Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson

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Sedition seethes beneath the streets of Caeli-Amur, while the three Houses fight a hidden war to gain control… In an ancient city full of ancient technology and dark mysteries, the time of the Festival of the Sun brings the minotaurs and sets a female assassin on an unexpected path. Meanwhile, strikes in the factory district provide a minor functionary with an opportunity to scale the heights of power, but the deals he will make with the city’s overlords will change him beyond all belief. And down below the streets, a young seditionist seizes control of his group and begins to gather numbers and weapons, preparing to find a way to overthrow the Houses of Arbor, Technis and Marin in order to return the power to the people. All three come together in the search for access to Amur’s sister city, a city of deadly knowledge and unimaginable power, a city lost beneath the waves…

Every so often, I read a fantasy novel that reminds me why I love this genre. Unwrapped Sky is one of those! Full of imaginative concepts, flawed and multidimensional characters and some fantastic prose, Rjurik Davidson’s debut is a fantastic opening to a new series, reminiscent of China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station, while not quite reaching the heights of that masterpiece. A true entry in the Weird genre, Unwrapped Sky follows three POV characters through the upheavals in Caeli-Amur, bringing their paths into collision and then spinning them off again, changing each and every one of them along the way. Davidson’s true skill is in the world he has created – a world that feels lived in, full of weird technology and weirder magic. The line between the two is kept blurred, combining at one point gods and space travel and satellites in orbit. The characters are all well drawn – none of them are true heroes, but all of them have their moments. The only negative would be the plot, which is slightly meandering and does not have a true resolution at the end. Everything is left very much up in the air, in preparation for the follow-up, expected in the first half of next year. 

I gave Unwrapped Sky 4 stars.