City of Exile

City of Spires #4

by Claudie Arseneault

Nothing is going according to plan for Diel Dathirii and his allies. Hellion has entrenched his power in House Dathirii, Hasryan is in Lord Allastam’s clutches, and with no one left to poison Master Avenazar, it’s only a matter of time before he seeks revenge.

While Nevian scrambles to put together his magical trap, Larryn reaches out to the only person he trusts to save Hasryan: Sora Sharpe. Their impulsive rescue will hurtle Isandor towards a final confrontation—one last opportunity to reclaim House Dathirii and face Master Avenazar. But in order to seize this chance, Diel Dathirii and his allies will need to answer one question: what price are they willing to pay to ensure the future of their loved ones within the City of Spires?

*City of Exile* is the fourth and final installment of the City of Spires series, a multi-layered political fantasy led by an all-queer cast. Fans of complex storylines criss-crossing one another, elves and magic, and strong friendships and found families will find everything they need within these pages.

Genres: Fantasy, Queer, Magic, LGBT, Fiction, Asexual, High Fantasy

494 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 22, 2023

About the author

Claudie Arseneault is an asexual and aromantic-spectrum writer hailing from the very-French Québec City. Her long studies in biochemistry and immunology often sneak back into her science-fiction, and her love for sprawling casts invariably turns her novels into multi-storylined wonders. The most recent, City of Strife, came out on February 22, 2017! Claudie is a founding member of The Kraken Collective and is well-known for her involvement in solarpunk, her database of aro and ace characters in speculative fiction, and her unending love of squids. Find out more on her website!

Reviews

[Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I should've quit at one of the many times I thought about it. This series started out so promising, but this cast was way too big and it seems like the plot got away from the author. This one was better paced than the previous one, but neither of these last two lived up to the promise of the earlier books. And this one was even worse edited than the previous one. I stopped counting at around 70 typos/fixes. I also heavily skimmed the last couple of chapters. I really just did not care about the wedding.

I don't know. There's certainly a charm to this world, and while there's a lot messed up about it, there's a lot good in it too. But things just didn't seem to follow a natural trajectory. The main villain from the first two books is largely absent, and the end of that arc was pretty tame, considering what we'd seen of him before. The good guys all convince the nobles to go after the Myrians, but then take along the Allastams, who have a clear conflict of interest, and never once discuss if they can be trusted to fight alongside everyone else. And of course, that answer was no and everyone is surprised by the betrayal, even after Allastam tried to sell Diel to the Myrians. Like, really? Then Sora is seriously injured and apparently survived if rumors are true. I only have rumors to go by since we never go back to her again. We never see what the other Dathirii think of Hellion's murder or who will be taking over for Diel. There was a lot of other stuff like this. This is supposed to be the last one in the series, but everything is left open-ended. There's not even an epilogue to tell us what happened with the investigation.

I did like all the stuff with Larryn and Cal, and I'm surprised that I like Isra now. Nevian and Yultes have grown a lot too, but Jilssan will always be Jilssan. It was nice to finally see Arathiel and Varden get some page time together, but since we missed how they became an item, it didn't have much impact. I did like the sense of found family and that everyone found their place, even if it wasn't the place they thought they'd end up in.

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

Brune from City of Spires is aromantic asexual!
Cal from City of Spires is aromantic asexual!
Hasryan from City of Spires is demiromantic!
Larryn from City of Spires is graysexual!
Nevian from City of Spires is asexual!
Yultes from City of Spires is grayromantic graysexual!

https://aspeccharactersoftheday.tumbl...

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series overall was great, with an tremendous amount of likeable queer characters, political intrigue and drama. The last two parts felt like they could’ve used some heavy editing however. I’d prefer more focus on the overarching plot (which was great when it happened) and less relationship talk between every single character. I would’ve liked to see more instead of everyone just talking about it. Keeping an eye on this author though.

[Nicole Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slipping back into the last story of this quartet was like getting into comfy clothes in front of a fire with a cup of tea. I didn't actually do a series reread before picking this one up, but I can always trust Claudie to put a full outline of what has come in the stories before at the start of these novels.

After that, we pick up right where we left off: Hasryan in pain. And in Lord Allastam's dungeon.

