Not as good as the first two books in the series since a lot of the action is outside of Sunder City, but the last couple of pages were a rare perfect series’ end.

I loved this third installment of Fetch's story. It is the perfect mix of fantasy, mystery, and police procedural. This series is reread-worthy for sure and I love being immersed in this world.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. I started this book this evening, and while the writing seemed perfectly fine, I quickly realized that I was not reading the first book in a series. I do think that this is a series that I could eventually come back to, and if I do, I will update this review accordingly. However, for the time being, I have an entirely too long of a backlog to prioritize this series currently.

This is the third in the Fetch Phillips series, and I enjoyed the last two, so it was a pleasure to get access to this one.

When magic seems to be reappearing in Sunder City, but also killing the people who are restored, Fetch Phillips may be the only one who can find out what‘s going on.

I ended up liking this much more than the previous two books. I may have started out feeling more frustrated with Fetch's pessimism and stubbornness, but I ended in a much better place with him. It's been a slow process for Fetch's character development, but it's finally starting to pay off.

I still am obsessed with this world of lost magic. This is an urban fantasy where the magic is almost completely gone. Yes there are ogres and zombies and other magical beings wandering around, but they are diminished. This whole series has been a really unique spin on urban fantasy stories and I really can't wait to see where this world goes.

The grimy city slips a little further away from magic, but ultimately a hopeful ending with a change in sight. I appreciated how this book tied up the main conflict, but also left us on an open enough note that it left me excited for the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for this ARC.

Fetch is continuing his efforts to bring magic back into the world, while also trying to thwart human businessman/politician Niles, mostly through arguments with the man, rather than anything substantive.

When he comes across a corpse of an angel with strange markings on him, Fetch is eager to find who managed to return the angel's wings to him. His search leads to an individual who needs to practice their magic in an effort to stave off their own death by laying their hands on other magical beings; an inadvertent benefit to the formerly magical beings is they get back their powers. This individual convinces Fetch that if he can find a particular ancient item for them, they can use it to restore themselves, and then together they can save other magical beings.

Seeing the potential immediately, Fetch rounds up some others and they all head off to steal this item from a bunch of wizards, encountering numerous dangers along the way.

Fetch is a difficult man; he is perpetually mistrustful, too easily angered, unwilling to ask for help when he needs it, and not willing to listen to others a lot of the time. Someone asks him an important question early on: why is he so hellbent on bringing magic back, and for whom, really, is he pummelling others, shouting and running about?

It's a question Fetch is totally unwilling to entertain initially, but as time goes on, and the cumulative experiences on his most recent endeavour as well as those from books one and two pile up and affect him, he's forced to confront his past actions. We already know that he's damaged by all his previous experiences, including the odd circumstances surrounding his childhood, and it becomes clear that Fetch is trying to save everything in an effort to not confront his own issues.

The ending of this terrific third entry in the "Fetch Phillips Archive" brings Fetch to an even darker place emotionally before the end; he's beaten down, betrayed, and must finally begin dealing with his crap. It's not enough to just set things ablaze around him, as, he's proven, time and time again, that his flailing around desperately for a cure to the misery around him won't be found in quickly. Also, not everyone wants or needs him to save them, and it takes his experiences in this book to begin to finally listen to the people around him.

I love this series, and really hope we see where Fetch goes next.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Orbit Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

One Foot in the Fade is is the third Fetch Phillips noir mystery by Luke Arnold. Released 26th April 2022 by Orbit Books, it's 464 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a gritty urban fantasy noir PI tale in an impressive trilogy which is -hopefully- slated to turn into a series. In my mind, it goes to roughly the same subcategory as Glen Cook, Ben Aaronovitch (but much grittier, less humorous, and more Chandler-esque than either), John D. MacDonald (with the same melancholy tarnished knight feel), and an authentic George Sims vibe (whose oeuvre I heartily recommend and for anyone unfamiliar with this great unsung British noir writer go find his work). The book is not derivative, however, and the author has a clear and unique voice of his own which captivated me from book one. The characters have developed well over the last two books, and the backstory is complex enough and the previous books are well written enough, that reading them before this, the third-and-hopefully-not-last book is recommended.

