreck of a human being and likely to make more of a mess of things.

“‘So, you’re a Man For Hire?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Why not just call yourself a detective?’
‘I was worried that might make me sound intelligent.’ “
The Last Smile in Sunder City (and what a gut-wrenching moment it is when you arrive at the scene which inspired the book title) is both a fantastic character study and a thrilling detective romp. Because of the noir sensibility, these two elements are closely wound together – you can’t separate Fetch’s character from the case he is investigating in the way that you could on the likes of CSI or Law & Order where the investigators are normally consummate professionals whose personality and home life have little impact on their job. The hare-brained manner in which Fetch follows leads regardless (or perhaps because) of the painful consequences for him, the allies or enemies he engages with along the way down the path to the bitter truth and the compromises he agrees to in order to make progress…it all sheds light on who he is as a person. Which is to say, decidedly not heroic, given to indulging his vices and listening to the devil on his shoulder and unfortunately prone to bad judgement.

“I’d been awake for several minutes but didn’t want to admit it to myself. If I admitted that I was awake, I’d also have to accept the fact that I’d screwed up. I was under a bridge in a bad part of town with a broken nose, no shoes, and nobody to blame but myself.”
Sunder City and the world beyond feels utterly convincing and lived-in due to the remarkable level of thought and detail that the author has put into its creation. Magic once existed in this universe, but was lost thanks to the selfish actions of humans who were jealous of other beings with abilities superior to their own. After they broke the world in what came to be known as the ‘Coda’, centuries of living caught up to elves who deteriorated rapidly, banshees lost their voice, wizards became powerless to perform spells, vampires found blood no longer sustained them and on and on, with catastrophe afflicting every single magical race and leaving humans at the top of the food chain. Through flashbacks, the author unspools the series of events that led up to the Coda, detailing how our knight in tarnished armour was involved in the whole sorry mess, and offers a view at the world in its heyday when magic still ruled and the future looked bright.

This is in stark contrast to the grey, rundown state of despair that most people occupy in the present day, aside from some avaricious humans who have profited as a result of the Coda and can assert their superiority now. The shift in politics, impact on daily life and changing dynamics between the species is well-thought out and also very smoothly incorporated into the story. Exposition is often considered a dirty word, but it’s the execution that’s important; here, the author conveys vital information to readers over a couple pages in the first chapter in a manner which makes sense for the story and engages the audience with this new world by showing its effect on Fetch and setting up the mystery of his past. Once this heavy lifting was done, each of the future concepts and locations that are introduced feel like they gracefully fall into place because the overall structure of Fetch’s world is so clearly established. The writing flows easily and is wonderfully evocative, creating vivid impressions of everything Fetch sees and hears – it’s sometimes sad, sometimes distasteful, but never less than truly immersive.

“The Human Army had won their war, but their victory destroyed the spoils. The magic they’d hoped to harness was gone, so they change their name and moved their focus. The generals became managers and the soldiers became salesmen. They only waited a courteous couple of months after breaking the world before offering to sell their products to it.
Of course, no ex-magical business wanted to hand over their savings to the idiots who screwed up the future of existence, but what choice did they have?”
I had no issues with the pacing myself, but because of the focus on character building with intermittent flashbacks, some readers may find the pace a little slow. In addition, the writing sometimes veers over the line from descriptive to confusing flowery prose (the librarian apparently has ‘lips you could throw to a drowning sailor‘).

This is a stunning debut that showcases incredible talent and imagination. If you like the sound of an enjoyable character-driven mystery with amazing world-building, I highly recommend picking this up! ...more

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Jan 28, 2020 Terry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, highly-recommended, favorite-author, ok-you-ve-caught-my-attention, fun-fun-fun, hmmm-definitely-readable, fascinating

A successful blend of detective noir and urban fantasy. I can't begin to express how much I love this novel.

A protagonist who by all accounts should be unlovable, uninteresting, even unlikeable, yet I love him. He was so well-written, it was easy to get a glimpse into his mind and soul, and get a real understanding of him. At that point, Fletch Phillips became a trusted friend.

Deep, immersive, a little lengthy at times, yet the world building in this book made Sunder City an interesting, vivid ...more

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Feb 07, 2020 Amanda Hupe rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-reads, netgalley

If you are familiar with my blog, then you know I am a HUGE fan of pirates. So when I found out that Black Sails actor, Luke Arnold wrote a book. I could not resist. The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold is the first book in an urban fantasy series called the Fetch Phillips Archives. Magic has been torn away from the world, but the creatures are still there. Everything is upside down. Fetch Phillips is human. He holds so much guilt. Once a soldier now a man for hire. One job he picks up i ...more

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Feb 16, 2020 Nadine rated it liked it

Shelves: arcs

The Last Smile in Sunder City has an interesting concept, but fails in in execution. Arnold focuses on his world at the expense of the plot.

