Diamond City
Ratings3
Average rating3.7
Welcome to Diamond City, where secret magic could save your life or get you killed. Meet Aina Solís, whose wit is as sharp as her blade. At twelve years old, Aina Solís was pulled off of the streets she slept on and trained to be one of the most feared assassins in Sumerand, a kingdom founded by immigrants and built by magic—and in recent years transformed by an industrial revolution. When Aina is given the most lucrative and dangerous job of her career—killing a wealthy industrialist named Kouta—she knows it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leave her impoverished roots in her past once-and-for-all: the payout is enough to free her from under her boss Kohl’s thumb. But when the job goes wrong and Kouta escapes, she is left without a penny to her name and in the crosshairs of Kohl, who is eager to show the world what happens to those that fail him. With Kohl on her heels, Aina is running out of time to find Kouta and finish what she started. But the closer she gets to killing him, the more she begins to ask the questions assassins are never meant to ask: who wants Kouta dead? And why? In a city full of half-constructed subway tunnels, hidden magical dens, secret weapons markets, and wolf-sized spiders, Aina discovers a conspiracy that could rewrite her city’s history and—if it isn’t stopped—sink her country into a catastrophic war.
Series
Featured Series
1 primary book#1 in The City of Steel and Diamond
The City of Steel and Diamond is a 1-book series first released in 2019 with contributions by Francesca Flores.
Reviews
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It's a very interesting concept – diamonds being used in magic, but not just any magic – blood magic. Which does have darker connotations. And I think (one of the reasons why) I became so disinterested in this book is because I thought there would be a much bigger emphasis on the whole blood magic thing, then it was barely touched on.
I actually had this whole paragraph about how Kohl takes in people that are like nearly dead or who don't have many prospects, and then I finished the book and realised ‘oh no he's actually really bad.' Like he's absolutely awful. A terrible, terrible person. I like that we're told that he's awful, but we're also shown a little goodness, just enough to make us think he could be good. He is very good at manipulating people – which isn't a good thing of course, but he thinks he's a good guy and actually helping people – which makes him an even more complex written character – because we're fooled into thinking he can be a good character.
I liked most of the other characters. Tannis was my favourite side character – I wish we saw more of her, but maybe she's a bigger character in the sequel. As for the others, yeah, I actually wish they had given Tannis more page time rather than those that had. I'm not saying I didn't like or care for Teo or Ryuu, or the others, (okay, I am a bit) they didn't really hold much interest for me.
One of the aspects of the book I really liked was all the crime mentioned in the book. Aina being an assassin, the city basically thriving on crime and forcing the people to take on lives of crime to live and then blaming them for the crime. That was interesting to see because it mirrors real life in a way – people being forced to do what needs to be done in order to survive and then being blamed for that exact thing.
I liked the plot, until it made me very confused. There kept being another plot point behind a trap door, because that's what it felt like to me – I turn the page and boom, there's a new area of the plot I didn't know or didn't see happening. Sure, a part of that was because I wasn't paying as much attention as usual, so that's probably my fault.
The more I write this review the more I get so annoyed because I know I should be into this book and loving it, and honestly, I will probably read the sequel; but this book just made me so frustrated with dragging me along, promising me a good time, and basically, failing to provide that.
