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Welcome to Amberlough City, the illustrious but corrupt cosmopolitan beacon of Gedda. The radical One State Party -- nicknamed the Ospies -- is gaining popular support to unite Gedda's four municipal governments under an ironclad, socially conservative vision. Not everyone agrees with the Ospies' philosophy, including master spy Cyril DePaul and his lover Aristide Makricosta, smuggler and emcee at the popular Bumble Bee Cabaret. When Cyril's cover is blown on a mission, however, he must show more become a turncoat in exchange for his life. Returning to Amberlough under the Ospies' watchful eye, Cyril enters a complex game of deception. One of his concerns is safeguarding Aristide, who refuses to let anyone -- the crooked city police or the homophobic Ospies -- dictate his life. Enter streetwise Cordelia Lehane, top dancer at the Bee and Aristide's runner, who could be the key to Cyril's plans -- if she can be trusted. As the twinkling lights of nightclub marquees yield to the rising flames of a fascist revolution, these three will struggle to survive using whatever means -- and people -- necessary. Including each other. show lessTags
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This is a reread for me, here’s what I had to say the first time I read it in 2017:
I think all of that is still accurate to my feelings, but this time through I appreciated the later half of the book more, after the established relationships have all fallen apart in the face of rising fascism. The characters are very well-realized and it is interesting to see them react differently to the threat. I am very much looking forward to getting to the sequels soon.
I really loved the audiobook narration of Mary Robinette Kowal; she did amazing voices and it almost makes me want to listen to the next books on audio. But I think the politics are too complicated for me to enjoy in that format. show less
Cyril DePaul is an intelligence agent in Amberlough City (capital of Amberlough, the richest state in the region of Gedda), currently focused on the upcoming election in the neighboring state of Nuesklend. The fascist "One State Party" (also called OSP or Ospies) are gaining power, and Cyril is sent to spy in Nuesklend to uncover who is bankrolling them and how they are manipulating elections. The Ospies are defined by brutal law enforcement tactics, teetotaling, and religious fundamentalism to include the persecution of homosexual activity. Cyril has an unspoken understanding with his boyfriend, Ari - Ari pretends he doesn't know Cyril works for theshow more
police, and Cyril pretends he doesn't know that Ari is a smuggler and drug runner. Cyril simply enjoys Ari's company, including watching his shows at the Bumble Bee Cabaret. Ari performs with a colorful cast of characters including the club's gruff owner Malcolm, various singers and musicians, and the beautiful star dancer Cordelia Lehane, who uses her mistaken reputation as a brainless sex-pot to her advantage. When Cyril's mission goes sideways, he makes a terrible choice to save the love of his life - by putting everyone else in danger.
What a gorgeous first novel! A difficult but rewarding read which reminded me of a dozen other good books like The Diviners, the Song of Ice and Fire series, Woodwalker, 1984, and a delicious spy novel. The 1920s/30s-era language and slang, especially, made the book difficult to get into but once I did I forgot what time I'm actually living in. One thing I especially think sets it apart from other spy novels or dystopias is that the story is told from the points of view of three main characters (Cyril, Ari, and Cordelia) who are all on the same side. It was a good choice because while Cyril is sympathetic, he made some bad choices and I wouldn't want to spend too much time in his head. I had to take notes to keep the plot and characters straight, but it was TOTALLY worth it. The story is complex, the politics intriguing, the characters beautiful, the writing immersive, and the plot eerily prescient. Highly, highly recommended!
I think all of that is still accurate to my feelings, but this time through I appreciated the later half of the book more, after the established relationships have all fallen apart in the face of rising fascism. The characters are very well-realized and it is interesting to see them react differently to the threat. I am very much looking forward to getting to the sequels soon.
I really loved the audiobook narration of Mary Robinette Kowal; she did amazing voices and it almost makes me want to listen to the next books on audio. But I think the politics are too complicated for me to enjoy in that format. show less
Cyril DePaul is an intelligence agent in Amberlough City (capital of Amberlough, the richest state in the region of Gedda), currently focused on the upcoming election in the neighboring state of Nuesklend. The fascist "One State Party" (also called OSP or Ospies) are gaining power, and Cyril is sent to spy in Nuesklend to uncover who is bankrolling them and how they are manipulating elections. The Ospies are defined by brutal law enforcement tactics, teetotaling, and religious fundamentalism to include the persecution of homosexual activity. Cyril has an unspoken understanding with his boyfriend, Ari - Ari pretends he doesn't know Cyril works for the police, and Cyril pretends he doesn't know that Ari is a smuggler and drug runner. show more Cyril simply enjoys Ari's company, including watching his shows at the Bumble Bee Cabaret. Ari performs with a colorful cast of characters including the club's gruff owner Malcolm, various singers and musicians, and the beautiful star dancer Cordelia Lehane, who uses her mistaken reputation as a brainless sex-pot to her advantage. When Cyril's mission goes sideways, he makes a terrible choice to save the love of his life - by putting everyone else in danger.