I gotta say, for a cosy series of books with found family making up so many of this diverse cast of characters, there were some of the most memorable and dark bad guys in this book. Lord Allastam is more the guy moving things in the background before this book, but he definitely takes more of a centre stage in this book, much to my swearing delight.

Hellion was I think the first antagonist killed in this book, and his scariness was largely already being undermined by the combination of Yultes, Garith and Branwen. It was a satisfying ending we saw here, and a return to reasonable leadership to the Dathirii House was secured back from that point, even if not secured back to Diel's hands.

I did love, however, that Diel and Jaeger's love story really took the front and centre of these books, because it felt like they were apart from each other for a lot longer than they probably actually were. Did I read that right at some point in this book? The events of all four books happen over 10 days only?!

Mia Allastam wins this book's surprising most stand out character for me. She's someone who lives with chronic pain, someone who is pitied and babied by the rest of her family because of it (because who is really surprised that Lord Allastam is a chauvinist on top of his other many crimes?) and seeing her climb the political rungs of her family and Isandor through power of her intellect alone was so rewarding.

And so I guess the only other big things this book desperately needed to wrap up was, on the one hand, a resolution to the fight between Cal and Larryn, and a resolution to Master Avenazar. No one is surprised that such an evil character can no longer live by the end of things, but I swear I sat at 70% of this book for about two weeks because I was scared of what havok he would wreak before the end of things. Kinda love that Jilssan got her own back on him at the same time as not necessarily falling to the side of the Isandorians, so much as being kept in line by her affections for Amake Brasten!

Finishing this story was incredibly bittersweet. I may not have been around when the series started, but this one did get me through the beginnings of covid. I'll always love it for filling my mind with friends and cosy times when the world was going to hell.

I reckon the only thing I would have loved to see might have been an epilogue in the future lives of the Dathirii elves, one where we could have found out the eventual outcome of the investigation against Lord Allastam's crimes. But my head canon is certainly that he got his and Mia ends up in charge of the house up till the end of her own life.

[Sophie Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

City of Exile is a satisfying conclusion to a deliciously complicated fantasy series. Once again, everything I loved about the previous book still holds true, and things move forward in interesting directions. I particularly appreciate the motif of “love gone wrong,” or perhaps, “love is not enough if someone is hurting you.” Brune in particular is highlighted as a toxic relationship for Hasryan, and Hellion – emotional abuser-in-chief – becomes the first major death of the series in an excellently uncomfortable scene. Not all threads are neatly tied away, but instead are left open in a way that makes Isandor feel like a living, breathing place. And while they don’t completely destroy the class system like I thought they might, the series remains firm on its stance against systemic injustice, and Diel himself – the “good noble” – ends up exiled from his society in a way that feels more like riding off into the sunset than an actual punishment. Arseneault clearly understands that a return to the status quo is not the happy ending that Isandor needs.

If I have one complaint, it’s the repetitiveness. I like to highlight and make notes while I read, and at one point I wrote, “The point is made so many times that it bleeds the punch out of any individual line.” I can’t say I regret any of the time I spent reading this book, but it could have been a much shorter book, and I believe it would have been a more effective book if so.

That said – would I recommend this series? Yes, wholeheartedly. It made me feel like that kid curled up on the couch getting lost in a book, and it got me excited about my own queer fantasy writing.

[Amy (I'd Rather Be Sleeping) · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I would love to say that the length of time it took me to read this book had nothing to do with the actual book, some of it did. Look, I didn't want to leave these people or this world. These are characters that I've come to deeply, deeply love and care about and to know this was the final in the series made me drag it out. (But, honestly, there's so many more stories that could be, considering where everything and everyone is left off…)

Anyway, really loved this finale to the story. (Yes, that's it, that's all you get for a review, otherwise I will start weeping inconsolably. Again.)

[Tasha Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The magic & political systems drew me in from the start. Loved how character driven this book was. The last few chapters focus on “where does the character(s) go from here now the big bad has been defeated.” They were amazing focusing on friendship, love (romantic & non-romantic), found family, celebrating, passing on the torch, & more.

Highly recommend the entire series. Definitely start with book 1.

[stardustcreature · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this whole book series it makes me so happy and the end is just >>>>

[Riska Sleepless · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my ideal ending to the series but a pretty good ending