I hated: The Last Smile in Sunder City

[=Tamar]

The Last Smile in Sunder City, by Luke Arnold (2020)
tl;dr: don't waste your time and brain cells.

I bought this in a hurry and now I can't think why. (I'm hoping it was secondhand.)
It is an extremely grimdark, noir detective story. Alternate history, post-disaster. The world used to be filled with magic, until greedy people tried to gain control of the source.
Spoiler because I'm warning you off:
the attempt resulted in the death of the goddess who was the source of all magic.
The world has been crumbling ever since. Magical being mostly died. Survivors lost their powers. Elves aged into nothingness. Vampires lost the ability to fly, to command, and their fangs fell out. They also stopped being vulnerable to sunlight, but retained longevity. Dwarves continued to do normal metalwork. Etc.
The protagonist is one of the humans who were present at the death of the goddess.
He scrapes by as the cliched detective, drunken, living in his office, with a sign: Man For Hire.
His investigations get him beaten up to a typically noir absurd degree while he reveals the history of various groups. There is no happy ending, only the destruction of various criminals.

Apparently there was a sequel.
My copy is paperback. I intend to put it in the paper recycling.

 

[Molokov]

And I'll offer a counter opinion: I loved it, and the series as a whole (there's four books out so far, I've read them all).

It is most definitely, as you say, a grimdark noir detective story. I liked the idea of using that genre in a fantasy world, and just the hint of hope that magic might still be around (this theme continues in the sequels - there are definitely no happy endings, just endings with a tiny glimmer of hope). You kind of want him or his compatriots to restore the magic, but it's very unlikely to happen.

It's not high fantasy, it's not comedy, it's not even urban fantasy really, it's definitely leaning into the noir tropes, but I found the world building (and the personal history of Fetch Phillips) to be very well constructed, and that drew me in.

Luke Arnold is an Australian actor, he played one of the leads in the pirate series "Black Sails" that I think I may have only watched one episode of; however I have been enjoying his novels.


And I guess it's true: not every piece of art (book/film/tv show/etc) is for everyone - I like the Fetch Phillips books and you hated this one. And that's OK.