What a gorgeous first novel! A difficult but rewarding read which reminded me of a dozen other good books like The Diviners, the Song of Ice and Fire series, Woodwalker, 1984, and a delicious spy novel. The 1920s/30s-era language and slang, especially, made the book difficult to get into but once I did I forgot what time I'm actually living in. One thing I especially think sets it apart from other spy novels or dystopias is that the story is told from the points of view of three main characters (Cyril, Ari, and Cordelia) who are all on the same side. It was a good choice because while Cyril is sympathetic, he made some bad choices and I wouldn't want to spend too much time in his head. I had to take notes to keep the plot and characters straight, but it was TOTALLY worth it. The story is complex, the politics intriguing, the characters beautiful, the writing immersive, and the plot eerily prescient. Highly, highly recommended! show less
What a gorgeous first novel! A difficult but rewarding read which reminded me of a dozen other good books like The Diviners, the Song of Ice and Fire series, Woodwalker, 1984, and a delicious spy novel. The 1920s/30s-era language and slang, especially, made the book difficult to get into but once I did I forgot what time I'm actually living in. One thing I especially think sets it apart from other spy novels or dystopias is that the story is told from the points of view of three main characters (Cyril, Ari, and Cordelia) who are all on the same side. It was a good choice because while Cyril is sympathetic, he made some bad choices and I wouldn't want to spend too much time in his head. I had to take notes to keep the plot and characters straight, but it was TOTALLY worth it. The story is complex, the politics intriguing, the characters beautiful, the writing immersive, and the plot eerily prescient. Highly, highly recommended! show less
There was a lot to like about Amberlough. But this is billed as a fantasy, set in a fantasy world that is really a stand-in for Germany during the rise of the Nazis. There was nothing other than place names and a few references to an old religion to distinguish this world from our own. For me, I think it would have been a better read if it were presented as straight historical fiction. As a fantasy, I expected at least one significant difference that would affect the world--something to do with that old religion, perhaps. I also expected a bit more history of the world itself and how its politics came to be, something that wasn't just a thinly veiled rendering of 1930s Europe. So the whole thing threw me off because it wasn't meeting my show more expectations, and I would have been a lot more comfortable if I had just known it was a spy thriller.
That being said, I thought the writing was very descriptive, almost cinematic in places, and the Cordelia character was complex, flawed, and interesting. The story was interesting, if a little dense in places, but I find that to be true of most spy novels. The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger, and I'm not sure I'll continue with the series. show less
That being said, I thought the writing was very descriptive, almost cinematic in places, and the Cordelia character was complex, flawed, and interesting. The story was interesting, if a little dense in places, but I find that to be true of most spy novels. The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger, and I'm not sure I'll continue with the series. show less
This book is full of hard choices and vibrant world-building. Hard choices not only because of the set-up for the story and the way things fall from there, but because all three POV characters have had rocks and hard places in their pasts and a lot of the secondary characters get in on the act too. Cyril loves Aristide but must pretend he doesn’t. Aristide has a Past™. Cordelia, a dancer at the club, has clawed her way out of a slum. There are street urchins and fences and people targeted for their race or religion, and that’s not even starting on the people Cyril has to turn. It makes for a greyer, grittier story than the cover might suggest.
And the world-building? Think Weimar Berlin, but in a secondary world with its own show more politics and tensions and history. Think Art Deco and black-tie dinners and streetcars and kids hawking papers on every corner. Think Gatsby slang but slightly tilted. Then add a culture of smuggling and corruption that’s pretty cheerfully ignored, and everyone (except the Ospies) not caring what anyone’s skin colour, gender presentation, or sexual preferences are. And then, as the fascists start to descend, I had to remind myself this wasn’t a historical place, and this beautiful, complicated city wasn’t being overrun.
Which is definitely a tribute to Donnelly’s writing. You really feel the love the characters have for their city, their hopes and fears, their pain and sorrow and anxiety. While I didn’t experience the distrust everyone has for each other the same way as I did the above, that’s still well-realized, and the interpersonal tensions that result from them ratchet the story up nicely as it goes along.
It’s definitely a bit of a slow build, though the handful of spy thrillers I’ve read suggests that’s genre-standard. It never quite felt like things were genuinely happening even though the story moved forward, and even though I read it pretty quickly, I never felt like I was flipping pages needing to know what happened next. But then the climax came and oof. (And this is just book one.)
