City of Assassins

Shadow World #3

by Ian Hammell

Returning to the city of Sel-Kai, magic navigator Zed Niarmon is disturbed by the strange changes in his home world and launches an investigation, only to discover that the evil Dragonlords have returned. Original.

Genres: Fantasy

231 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

About the author

A pseudonym of Roxanne Longstreet Conrad.

She has also published as:
Rachel Caine
Roxanne Longstreet
Roxanne Conrad
Julie Fortune

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only really pursued this because of the lingering effects of book one, to see how the team of Zed and Tiger Eye work when removed from the lost city and jungle (and for the title. Come on! "City of Assassins"!). Sadly the lesson here is that the charm of The Burning Goddess was the setting and premise, and this book couldn't follow through with replicating it.

I was with things while the plot seemed relatively intimate--assassins everywhere and the city guard taken over by obvious thieves and thugs--but it quickly spiralled far beyond that, in directions that seemed to make no sense. So the heroes confront an opponent, who, despite the secrecy of his plot--as in, it will not work if his presence becomes widely known--suddenly reveals himself to be a "Dragonlords" of unrevealed-until-now menace. He then turns into a dragon and destroys a portion of the city, in order to silence the heroes. Because nobody will notice a huge silver dragon suddenly appearing and laying waste to multiple city blocks. Or something. Of course, later on one of the villains actually does wind up monologuing to a helpless hero, revealing the (stupid) details of their nefarious plot. Every time a Dragonlord wound up on stage, something idiotic would soon occur.