The plotting is meticulous and well wrought. The characterization is spot on and the author's command of dialogue is pitch perfect. This is a genuinely well written richly engaging book in a very well written series. With three books extant, it would be a good candidate for a weekend binge read.

Four and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

3.5 stars

I enjoyed the first two books in this series in the way one enjoys a film that could have done with a higher budget. The bones were in the right place, and the characters and situations were interesting, but it felt like things didn’t quite land. This one continues in that vein, with the first act kind of dragging, but I believe it made up for it in the end. Despite not having a real definitive conclusion, it feels resolved as Fetch enters a new phase in his life upon confronting the reasons behind his quest and the methods (however ineffective or unsavory they might have been) he used to attempt to achieve it.

I like that we got to see different locations as Fetch and co left Sunder City, that we saw more remnants of magic that were twisted into something unrecognizable. I think i would have liked to see more consequences for what the wizards were doing, but that could come in future books (if such future books come, which they might not)

Overall enjoyable if not necessarily a “serious” literary work. Definitely recommend the audio since it’s performed by the author who is also an actor.

Something about this series has always sat just to the left of what would make me love it. I don't know quite what that is, and I grabbed this book hoping it would help me figure this out. The book has solid character growth, but something consistently falls somewhat flat. Worth the read as a series, but only when I have a bit more patience.

I'm in the minority for not loving this series - and I get that. The worldbuilding is solid, interesting plot, and well worth a read.

Synopsis: It is now common knowledge in Sunder City that Fetch Phillips, man for hire, is trying to bring the magic back. He stumbles onto a black market trade in magic objects which retain a small trace of the powers they once had, and meets someone who can apparently restore individual magical beings’ powers. With a motley crew band of old ands new allies, Fetch travels outside Sunder to a fortress where they might find a way to restore magic for good.

▪ Voice. I had read the two previous books in audiobook format, so I was a little afraid that the rhythm and cadence Arnold the audiobook performer gives the prose as he reads would be missing. It turns out, Arnold the author has my back and that old-time noir detective sound is right there in the writing. I was too slow to read my eARC and the audiobook was released before I was done, so I switched to that halfway through and his performance is as good as it was in the two previous books.

▪ I was moved to tears, again. It happened when I read DEAD MAN IN A DITCH, and it happened again here. The way Arnold brings Fetch through self-doubt, to hope that he can actually do something, to failure, despair, but always leaves you with a tiny kernel of hope is masterful.

▪ Fetch Phillips. There is some great character development happening over the course of these three books. Fetch grows, Lears from his mistakes, but remains prone to be the naive screw-up we met in the flashbacks of THE LAST SMILE IN SUNDER CITY. I often want to shake him, then hug him, and yell at him to make better choices. But he tries, and that is always endearing.

▪ Less urban that previous books. This is the one bit I didn’t love about this novel. I’m not a big fan of high fantasy (the medieval quest kind like LOTR or even sometimes GOT), so when the book’s mission brings Fetch outside Sunder and into the woods, I was a little disappointed. There’s a lot of waking, camping, encountering various creates, and that bit was a little “meh” for me. What kept me interested was the characters, Fetch’s developing relationships with two new allies, but I looked forward to returning to the city. If this stuff is your jam, you might even prefer this novel to the previous two.

I love this series. The mix of noir detective vibe (especially the very flawed detective trying to atone for past misdeeds) with fantasy is just my cup of tea.

This is a fantasy with an urban setting. We have a grumpy human mercenary for hire in a city that has lost all of it’s magical and the magical creatures living in it are suffering from that and since this is the 3rd book. It’s now been 7 years since magic disappeared.

The city is noticeably changing in this installment. A lot of mundane normalcy is taking over because magic hasn’t been around. The magical creatures are just having to live normal lives with normal jobs. So the city went from being very urban to now being very industrial. I can talk about the plot a little, it won’t spoil anything. The mystery in this book is about artifacts that were once filled with magic that are now going missing and fetch, our protagonist is suspicious because maybe that means someone knows something no one else does. Maybe magic can be found again. In some ways this was different than what I was expecting and in other ways it delivered exactly what I was hoping.

