The City of Zirdai

Maria V. Snyder is one of my favourite authors and this book just solidified that! The magic, the world, the characters. Everything was so captivating, as a second book, this didn't suffer from the second book syndrome. it was just as impactful as the first book!

If you're looking for a new favourite series this just might be the one!

Well, another Maria V Snyder book and another amazing read.

I have read every single book Maria has ever published and I have loved each and every one. I would buy her shopping list if I could, such is my love for her books and writing.

The City Of Zirdai (thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an electronic copy in exchange for an honest review) is a great follow up from The Eyes Of Tamburah and a novel filled with unique plots, exciting action and interesting characters.

Maria's novels always have an immense amount of action and absolutely zero 'filler', and The City Of Zirdai is no exception. So much action happens and so many exciting twists and turns occur, that I raced through this book as I usually do all of her novels. This series is so unique and so different to the majority of Young Adult novels out there today, that it creates a very exciting and intriguing feel to it when reading.

The magic system is fun and continually evolving, the pacing us fantastic and allows the reader to never be bored, the characters are changing and developing page by page, and the romance is sweet and very much a side event to the action, mystery and plot.

As someone who loves a good amount of romance in my fantasy novels, I felt there was slightly too little in this one for my tastes, however I know many people who this would be perfect as they don't like too much. I will say, though, that the first book in this series has a lot more romance and the enemies to lovers trope with the two main characters is great fun to read.

As is usual from Maria V Snyder, readers are left with a bit of a cliff-hanger at the end of the book to make us want the next instalment right away, but with enough cohesion and finalisation to feel happy with the ending.

4.25 stars

Shyla Sun-Kissed is back, and is just as bad-assed as ever in The City of Zirdai. Starting off where The Eyes of Tamburah finished, this sequel from Maria V. Snyder is not something to be missed!

I had super high expectations for this sequel, given that I absolutely loved (and devoured, honestly) Tamburah, and I wasn’t let down at all! Full of the action, magic, and Snyder’s style I know and love, it firmly has a place in my 2020 favourites, for sure!

In this sequel, Shyla barters with both the Invisible Sword, as well as the monks and the communes to help her protect the seemingly precious ‘Eyes of Tamburah’ from the likes of the Water Prince and the Heliacal Priestess.

This quest often leads to Shyla and her merry band of bandits to resort to mischievously use magic (of sorts) to hide from the Priestess’ Archdeacons as well as the overbearing Captain Yates. Each of these encounters were super fast paced, however, had a bunch of detail which made the scene super three dimensional! Whilst a lot of fantasy books I’ve read of late heavily feature romance, I enjoyed that this one took a rather backseated approach, allowing for the action to drive the story forward, which felt like exactly what I wanted from this book! I loved how despite Rendor’s absence, Shyla could still be focused and carry on towards her goals, just as if he was right there. To me, this feels much more like a genuine relationship, and I’m keen to see if it develops in the final book in this trilogy.

What I loved about this sequel is that we got more page time for the monks, which helped make me understand a whole lot more about why they were keen to help Shyla, as well as exposing some of their somewhat well-kept secrets. I also really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Hanif and Shyla in a little more depth than in Tamburah, which I found was a really nice touch when the action appeared to not be there.

The tunnel that the Invisible Sword starts to dig really reminded me of the Indiana Jones movies, and I can’t understand why, but drawing that parallel is pretty cool- given that tunnels often lead to uncovering big secrets. I loved how this goal to have a hidden base connected to Zirdai by tunnel appeared to strengthen the resolve of the group, despite every setback they encountered. Further to this, I loved seeing the character development of Jayden, Rendor (despite Rendor not getting much page time in the book), and many of the relatively minor characters, with many of them feeling totally fleshed out and not at all just there for the sake of being there. Also, I still dislike the Water Prince- he’s still a bit of a jerk, which isn’t so surprising given how he was in The Eyes of Tamburah!

The pace of this book felt just right for me, seemingly fast-paced enough to keep me absored in the action scenes, and slow enough in the parts meant for plot and character development. Whilst these weren’t in perfect halves, I enjoyed the changes in pace just as much as I loved seeing Shyla trudge on!

If you’re looking for a Tomb Raider with a dash of Indiana Jones mixed with underground sand cities and scorching heat, The Archives of the Invisible Sword series is likely to be right up your alley! The City of Zirdai, book two of three in the series, is full of action and is definitely not a release to be missed this year!

Rating: 4.5/5

(Review will be live on my blog on 22nd July, 2 weeks prior to the new August 5 release date!)

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange of a fair review.

Yet another extremely well written title by MVS, where world building, character development and the story itself combine to make for an immersive, thoroughly enjoyable reader experience.

In this title we see Shyla establishing her leadership of the Invisible Swords, expanding their operations and continuing in her quest to free the people of the city of Zirdai from its corrupt rulers.