This series has alot of elements i enjoy, vampires etc. so i keep picking them up. reading a bit sometimes the whole book and remembering that they are horrible. maybe i should add a collection for anti wish list. ( )

This book was off and on for me. I was very satisfied when I finished it, but there are endless alternate dimension sequences which for some reason (like dream sequences) I have no patience for in books. It seems like a step away from the story - I want a well constructed alternate world, and throwing in a place where those rules don't work kind of breaks the spell for me. The ending was pretty good, and I liked the main character more in this book than I've liked her in the rest of the series ( )

Vicki Pettersson's Signs of the Zodiac books are supremely awesome books. They've got fantastic tone and the author always takes Joanna (the protagonist) through incredible journeys. I also love her world building; in these novels, set in Las Vegas, there are two Zodiac teams, one Light and one Shadow. Joanna is the Kairos, one of both Light and Shadow, destined to help her side win the ultimate battle.

In City of Souls, Joanna has to venture into a hidden world - MidHeaven - to correct mistakes she make in the last book. Her team, the Light Zodiac, is suffering because of these mistakes and so she has to venture into this lethally dangerous alternative world to find the answers she needs. The price of admission? A piece of her soul is she's careful...more if she's not.

Overall, this was a great story. I just couldn't put it down, despite the extremely late hour I started it. It was so satisfying and I can't wait to see how the author gets Joanna out of this latest predicament. (It's apparently discussed in a short story she has published in Unbound, a recently released anthology on my To Buy list.)

The only detractor for me was the cover of the book. I adore the covers on the first three books in the series, which are dark, moody and distinctive. This cover, by a different artist, looks more generic and very similar to the type of image I'd expect to find on a Yasmine Galenorn book. (Her books are enjoyable so it's not the end of the world but I much prefer the other covers, which suit the tone of Pettersson's writing a lot more.)

Edited. Originally published at http://ireadgood.wordpress.com ( )

The overarching plot of the four novels in this series so far seems to be that Evil is always a step (or four or five) ahead and Good simply reacts. There is plenty of gore and violence and reaction and a lack of friendship and support and teaching. The alleged Good guy leader is just a ruthless, selfish jerk and I can see no reason why anyone would trust his actions or words. The main character, Jo, has received all this power and very little training, a huge pet peeve of mine in any book. She is of paramount importance to the continuity of the world, or she is a highly disposable pawn in a paranormal game of chess. Well, which is it? Another pet peeve, the main female character merely reacts to the action around her. She rarely, if ever, takes an action that isn't predicated on Evil's actions. And oh, look, here is a woman who gives up all her powers. Why don't we have books where men do that? Why is it women are making the ultimate sacrifices? I cannot recommend this book to anyone. ( )

By the end of City of Souls the protagonist, Joanna Archer, has been reduced a mundane existence by choice. Her condition, and the future possibilities it produced, the most interesting thing about the story. The remainder of the book works to clear up plot lines left from the third volume in a workman-like manner, checking to-do's off a list.

It is not a complaint unique to the Zodiac series, but first-person series often are shackled by their POV character's limitations. For example, Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan is often annoying, but we forgive her because of the interesting secondary characters. Like the early Harry Dresden (first two books, at a minimum), Joanna Archer is yanked along on the author's chain and treated like a punching bag. She's largely incapable of making honest decisions as Pettersson continues to assault her with difficulties and impossible circumstance. It's honestly becoming hard to root for Joanna because she doesn't appear to have agency.

Missing from City of Souls is the second most important character in the series, Las Vegas. The city loses ground to the imaginary landscapes which dominate this book: subterranean storm drain tunnels, Hunter's warehouse, and a creepy pocket universe. It feels like the complications of the plot have pushed the familiar Vegas into the wings at a disservice to the the story.

The aforementioned pocket universe, Midheaven, is well-realized by Pettersson, showing she has some serious fantasy chops. Although it would be inconsistent with the Zodiac universe, I'm curious what she can do if she went for it and wrote a full-out fantasy. I'd rather read that than another aerobic superhero sex scene... ( )