So let me begin with what I loved. Fetch is very imperfect and is I’d say controversial in terms of the way he approaches things. He’s kind of unlikeable. He has never been filled with so much hope before. Previous books you can feel the despair in him as he’s trying to help the magical creatures around him but in this book he is really taking the lead, and has a pretty positive outlook on the mystery at hand like he’s going to get to the bottom of it whether it kills him.

So I loved the beginning and I loved the end but there was a big chunk of the middle where my entertainment really dipped which is weird because that’s where the most action is I think but there were some new characters I didn’t care much about, and a character who was in the previous book I do really like who dips out of the adventure so I was sad about that. We also arnt in the city during that big chunk so maybe I’m just really attached to sunder city.

This book is what I wanted in the continuation of Fetch''s story. It had great growth for him as a character. I was left a little disappointed in the lack of movement for the world, but I understand that the story Luke Arnold has crafted isn't about the world so much as it is about Fetch.

This book takes place in a world that was once magical. Due to actions of the protagonist (and other tragedies), magic was lost. Now, industrialization is on the rise, which causes people to no longer miss the magic since they are comfortable with the convenience of washing machines and paved roads. Our protagonist is searching for a way to bring the magic back.

Here is my video review: https://youtu.be/bqJ33eMl384?t=140

This book is, honestly, a collection of info dumps and logical inconsistencies. I kept trying, as I read it, to somehow explain why the main character would speak in such thorough packets of exposition. Perhaps that is just the culture of the city, to constantly remind each other of things that they already know. Perhaps the protagonist interrogates people by telling them details of his investigations because he’s secretly a mind reader, and trying to see what details trigger a memory for them. Alas, the book just is really bad at exposition. I think I would have preferred the exposition to be just given to me as a wikipedia article instead of this.

The themes of this story seem to be: (1) the loss of culture through industrialization and (2) the dangers of going to far to bring the magic back.

(1) The epitome of the dangers of industrialization is the Evil Businessman, Niles. He does such despicable things such as paying his workers well, building housing for the poor, and funding public libraries. The protagonist hates him primarily because he makes life without magic convenient, so no one else is working to bring the magic back. I was most excited about this plot when a side character insinuated that Businessman was Protagonist’s ex-boyfriend. Finally, a relationship between them, with emotional depth, and a legitimate reason for them to hate each other! I was disappointed that this turned out to be a sarcastic joke.

(2) As with most plots, the protagonist’s goal is difficult to attain and comes with challenges and costs. So, as he tries to restore magic to the world he often fails and gets people hurt. Though this becomes a part of the major climax of the story, it falls flat when many of these consequences are reversed.

Thanks to Orbit Books and Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

I knew from about twenty pages into book one that I’ll read anything by Luke Arnold, up to and including a pamphlet on beige paint. His writing is that good. I obviously had ridiculously high expectations for this latest installment in the Fetch Phillips novels, and One Foot in the Fade more than delivered. Buckle up, folks: this is going to be a rave. Or you could save yourself the trouble and buy the entire series now, which is the better option.

One Foot in the Fade continues on where Dead Man in a Ditch left off, with a much more motivated and slightly more capable Fetch taking the small bit of hope he’s seized and holding onto it for dear life. Thanks to a friend of his, Fetch’s sign has gone from an advertisement for a P.I. to a declaration: “Bringing the Magic Back”!

After sniffing the slightest possibility of a return to before everything went to crap, returning magic has become Fetch’s driving goal. He’s following every lead and hunting down any hint of a way to make that happen. Which is how he ends ups embroiled in what is either an almost-miracle or a very grisly murder. The answer leads Fetch on a journey both physical and emotional.

One Foot in the Fade takes the series from a grimy noir-fantasy to something completely new and different. I didn’t know what would happen next and I loved it. From duels (aka fights with self-important rich men who hold all the cards in life) to a not-quite-a-corpse, to an unfortunate encounter with a monster of legend, there was plenty of danger and action to be found. However, the heart stopping action scenes weren’t what held me enthralled. Rather, it was the incredible character growth to be found in Fetch.