So. I found this surprisingly rich in character and world and theme, much more complicated than I’m likely making it sound, and delightfully queer and quasi-historical. I enjoyed the read but, because I wasn’t caught up like I wished I was, probably won’t be reading the sequel. That doesn’t stop me from reccing it, though!
To bear in mind: The aforementioned fascists, doing the sorts of brutal, racist, homophobic things that fascists generally do. A gay man having to go in back in the closet.
7/10 show less
And the world-building? Think Weimar Berlin, but in a secondary world with its own show more politics and tensions and history. Think Art Deco and black-tie dinners and streetcars and kids hawking papers on every corner. Think Gatsby slang but slightly tilted. Then add a culture of smuggling and corruption that’s pretty cheerfully ignored, and everyone (except the Ospies) not caring what anyone’s skin colour, gender presentation, or sexual preferences are. And then, as the fascists start to descend, I had to remind myself this wasn’t a historical place, and this beautiful, complicated city wasn’t being overrun.
Which is definitely a tribute to Donnelly’s writing. You really feel the love the characters have for their city, their hopes and fears, their pain and sorrow and anxiety. While I didn’t experience the distrust everyone has for each other the same way as I did the above, that’s still well-realized, and the interpersonal tensions that result from them ratchet the story up nicely as it goes along.
It’s definitely a bit of a slow build, though the handful of spy thrillers I’ve read suggests that’s genre-standard. It never quite felt like things were genuinely happening even though the story moved forward, and even though I read it pretty quickly, I never felt like I was flipping pages needing to know what happened next. But then the climax came and oof. (And this is just book one.)
So. I found this surprisingly rich in character and world and theme, much more complicated than I’m likely making it sound, and delightfully queer and quasi-historical. I enjoyed the read but, because I wasn’t caught up like I wished I was, probably won’t be reading the sequel. That doesn’t stop me from reccing it, though!
To bear in mind: The aforementioned fascists, doing the sorts of brutal, racist, homophobic things that fascists generally do. A gay man having to go in back in the closet.
7/10 show less
This book tore my heart out and threw it on the floor and stamped on it, and I could not have loved it more. It is grim. It is queer. It is heartbreaking. It is chilling. Fascism is on the rise. Queers are on the run. Hard decisions have to be made. People die. Elections are rigged. War is on the horizon. And yet, and yet, and yet. There are still people fighting.
If you want an escape from what's going on in the world right now, this isn't your book. On the other hand, if you want to look the state of the world in the face and weep, both because it's horrible and because it's *true*--this is exactly the book for you. Go read it.
If you want an escape from what's going on in the world right now, this isn't your book. On the other hand, if you want to look the state of the world in the face and weep, both because it's horrible and because it's *true*--this is exactly the book for you. Go read it.
I loved this book and it upset me a lot, both at once--that's a tough line for a book to tread, for me, and come out with a positive review on the other end, given how emotional and character-driven I often am in my reading. It's a hard one to categorize, too--it's kind of SF/F in that it's not a world like ours--it has different geography, history, geopolitical concerns, religion and culture--but other than that it's got very little in the way of SF/F tropes. It's easy to call it a version of Cabaret--down to the queers, the Nazi resistance and collaboration, the deviants trying to tread a line of art and livelihood in increasingly dire, repressive times.
There are several major characters, and they're all fucking assholes and I love show more them all. At various times I hated them. Almost all of the time, I understood them and could see myself making some of the same horrible compromises in a similar position. Mainly, they felt real, and their fears and attempts to live made sense, their world felt lived in and real even when I kind of glossed over the political machinations (It's not the book--it's me. I canNOT follow a political intrigue plot to save my life). It was a hard book and I couldn't have handled reading it even a couple of months ago--the political situation feels relevant in a chilling way, through an only barely obscured lens of secondary world fiction. It was also a delightfully fun book, with sparkling dialogue, three-dimensional relationships that don't require True Love(tm) or monogamy to be real and important (some of the non-monogamy is consensual, some is less so). The people are human and fallible. The stakes are high and the selfishness and attempts to save others intertwine in horribly messy, painful ways. It's a book with a lot of range and heat and spark, and I haven't read anything quite as full-on engrossing in a while.
If you require protagonists who are good people... maybe not this book for you. But I really loved this book. show less
There are several major characters, and they're all fucking assholes and I love show more them all. At various times I hated them. Almost all of the time, I understood them and could see myself making some of the same horrible compromises in a similar position. Mainly, they felt real, and their fears and attempts to live made sense, their world felt lived in and real even when I kind of glossed over the political machinations (It's not the book--it's me. I canNOT follow a political intrigue plot to save my life). It was a hard book and I couldn't have handled reading it even a couple of months ago--the political situation feels relevant in a chilling way, through an only barely obscured lens of secondary world fiction. It was also a delightfully fun book, with sparkling dialogue, three-dimensional relationships that don't require True Love(tm) or monogamy to be real and important (some of the non-monogamy is consensual, some is less so). The people are human and fallible. The stakes are high and the selfishness and attempts to save others intertwine in horribly messy, painful ways. It's a book with a lot of range and heat and spark, and I haven't read anything quite as full-on engrossing in a while.
