Dear Kelly Jensen,
I read To See the Sun in 2019 (though it was released in 2018) and enjoyed it very much so when the author kindly offered me a review copy of the follow up I said yes.
While they are set in the same universe, To See the Sun is a very different book, set as it is on the colony planet of Alkirak and mostly away from the city of Zhemosen. It read to me a bit like a space western and featured a “mail order companion” plot. The City Without End is set in Zhemosen, in one or other of the various and numerous “districts”.
a way only someone from the City without End might understand. Even then, district of origin might skew one’s perspective. Having been born at the highest level, directly beneath the sun, Price had a top-down view, despite his years living at the bottom. He knew, roughly, the size of the planet’s single continent, and of the seemingly endless city that sprawled from coast to coast. He understood the unique stratification of every level in between.
The upper level of Zhemosen would be hard to measure, though no doubt some geek, somewhere, knew how many square meters the towers and sky bridges occupied. The continent below the aerial city covered somewhere in the region of 850,000 square kilometers. Half of it was given over to grassland, pasture, forests, orchards, lakes, and rivers—all of it protected by the First Families as their personal playground. Their palaces hovered over this pristine wilderness like jewels in the sun. Their cities arced over the farmland that would never feed the resident population and wasn’t meant to. The ocean fed everyone else. Mostly.
Cato Sisenna is a member of one of the wealthy and privileged First Families. His family’s business is dependent on the indentured service practiced in the city (exactly how I was a little vague on; all the First Families are involved in one way or another I gather; either by using the labour themselves or by direct involvement). Cato is a lawyer. He writes and amends contracts for a living. He prides himself on writing fair contracts for both parties and, with the assistance of his platonic companion, Yaara, has for the previous three years, been helping certain people escape their contracts or move from a dangerous contract to a safer one. Exactly how this was done was not entirely specified but I went with it. Cato is torn; he dislikes and disapproves of the model his society runs on but he cannot change it on his own. He is wealthy but even his money will not solve the problem were he to break from his family and give all of his personal wealth away. So, he does what he can for those who need it and writes fair contracts for everyone, even while he continues to have crises of conscience over what he considers is far too little. He knows he’s complicit in a system which is wrong and bad. It doesn’t sit easily with him but he’s not sure what he could or should do other than what he is doing.
This society has marriage contracts in much the way you’d find in historical times in Europe. They’re dynastic marriages arranged to further the business interests of the First Families. If one is lucky, affection grows but it is not required. Medical technology has developed to the point that genetic material can be taken from any two people and incubated in an artificial womb so the gender of the parties is irrelevant to the marriage. In most cases, there is a contract which requires a child to be produced within a certain timeframe.
Cato is a widower. His first husband, Orion, died after a long illness. Cato and Orion were lucky in that they developed a deep and abiding love after an arranged marriage. Orion’s influence, his illness and death, were major factors in Cato’s work with what I’ll call the resistance.
Cato is told by his father that a further marriage has been arranged for him with First Family Viator – to Prixus Viator. Prixus has not been seen for 20 years. The family say he’s off planet looking after colony farming sites but everyone knows that’s not true.
As it happens, Prixus, who prefers to go by “Price” lives in the undercity – District 28 – where there is no natural light. He’s been there for 20 years and has cut off his family, apart from monthly lunches with one of his sisters, Amy, in District 17. Price runs a junk shop, selling goods he repairs himself or other found items and, despite his gruff and grumpy exterior, he regularly helps the local street kids, giving them food or leaving things for them to “find” and sell. Sometimes he “allows” them to steal something from his shop. Every now and then he takes on an “apprentice”, teaching them how to fix tech and such like which gives them a way to earn a living and maybe even get out of D28.
Cato of course lives on the top of the city with the other First Families. It’s where Price grew up. Price is very annoyed to be summoned by his mother and advised he is to be married to Cato. His mother tells him in no uncertain terms what will happen to his beloved shop if he refuses. He has to be married for a year and produce a child with Cato and if he does that, he can go back to his life in D28. Price really loves his shop, so reluctantly, he agrees.
Price has been informally and tangentially involved in the resistance to a degree; he helped Gael get out of D28 and go to Alkirak (To See The Sun). He’s living his values in the undercity, not accepting any family money and doing what he can for those less well off than he is. He has fond childhood memories of Cato from then they attended First Family functions together but disapproves Family Sisenna’s role in indentured servitude generally and Cato’s role in it in particular.
As the book begins, Cato and Yaara are confronted by an investigator who is looking for some missing indentures. These indentures happen to be people Cato has helped leave Zhemosen and servitude. And, Amy goes missing. In fact, Price is tapped on the shoulder by the family precisely because Amy is not around to be married to Cato. Price is the only single sibling left of age so he’s up.
There is a link between Amy’s disappearance and the work Cato and Yaara do. As the couple prepare for their wedding and get to know one another, they team up to get to the bottom of what’s going on – and along the way, they fall in love.
Cato’s activities are of course criminal so if he’s found out he will be in serious trouble with the law and the other First Families. Insurance fraud (the missing indentures turn up “dead”, their contract is paid out by an insurer) is the least of it. The “bodies” haven’t been found however so Cato needs to meet with his contact in the resistance to sort it out.
Loads of what Price does is criminal – fake ID’s, hacking and the like. Price is happily fat, not into exercise and, as I said earlier, has a grumpy and tough exterior. Cato is fit, polished, precise and careful, like the contracts he writes. But it turns out, Cato and Price are not so different after all.
I got caught up in the adventure and mystery of the story, deeply curious about where Amy was and what was happening within the resistance. Were there traitors? If so, who? Who was lying, who was genuine and who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
This is a romance so there is a HEA but it’s not due to the machinations of Family Viator or Family Sisenna.
There were some surprises I wasn’t expecting – people who turned out to be not as they were presented. In at least one case, I felt there wasn’t enough context for me to fully understand it. I had questions. I would have liked a little more on how the contracts Cato wrote were helping. I wonder if there might be another book in this series which may deal more directly with the rumoured harvesting of indentured person’s organs for transplants to the wealthy.
I did enjoy The City Without End. My imagination struggled a little to picture the city, despite some impressive descriptions in the novel. Something so vast and deep was a little beyond me even so. I enjoyed the mystery/adventure story as well as the romance. I felt Cato and Price were very well suited, complementing one another’s strengths and bolstering each other’s weaknesses. And, it turns out an SFF novel about rebelling against an unjust system was exactly what I wanted to read.
*At present, this book is available at Amazon only and is also available to read on Kindle Unlimited
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Kaetrin
Kaetrin started reading romance as a teen and then took a long break, detouring into fantasy and thrillers. She returned to romance in 2008 and has been blogging since 2010. She reads contemporary, historical, a little paranormal, urban fantasy and romantic suspense, as well as erotic romance and more recently, new adult. She loves angsty books, funny books, long books and short books. The only thing mandatory is the HEA. Favourite authors include Mary Balogh, Susanna Kearsley, Joanna Bourne, Tammara Webber, Kristen Ashley, Shannon Stacey, Sarah Mayberry, JD Robb/Nora Roberts, KA Mitchell, Marie Sexton, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, just to name a few. You can find her on Twitter: @kaetrin67.
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