The Last Smile in Sunder City features a lot of fantasy elements making the world rich and colorful, however Arnold relies heavily on the telling the reader about his world instead of showing. There are pages upon pages of the main character directly explaining to the reader why things are the way they are or how things got to be a certain way. It almost bec ...more

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Mar 28, 2020 Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, urban, mystery, review-copy

3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2020/04/12/...

This is going to be a short review because The Last Smile in Sunder City was a relatively short book—straightforward and uncomplicated, and that’s no bad thing. The story may be a bit on the sparse side for how fascinating its setting is, but author Luke Arnold makes up for this with the kind of care and intricate attention to world-building detail that we speculative fiction fans live for.

And really, what more do you ne 3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2020/04/12/...

This is going to be a short review because The Last Smile in Sunder City was a relatively short book—straightforward and uncomplicated, and that’s no bad thing. The story may be a bit on the sparse side for how fascinating its setting is, but author Luke Arnold makes up for this with the kind of care and intricate attention to world-building detail that we speculative fiction fans live for.

And really, what more do you need than a moody mystery that’s like a mix of urban fantasy meets detective noir? Welcome to Sunder City, a dreary home to a desperate populace doing whatever they can to get by now that all magic in the world is dead and gone. Six years ago, the human army, hungry for power, had sought to harness magic for themselves but instead destroyed it at its source, causing an apocalyptic event known as the Coda. From that moment on, everything that was fueled by magic failed or began its decline, and now a former human soldier turned PI-for-hire is trying o do all he can to atone for what he felt was his part in the disaster.

Meet protagonist Fetch Philips. When he’s not drowning his guilt and sorrows in cheap booze, he’s offering his services exclusively to non-humans as a way towards his own redemption. When the story begins, he has just been hired by his latest client, the principal of a cross-species school called Ridgerock Academy who wants Fetch to find their missing professor. It is a peculiar case in many ways, and not least because the victim is an elderly vampire—literally a dying breed since the Coda. And when further digging leads to more missing people and several close calls for Fetch, it’s clear something a lot more dangerous and complicated is going on.

That said, for a mystery novel, the detective story behind The Last Smile in Sunder City actually has very few mysterious elements, and in fact, one might reasonably say that it isn’t even the main plot at all. The true focus of the book is arguably the origins of Fetch Philips and the larger body of lore behind the setting, which explains the background and nature magic as well as how it all died in the Coda. Threaded through the present timeline are multiple flashbacks that also go on in rich detail about Fetch’s life, starting from his youth. While those who came into this hoping for more mystery and action might end up being disappointed in the constant shifts away from the investigative plotline, I believe fans of character-oriented stories will be very pleased with the depth and level of development Arnold has achieved here with his protagonist.

Then there is the truly awe-inspiring world-building. Clearly, a lot of thought has been put into this aspect of the novel, as everything from the history of Sunder City to the culture and lives of its people are inextricably intertwined and must be viewed as a whole. You can always tell when world-building is weak or lacking, since nothing feels connected and lots of explanations fall apart or don’t make sense when placed under even slight scrutiny. This is certainly not the case here, where the world feels like a real world should—a living, breathing system. Arnold has proven himself a double threat as an actor and an author, since his prose is evocative and solid (with even some delightful quirks added for flair), but his main strength in my eyes is his imagination and ability to convey his ideas and characters’ emotions in his writing.

Sure, I wouldn’t have minded something more on the story front, but even with a light and familiar premise at its heart, The Last Smile in Sunder City was a surprisingly good read. While its plot is nothing fancy, what the book does well, it does extremely well—namely, the world-building is clever and superb, not to mention the character development is to die for. I am very excited to see what Luke Arnold will bring in the next book in The Fetch Philips Archives! ...more

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Jun 26, 2020 The Tattooed Book Geek (Drew). rated it it was amazing

4.5 stars.

There was once magic in the world and magical creatures, dragons, gryphons, elves, werewolves, vampires, gnomes, dwarves, giants, ogres, wizards, gremlins, goblins, banshees, sirens etc. If it is a fantasy creature that you have heard of then the chances are very high that Arnold has included it in The Last Smile in Sunder City and then you had humans, flesh and blood, non-magical and ordinary human beings.

