Adrian Tchaikovsky

The follow-up novel to Adrian Tchaikovsky's triumphant fantasy novel City of Last Chances

House of Open Wounds

If you liked the first book in the series, read this. It's even better. If you didn't read the first and want to start here because you've heard it's better, you'll be fine. There is only one character that transitions to this second book, but you don't need his past to understand and like this new tale. 

House is a much more narrowly focused book than City - as the name might imply - despite not actually being set in a physical house, but more so on the metaphysical home. House of Open Wounds is about an experimental hospital unit in a moving army at war, yes, but it is much more about found family, about different kinds of belonging, from ideas to friendships, from hierarchies to faith, from tradition to love. It's the personal stories and crisis of the multiple oddballs and ostracized individuals that constitute the "hospital" that are the real plot. But don't let the found family trope ease you into believing this will be cosy and cute. The book beings with a butcher in hell. Believe it.

The close focus on the life in the army, in the war, on the real people more than on the major strategies and history, reminded me of some of the best parts of Malazan (with a very different narration and context). The philosophical interrogations introduced in the first book, from the consequences of authoritarian rationalism to the exploration of faith, culture and the meaning of life, are much more deeply and poignantly explored in House of Open Wounds. The author and the narrator are never prescriptive, being focused on understanding the process, the voyage, the experience of many of life's dilemmas through different personalities and priorities. 

Tchaikovsky makes gods contend with change, pacifists survive in war, leaders deal with growing disorder, authoritarians use their anathemas, murderers transform into saviours, saviours incarnate revenge, healers have the lives of their enemies on their hands. And he makes the world's most naive creature deal with all of these, because why not, Gods save him.

Listening to this audiobook was incredibly rewarding, because the narrative voice Tchaikovsky created adapts perfectly to vocal storytelling and David Thorpe is wonderful.

André Nóbrega

If you liked the first book in the series, read this. It's even better. If you didn't read the first and want to start here because you've heard it's better, you'll be fine. There is only one character that transitions to this second book, but you don't need his past to understand and like this new tale. 

House is a much more narrowly focused book than City - as the name might imply - despite not actually being set in a physical house, but more so on the metaphysical home. House of Open Wounds is about an experimental hospital unit in a moving army at war, yes, but it is much more about found family, about different kinds of belonging, from ideas to friendships, from hierarchies to faith, from tradition to love. It's the personal stories and crisis of the multiple oddballs and ostracized individuals that constitute the "hospital" that are the real plot. But don't let the found family trope ease you into believing this will be cosy and cute. The book beings with a butcher in hell. Believe it.

The close focus on the life in the army, in the war, on the real people more than on the major strategies and history, reminded me of some of the best parts of Malazan (with a very different narration and context). The philosophical interrogations introduced in the first book, from the consequences of authoritarian rationalism to the exploration of faith, culture and the meaning of life, are much more deeply and poignantly explored in House of Open Wounds. The author and the narrator are never prescriptive, being focused on understanding the process, the voyage, the experience of many of life's dilemmas through different personalities and priorities. 

Tchaikovsky makes gods contend with change, pacifists survive in war, leaders deal with growing disorder, authoritarians use their anathemas, murderers transform into saviours, saviours incarnate revenge, healers have the lives of their enemies on their hands. And he makes the world's most naive creature deal with all of these, because why not, Gods save him.

Listening to this audiobook was incredibly rewarding, because the narrative voice Tchaikovsky created adapts perfectly to vocal storytelling and David Thorpe is wonderful.

House of Open Wounds

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