Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Book Reviews
Book Review: The Hidden City
By Sandy Amazeen
Mar 18, 2008, 2:00 GMT

Con and businessman Rath considers himself a loner, effectively cutting himself off from his family, dealing with antiques dealers as he sells bits and pieces scavenged from the undercity. After Jewel, an orphan street urchin steals from him, Rath felt compelled to hunt her down little anticipating the consequences of that action when he found her deathly sick, huddled under a bridge. In a surprising act of charity, Rath takes Jewel, who prefers the name Jay, to his home and nurses her back to health. Jay repays the kindness by warning Rath of danger and begins acting on her visions, bringing other street children into Rath’s home, forming a group known as a den. Each of these characters are broken in some way, yet together become a formidable team. Meanwhile the same demon kind that nearly destroyed the Essalieyan Empire are taking human form, posing an unrecognized threat to Averalaan’s residents. Rath, Jay and her den find themselves in the eye of a developing storm in this epic, multilayered fantasy world.

West is growing into a superb storyteller as demonstrated by this best effort to date with a fully realized world populated by a diverse range of nicely developed characters and a compelling storyline that hooks readers in from the start. Contrary to how it may sound, Rath, Jay and the den are no Dickens characters as they band together and face off against evil in this frequently dark, magical world.