After a devastating event that has come to be known as ‘the Coda‘ where humans w ...more

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May 08, 2020 Maja Ingrid rated it liked it

Shelves: urban-fantasy

While the world building is really good, an urban fantasy in a fantastical world where (humans) destroyed magic and now we see the consequences of it, it was way too info-dumpy than it should for being such a short book. It made the pacing clunky and kind of awful. All the information about Sunder, the gone magic and the city's inhabitants, along with Fetch's flashbacks, took away from the main story.

Not sure yet if I'll pick up the next book. But this was a debut novel, and there's so much pote ...more

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Jan 31, 2020 Lauren Stoolfire rated it liked it

Shelves: noir, mystery, fantasy, urban-fantasy

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold has a lot of potential to be a great urban fantasy noir, but it never quite makes it there. Noir is one of my favorite genres, both film and books, so I jump at the chance to try something new. It's can be a lot of fun when combined urban fantasy which is one of my other favorite genres and this story has quite a bit to like about it, especially when it comes to the atmosphere of the wo ...more

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Apr 25, 2020 Rob Hayes rated it really liked it

I'm making a bit of an effort this year to read some new books. It's pretty important, especially to debut authors, that folk take a chance on the new stuff instead of just reading the next book by Sanderson or Martin. So, I figured this one was fairly short, narrated by the author himself, and... bloody hell, it was written by Long John Silver. I'm in!

The Last Smile in Sunder City is a book written in metaphors. I like a bit of noir. The bitter PI, drinking hard and smoking harder, down on thei ...more

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Feb 24, 2020 Christi M rated it really liked it

The Last Smile in Sunder City is a noir fantasy book following Fetch Phillips, a struggling PI detective, or a ‘Man for Hire’, as he prefers to be called.

Years prior to when this story begins, this world experienced an event called the “Coda” where the human army was envious of the power of magic and decided to change…everything. In their lust to capture magic for themselves they fundamentally changed magic for everyone. The world was now drained of magic. Some creatures were immediately no more ...more

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Jul 25, 2020 Alisi ☆ wants to read too many books ☆ rated it did not like it

Shelves: arg-the-prose-hurth-me-eyes, ebil-villain-bwa-ha-cough, audiobook

This was terrible. If I could describe it, it would be as though David Caruso, in his role as Horatio Caine, was sailing a sea made up of metaphors and similes, if all Horatio did was to speak those one liners and was suicidally depressed and drunk the entire book -- oh, and without any ability to solve the mysteries presented to him.

Magic died 5 years ago in this fantasy world. This was done by jealous humans who were... jealous. And now all the magical folk aren't magical anymore. It's a bit o ...more

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Feb 27, 2020 Sheila Goicea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-releases, arc-ebook, review-to-come

I received an ARC of this book from Orbit via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! In no way does this affect my rating or review.

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My Blog ¦ Bookstagram ¦ Twitter ¦ Pinterest ¦ Facebook ...more

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Jan 08, 2020 Kristen rated it really liked it

Full review is here, on my blog!~

This story takes place in Sunder City, which is a city not so much unlike our own at one time or another. Well, kind of anyway. The world is peopled with all kinds of magical beings. Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards, Banshee, Sirens, and so on, but the magic is gone. Humans killed it. So we see a city of magical beings learning to live without the magic that sustains them. Vampires are slowly dying. Banshee are mute. Werewolves are very much half human and half wolf Full review is here, on my blog!~

This story takes place in Sunder City, which is a city not so much unlike our own at one time or another. Well, kind of anyway. The world is peopled with all kinds of magical beings. Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards, Banshee, Sirens, and so on, but the magic is gone. Humans killed it. So we see a city of magical beings learning to live without the magic that sustains them. Vampires are slowly dying. Banshee are mute. Werewolves are very much half human and half wolf. That sort of thing.

Fetch Phillips is a Man for Hire. He’s more or less a private detective. Or he does odd jobs. Whatever pays the bills, really. He’s pretty much at rock bottom, trying to atone for his part in the Coda, the event that destroyed the magic. He’s hired to find a Vampire who has gone missing, and as he investigates, he finds a whole bunch of shenanigans happening, and something that nobody can really explain.

This book is told in first person from Fetch’s point of view, but follows two timelines to tell the entire story. First and foremost, we have the story presently happening, where Fetch is looking into the disappearance of a teacher (who happens to be a Vampire) from a local school. The second is the story of Fetch. Where he comes from, and more or less how he ended up where he ended up at the time of the Coda.

I don’t always love it when present day story weaves with a past one in flashbacks, but I find that I didn’t mind so much here. It wasn’t confusing at all, and the narratives didn’t interrupt each other at very inopportune moments, as can happen with this sort of storytelling. I found that I was equally interested to see what happened in each side of the story, so that was very well done.

