Only the dead can save the living.
In Albastine, the dead are made into mindless servants known as Attendants, incapable of harming the living unless commanded to by the soldier-necromancer Legates.
Forced into an early retirement, Legate Gaius Cassius Calvus struggles to find purpose in his civilian life—until he is called upon to examine the apparent suicide of one of Albastine’s senators. Cassius’s necromantic powers reveal that the man was murdered—and the weapon used to kill him was an Attendant.
Knowing that only another Legate could command an Attendant to kill, Cassius sets out to discover the truth behind the assassination. His investigation leads him through the foggy streets and brooding towers of Albastine as he slowly uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to shake the Pale City to its very foundations. Should he fail, the Republic he has sworn his life—and death—to serve falls with him.
The Pale City combines the rich worldbuilding of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn novels with the first-person narration and magical mystery of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files, flavored through with the necromantic horror of Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb series.
★★★★★
amazon review
This was one of my favorite fantasy books in a long time. I enjoyed the ideas in the story – an alternate world of magic where a vaguely Roman Empire merged with a vaguely Egyptian empire created Necromancer Roman Legions… and that’s just the premise. The story is even cooler, a whodunnit in the capital city with a veteran legionnaire who is trying to help his city, his people, and himself figure out the culprit in a brutal murder. From start to finish it’s a ride and I enjoyed it all.
★★★★★
amazon review
This book is filled with a tangibly chilly atmosphere, palpable tension, and ultimately well paced fight scenes as Cassius navigates and works to find his place in a complex society with a rich backstory build. The mechanics of the Attendants bring new life to the zombie format, constantly surprising and deepening throughout our time in Albastine.
★★★★★
goodreads review
The author describes how history’s course has gotten us to this point, but does so in a concise way that does not sacrifice the details nor the pace of the story. Speaking of the story’s pace, it moves quickly and I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened next, but also didn’t want the story to end.
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