If you require protagonists who are good people... maybe not this book for you. But I really loved this book. show less
I found Amberlough hard to get into at first; there are a ton of names – of people, places and political groups – and while I picked them up before too long, it took a lot of furrowed concentration at the start. The good news is that so long as you're willing to do that, you'll be rewarded with a fantastic spec fic thriller, set in an analogue for Weimar-era Germany as it succumbs to Nazi rule.
The main characters are split between spies and burlesque theatre folk, most of them gay, and the rest dead broke (my god how refreshing it is to read a book where not everyone is rich!!). The characters are all far from perfect people, but especially Cyril, whose flaws are so glaring and decision-making skills so horrible that his chapters show more made me squirm to read at times.And also let's be real, there was no reason he had to murder Finn. That was cruel. That said, despite their flaws I found them all compelling to read about, the way their stories crossed paths and had them sometimes allied and sometimes working against each other. That was neat.
There is a palpable sense of dread over the course of the book that gets sharper and heavier the closer you get to the end. The real theme of it is the way that the impending seizure of power by the Ospies (Nazi equivalents) forces people into some nasty dilemmas where every option sucks, but it still matters what option they choose anyway. I'm looking forward to seeing how that develops over the rest of the trilogy.
As an aside, I also appreciated the depiction of Amberlough itself – the many districts, from genteel to bawdy and everything in between; the public transport routes; the sights and smells of the city parks; the sounds of the different accents of its residents… it was just clearly a book from someone who loves urban life and can put into words all the things that make cities great. It made for an immersive environment as all the politics and scheming were underway. If this book sounds like anything you might be interested in I encourage you to give it a try, because it really gripped me. show less
The main characters are split between spies and burlesque theatre folk, most of them gay, and the rest dead broke (my god how refreshing it is to read a book where not everyone is rich!!). The characters are all far from perfect people, but especially Cyril, whose flaws are so glaring and decision-making skills so horrible that his chapters show more made me squirm to read at times.
There is a palpable sense of dread over the course of the book that gets sharper and heavier the closer you get to the end. The real theme of it is the way that the impending seizure of power by the Ospies (Nazi equivalents) forces people into some nasty dilemmas where every option sucks, but it still matters what option they choose anyway. I'm looking forward to seeing how that develops over the rest of the trilogy.
As an aside, I also appreciated the depiction of Amberlough itself – the many districts, from genteel to bawdy and everything in between; the public transport routes; the sights and smells of the city parks; the sounds of the different accents of its residents… it was just clearly a book from someone who loves urban life and can put into words all the things that make cities great. It made for an immersive environment as all the politics and scheming were underway. If this book sounds like anything you might be interested in I encourage you to give it a try, because it really gripped me. show less
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ThingScore 100
Donnelly blends romance and tragedy, evoking gilded-age glamour and the thrill of a spy adventure, in this impressive debut.
added by ablachly
A tightly woven and diverse cast of spies, criminals, cabaret bohemians, and lovers struggles to save what matters to each of them against a tide of rising fascism and violence in Donnelly's debut novel, set in a vaguely 1920s milieu.
added by ablachly
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Author Information
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Awards
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Amberlough
- Original title
- Amberlough
- Original publication date
- 2017-02-07
- People/Characters
- Cyril DePaul; Aristide "Ari" Makricosta; Cordelia Lehane; Malcolm; Tory; Caleb Acherby (show all 13); Finn Lourdes; Vasily Memmediv; Ada Culpepper; Zelda Peronides; Merrilee Cross; Sofie Keeler; Van der Joost
- Dedication
- To my parents, who read to me.
- First words
- At the beginning of the workweek, most of Amberlough’s salary-folk crawled reluctantly from their bed—or someone else’s—and let the trolleys tow them, hung over and half asleep, to the office.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)No way to know but try.
- Publisher's editor
- Pho, Diana
- Blurbers
- Kowal, Mary Robinette; Chu, John; Gladstone, Max; Lanyon, Josh; Dellamonica, A.M.; Wilson, Kai Ashante (show all 10); Wilde, Fran; Rosen, Lev AC; Kushner, Ellen; Bennett, Robert Jackson
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.6
- Canonical LCC
- PS3604.O56326
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Statistics
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- 596
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- 49,180
- Reviews
- 34
- Rating
- (3.80)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 3