It was well written and always kept me interested in the story. I liked Fetch as a character and I wanted to see him succeed in his task. Seeing how other characters interacted with him, knowing who and what he is, was interesting. There were a couple of really interesting background characters I really liked. Especially one named Baxter.

All told, I quite liked it. This book has a host of interesting characters living in an interesting world, and I hope to explore more of it in the next volume!

Thanks to the author, as well as Orbit via NetGalley for the review copy! ...more

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Dec 19, 2019 Estefanía rated it really liked it

The Last Smile in Sunder City is not a book I would normally read- I'm not very familiar with the fantasy genre except for some of the classics, so I approached this book with few presumptions and was happy to appreciate a novel so outside of my usual genre wheelhouse. A few have already gone at length about the use of setting- I think this is what surprised me most about the book. There's some necessary exposition at the beginning of the novel that very clearly, very pointedly lays down some of The Last Smile in Sunder City is not a book I would normally read- I'm not very familiar with the fantasy genre except for some of the classics, so I approached this book with few presumptions and was happy to appreciate a novel so outside of my usual genre wheelhouse. A few have already gone at length about the use of setting- I think this is what surprised me most about the book. There's some necessary exposition at the beginning of the novel that very clearly, very pointedly lays down some of the basic rules of the universe- the way magic once existed, its present absence, the devastating aftermath of all that happened before the novel's start. One of the novel's immediate strengths is it's setting. It's immersive. The world of Sunder City feels lived in, run down, and familiar- I think it's very easy to rely on genre to do your work for you and let your reader just fill in the blanks: "Magical world with magical creatures, I don't have to explain, you fill in the rest." That isn't the case here. As a reader, you get the sense that a lot of thought and effort has been put into crafting a universe for these characters to live and traverse through. The use of setting and repeated return to surroundings are a display of thoughtfulness, I think, which is one of the novel's real saving graces- I've never been one to care if a plot is 'slow'. I enjoy the wait, both in film and literature, if it's well crafted enough. It's probably fair to say that the central mystery in Sunder City isn't trying to reinvent the wheel. It doesn't have to. What kept me turning pages was my investment in the world that was being illustrated as the narrative carried on, my interest in what was lying in store for a jaded and broken world that- in some really great flashbacks especially- once seemed so much greater than when the reader finds it.

The second and perhaps greater strength of the novel is its cast of characters. Fetch as a protagonist might not be everyone's idea of an entertaining hero- yes, there are qualities of the character that have been done within the noir/fantasy noir/sci-fi noir many times before. Still, the depth of the characters unhappiness, illustrated through unrelenting self-hatred in the narration, keep the protagonist from seeming too much like a caricature. The unhappiness seems genuine, instead of an easy appeal to the common tropes of the noir detective, and the character is authentically flawed. This is perhaps what I liked most about him, because it grants Fetch a lot of realism- in some pretty significant ways, he's an absolutely awful person. His relationship with one of the most significant female characters in the novel is, in my reading, troubled and suspect but the narration is so bound by his perspective that this is never out-rightly acknowledged and ... honestly? it probably shouldn't be. At least not yet. I think this is a good choice on the level of writing. Fetch just isn't self-aware enough, I think, and far too truncated in his own suffering for now, which makes me all the more invested in where his characterization might lead later. (You get the sense, too, that the novel's central mystery would've been solved far sooner if he didn't have such a knack for getting in his own way). It's easy to hand us the answers and make it very clear, in no uncertain terms, that Fetch's relationship with women (and one character in particular) is nothing to be admired- it's another thing to sit with the evidence of his issues and keep confirming them, keep revealing the degree to which Fetch can be an uncomfortable character to follow, and not absolve him of those problems by the novel's end. I'm curious to see if he'll ever be confronted on this in later installments. There's another moment, too, with a secondary character which reveals once more a potential prejudice- is this moment of division between the characters just shock and miscommunication or is the conflict also, if only partly, fueled by a bias Fetch wouldn't extend to a woman placing him in those same circumstances? The answer isn't clear. When it comes to fucked up people (and well written characters), the answer seldom is.

Finally, I can't end this review without acknowledging Luke Arnold's use of secondary characters. This is where the novel most shines. Fetch is a significantly isolated and isolating character. Because he chooses to be alone throughout much of the novel, we aren't always met with secondary characters whom we return to later in the text- but the few figures who are the repeated subject of focus absolutely caught my interest. There's even a pretty comical, entertaining relationship between Fetch and another younger character that I think gives the novel some needed levity. The characters in Fetch's past, particularly, really stood out to me. I finished the novel and wanted to know more about them specifically. They caught my interest and I actively wanted to see more of them in the text, which is probably the best feeling you can have with characters you see through flashback- the use of flashback is actually one of my most common pet peeves in media. The fact that I genuinely enjoyed them in Sunder City was a real surprise to me and, more importantly, a relief- I think flashback narratives can too easily throw the pacing and clarity of a novel off balance. This book does it well.

