This book was great entertainment. It was exciting, clever, creative, and surprising - a great story growing out of a surprisingly simple (well, kinda simple) setup.
Kembral is a Hound, which is a somewhere between a cop and a private investigator. Her specialty is going to the layers of reality below the prime reality her city occupies, known as “Echoes.” People will sometimes fall into the Echoes; Kembral’s specialty is retrievingthem.
Except right now she’s on leave. She is in fact a new mother, out for a New Year’s party after being "gently encouraged" to leave her daughter in her sister’s capable hands for a few hours. The party is the social event of the season, and attendees include members of the city’s elite, some of her friends, some of her enemies, and Rika. Rika is something between a burglar, spy, and assassin, and she and Kembral have a complicated relationship that Kembral doesn’t want to think about too much.
She is under strict orders to relax and not engage in any Hound work at the party. Obviously things don’t proceed smoothly - specifically, the entire party falls down into the shallowest Echo. Some of the strongest denizens of the Echoes are playing some kind of game with the party - they race to kill a designated attendee, then time resets by a few hours (with no one but Kembral being aware of it), the party falls to a deeper Echo (things get more unearthly and more dangerous the further down you go), and things repeat.
There’s a lot in this that just makes it so much fun to read. The characters at the party whom we get to see again and again as the time loop repeats. Kembral’s relationship with Rika is a highlight, as they find themselves working together despite certain events in their recent past. The gradual reveal of everything that is going on, and all the implications thereof. The increasingly bizarre and unearthly environment as they go deeper with each iteration. And last but not least, Kembral’s status as a new mother. Her body isn’t in the condition she expects; she has a very new perspective on things now that she has someone at whom to worry about; and, due to not getting a good night’s sleep for months, she is absolutely exhausted.
The entire book was very clever and very fun. The ending was exceptionally satisfying, and ended on a very good hook for the second book. I’m looking forward to jumping on it when it arrives.
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