Fetch Phillips has become one of my favorite characters in fantasy. Ever. His staunch refusal to give up, even when he’s convinced himself that he has, is heartbreaking. His grasp at the smallest glimmer of hope is relatable. And his palpable loneliness and the way he slowly learns to open himself up to the possibility of friendship is amazing and a privilege to read. Despite this being a fantasy setting, or maybe because of it, Fetch is one of the most supremely human characters I’ve read.

One Foot in the Fade has everything I want in a fantasy book. The story is engrossing, the descriptiveness of the writing is brilliant, the characters are all wonderful, and the ending made me tear up. A perfect blend between fantastical creativity and fascinating character development, One Foot in the Fade hooked me from page one.

Luke Arnold's ONE FOOT IN THE FADE is an ambitious fantasy that was simply too weird for me. I wanted to like this book (and the cover made me think it would be like the Rivers of London series). Unfortunately, there were simply too many things that were strange--the world itself, the way the characters talked, even the capitalization. It just wasn't the book for me.

Luke Arnold has done it again. He is an absolute genius at world building, especially a world where the magic has died. In this entry, he thinks he may have finally found a way to heal the magical creatures, crippled and dying since the loss of magic. But at what cost. The world of Sunder can be seen as reflection of our world. When it seems to have lost its way, how do you decide which way to go? And who gets to decide? Cannot recommend this series highly enough!

I just love this series and I love Luke Arnold’s strong narrative voice. If you have the opportunity, avail yourself of the audiobook because it is delicious.

Detective noir meets quest fantasy is the best way I would describe this book. The characters are well-developed, there is good world building, plenty of action and philosophical questions. In other words, there is depth to this action story. There is humor, cynicism and bittersweet moments.

This is the third in a series but I did not have any problems follow what was going on. I would be interesting in reading the books before this and after. There is plenty more to be discovered in this world.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest opinion.

A good noir novel is tricky, especially when you're blending it with another genre. You have to carefully balance the noir aspects (the intriguing dame and mysterious dame, the headstrong yet fragile detective protagonist who (thinks he) is willing to do whatever it takes to solve the case/save the day, the city/setting that acts as the protagonists actual love) with those from the other genre you're adding. Luke Arnold has continued to do that very successfully with One Foot in the Fade. Fetch Phillips has enough Sam Spade and Jake Gittes to keep any noir fan entertained, but truly shines in his relation with Sunder, his chosen city. Arnold's descriptions of Sunder bring the city vividly (and grungily) to life, allowing it to take centerstage in this novel. Even when outside the city, it acts as a comparison and foil to every other location. The plot moves well, as characters grow and mature (or revert) throughout the story. I eagerly await the next Fetch Phillips novel, and see what Arnold has in store for Sunder.

Detective and noir fiction is one of those sweet spots for me as a reader. Those times when I’m not reading fantasy or science fiction, I love basking in the mystery and dark explorations of books by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and the like. There’s something raw about those works, their characters and their worlds, that pulls me in every time.

That’s why my discovery of the urban fantasy detective genre five or six years ago quite literally blew my mind (it’s a mash-up made in heaven!). I have since devoured countless great genre-blending gems, and Luke Arnold’s The Fetch Phillips Archives stands high among them. Now, three books in with One Foot in the Fade, I can safely say this is a series that has cemented itself as some of the best urban fantasy detective literature out there.

Starting with book one, The Last Smile in Sunder City, The Fetch Phillips Archives oozes personality. The world is stylish, full of magical creatures and dark mysteries, and the humor is on point. Plus, right from the get-go, it’s clear Fetch is a protagonist that plays to the strengths of the detective and noir genres. He’s brash and impulsive. He knows Sunder City like the back of his hand, and he also uses that hand to hit hard. But he’s also internally vulnerable, and he has a fascinating backstory that reveals how broken he is. I empathize with this goonish schmuck ‘cause he has a heart of gold and a desire to do good for his city.

It’s clear, too, that Arnold wants to pay homage to the noir greats that came before. But what’s impressive is how he consciously uses a bounty of tropes from the genre (the gruff protagonist, the damsel-in-distress, for example), yet always finds a way to give them a modern twist that is both satisfying and true to this series’ characters and the world they inhabit.