Overall, an entertaining read, a project that reveals a great amount of effort on the level of writing, and a solid introduction into a larger series and a fascinating world. I'm eager to see Fetch interact with other characters and find myself really wanting more women in the narrative, more inclusion- some good groundwork is really laid down here. There are foundations here to suggest those investments and I'm optimistic we'll see more of this. If the second installation of this series is going to surround the protagonist with more characters, I'm eager to see what lies in store. More than even my appreciation for the thoughtful use of setting, the author has a talent for crafting secondary character who, in my reading, stood out and kept my interest when it was clear they would be relevant to the plot. I want to see more of them. I want to see how much better rendered these secondary characters can be now that the introductions have been set and future installations might possibly have more room to flesh them out, give them space to breathe, act, and interact with the main character. Fingers crossed! ...more

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Jan 29, 2020 keikii Eats Books rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley-edelweiss-arc

To read more of my reviews, check out my blog at keikii Eats Books!

Quote:

I hadn't changed his mind; I'd just made his whole vigilante act a lot less fun. Fetch Phillips: professional party pooper. If there's a thing he can't ruin; buddy, we ain't found it yet.

Review:
The world sucks, and everyone hates it. And it wasn't always this way. War happened, and the result was that magic left the world in an instant. Creatures that lived for centuries lay dying or were dead soon after magic left. Others lost their wings, or fangs. It was only a few years ago, and no one has recovered yet. An entire world has had to grieve their loss at what they were, and learn to accept the new. It's a process.

For everyone except the humans.

Fetch Phillips is human. And he is the person responsible for why the world is the way it is. The one who got magic killed. He is also a drunken private investigator/man for hire who everyone hates, including himself. And he is incredibly weak and easily lead which amounts to a not so decent person. You see his story, past and present, told throughout the book. You slowly learn how and why he caused magic to die.

In The Last Smile in Sunder City, Fetch Phillips is hired by the only place in Sunder City that is willing to accept that the past is gone and it is time to look towards the future: a school for children. One of their teachers has gone missing, a vampire who has also decided that the future is the only way to go - even if it means he'll die of starvation since blood is no longer sustaining vampires. The investigation will not be kind to Fetch, but nothing ever is.

I'm super conflicted about this book. The world Luke Arnold wrote was really good, and sustained me throughout my reading. In fact, I'm looking forward to reading book two in the future, entirely because of the world created. It was a lot of the other parts I had trouble with. I do have to say that I compared this to pretty much everything else I've read, though. Sometimes instead of reading. It was typically a favourable comparison, though, and sometimes I felt Luke Arnold did better than what I was comparing it against.

I don't mind characters with a sordid backstory, especially ones who are struggling with their inner demons the entire time. But Fetch Phillips just didn't do it for me. I... I mostly just blamed him. He was the cause of all his problems with exactly zero redeeming qualities. And he had no real side characters to attach myself to either. He was very alone the entire book. But there is potential in the future, I believe.

The pacing was also incredibly off. The story was told in past and present format, where Fetch Phillips often ruminates on what happened in the past. Mostly because he is always thinking about what happened. And it just completely breaks up the entire flow of the book. The investigation of the book, the missing vampire, often took a backseat entirely, and I felt like I would go chapters without hearing about it again, because we'd get a little bit of the present where nothing happened - and then back to the past.

Overall, I enjoyed The Last Smile in Sunder City and I'm really looking forward to book two. I want to see where this story is going. I want to see if Fetch Phillips ever grows a backbone and makes friends, not enemies. And I think my pacing problems will be gone when I no longer have to need to learn about what happened in the past to understand the present. Yes, I had some problems with book one, but they were not insurmountable.

I received this book from Orbit in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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About Luke Arnold

Luke Arnold

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Other books in the series

The Fetch Phillips Archives (2 books)

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Dead Man in a Ditch (The Fetch Phillips Archives, #2)

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“I was only in my thirties but I was old. You don’t measure age in years, you measure it in lessons learned and repeated mistakes and how hard it is to force a little hope into your heart. Old just means jaded and cynical and tired. And boy, was I tired.” — 7 likes

“So, you’re a Man for Hire?” “That’s right.” “Why don’t you just call yourself a detective?” “I was worried that might make me sound intelligent.” — 5 likes

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