Speaking of which, the setting of Sunder City is just fantastic. The history of a once-fantastical world brimming with magic, only to have that magic ripped away and magical creatures losing the abilities that defined them, that is engaging stuff. Now, Sunder City is a shit-hole in many ways, with humans and magic-less creatures living together in a rough hierarchy that reaches from destitute poverty up to absurdly wealthy. Despite that, there is warmth and generosity and connection within the rapidly industrializing city.

That is exactly why Sunder City is such a fitting setting for Fetch Phillips: it acts as an external foil for his internal struggles, giving him the perfect playground through which to deal with his weighty problems (especially how he played a hand in the world’s loss of magic). He has immense guilt, but he tries to make up for it by giving back to Sunder City—which is more often than not a pretty unforgiving place. But given the city is a morally ambiguous place, that fits so well with the moral ambiguity of Fetch himself.

So, how does One Foot in the Fade stack up? It’s a tricky thing to be stuck in the middle of an ongoing series, but Arnold handles it well. He uses the book’s predecessors, The Last Smile in Sunder City and Dead Man in a Ditch, as good launching pads to dig deeper into Fetch’s head, broadening the scope of his desire to make good on his past mistakes. He has a genuine craving to bring magic back into the world, which is a fascinating contrast to the commercialization and industrialization of Sunder City brought on by the events of Dead Man in a Ditch.

A greedy, human-run corporation starts to eat up the town’s small businesses and derelict buildings, plops down gargantuan factories and “influences” the city’s government. At the same time, they are providing light and warmth for citizens that have been without that assurance since magic went bust. So, where does a guy like Fetch fit into that? One Foot in the Fade is essentially his desire to force his personal absolution on the world, but at what cost? This is the through line of the book that I absolutely adore, as Fetch tries again and again to play the hero and bring magic back, but does the world around him want to reclaim the past like he does?

At one point, Fetch even gathers a crew for a heist—which takes up a sizable chunk of the book—in order to get outta Sunder City and steal something that might offer a viable chance of magical rejuvenation. It’s a road trip-style detour that I was curious about at first, then wary of, as it felt a bit meandering at times. But looking back on it, that adventure away from Sunder City feels like a perfect foil for Fetch’s desires in this book. He wants to be the hero, the adventurer, the one who gets the prize and saves the day. That wouldn’t be possible in Sunder City, and so by leaving to visit other parts of this world he’s given the opportunity to satiate his fanciful imagination—on top of giving us as readers a better sense of this world. Coming full circle, though, Fetch’s imagination is hit with a big fucking reality brick of “Hey, it’s not all about you, buddy.”

With that character progression alone, I was left satisfied with One Foot in the Fade, despite some hiccups along the way. The inciting incident sets up the rhythm of a detective story with a big villain, but it’s not that. This book has a shapeshifting nature to it that sometimes works (road trip says hello), and at other points not so much. It’s more that there is an overall lack of genre cohesion, and my expectations as a reader were confused as to what I could anticipate. This resulted in iffy pacing and a few characters not getting the page time I wanted. But, amidst all that, there was some wonderful character development for Fetch personally, as well as relationship-building with those around him. Since Fetch is the central character in these stories, it felt nice for this down-on-his-luck, wannabee detective to make some friends for once (despite shit hitting the fan towards the end, of course.)

While One Foot in the Fade doesn’t quite hit the highs of Dead Man in a Ditch, it solidifies itself as a strong continuation for this series. The Fetch Phillips Archives is a great example of a writer honing his craft, and it’s so obvious that Arnold is having fun with the stories he’s telling. Jokes are cracked in sardonic fashion, emotions ebb and flow, and at the core of it all Fetch Phillips is a character worth investing in. His arc through books one, two and three is natural, relatable and authentic too. Sure, Fetch can be a piece of shit sometimes, but as a fan, he is my piece of shit. To tag along for the adventure as he unravels his unwieldy mind, tries to bring magic, solves some mysteries and gets into some brawls, I’m happy as can be.